Class photos from my Beaches of Point Reyes Workshop

Picture: Photographers at Drakes Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, California

I’m delighted to present a selection of images taken by the participants of my recent “Photographing the Beaches of Point Reyes” photo workshop. At the end of this post, you’ll see a great “Behind the Scenes” shot that is worth checking out.

*Note: My final workshop for this year, Photographing the Natural Wonders of Point Reyes, is scheduled for Nov. 6-8, 2015. (Click the link for more information or to register for the class. Accommodations at the Historic Lifeboat Station are included.)

It was a great group of people, and hopefully fun and learning was had by all. Conditions were quite the mixed bag, which is par for the course at Point Reyes. Two wonderful sunrise shoots were separated by an afternoon that literally saw us blown off the beach. The National Weather Service had issued a high wind warning, and Point Reyes, which is the windiest places on the entire Pacific Coast, threw everything she had at us. I took one look at the ocean and commented that as a boater, those waves would kill you. (After the workshop, I learned that two boats had been wrecked and blown into shore along the beach at Point Reyes. Fortunately, no lives were lost.) The sand blowing (read: blasting) off the beach was hitting us so hard that everyone (rightly) refused to take out their camera gear. We made due by opting to shoot instead at Drakes Estero, at the former site of the Drakes Bay Oyster Company.

Please feel free to leave a comment if you feel so inclined. I’m sure the students would love to hear any thoughts you’d care to share.

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I usually try to take a few pictures during the workshop, which I clearly explain to the participants in advance for the following reasons:

(A) I like to shoot photos of the students working in the field. (Plus, I think they like seeing these in the critique session.)
(B) To demonstrate in-field techniques related to composition, depth of field, lens selection, etc.
(C) I like to include a few shots for the final image critique so students can see how I personally photographed a scene.

I was delighted to see that during the critique session, one of the participants had captured a shot of me shooting two other participants, one of whom was photographing the other. Coincidentally, I had already selected that exact shot for my own inclusion at the end of the critique, so I was really happy to know the class would be able to see the exact conditions of the shot I was taking, as I was taking it, and then the resulting final photograph.

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Gary Crabbe is an award-winning commercial and editorial outdoor travel photographer and author based out of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. He has seven published books on California to his credit, including “Photographing California; v1-North”, which won the prestigious 2013 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal award as Best Regional title. His client and publication credits include the National Geographic Society, the New York Times, Forbes Magazine, TIME, The North Face, Subaru, L.L. Bean, Victoria’s Secret, Sunset Magazine, The Nature Conservancy, and many more. Gary is also a photography instructor and consultant, offering both public and private photo workshops. He also works occasionally a professional freelance Photo Editor.