Big Sur has been changed a little from the recent rockslides…parts of the historic and beautiful highway 1 are inaccessible. This makes the icons somewhat difficult to get to…and from our perspective, it means its time to get creative and find as many cool things for folks to photograph as we can. Scott Donschikowski and I are up to the challenge!

Our class starts at the popular Doud Creek. This little valley is home to tons of Calla Lilies. These wonderful white flowers are awesome to photograph. We have the group looking at playing with different depths of field, and getting right up on one of the lilies. We also point out how cool a lot of the textures and contrast looks with monochromatic shooting. The group has fun exploring this little patch of heaven along the coast.

Bixby Bridge is the next stop…the highlight here was the big patch of pampas grass. This diabolic bit of flora is a paper cut waiting to happen, make sure you keep yourself and your flesh away from this demon plant. While they’re no fun for your skin, they’re cool to photograph! We used them to frame the Bixby Bridge which created a unique composition.

Our stop for sunset was the very cool Soberantes Cove…here we find a little nook in the coastline with a couple seastacks, the great light colored rocks really do a wonderful job of showcasing the warm light of sunset. As the sun drops in the sky we work with the group to lengthen their exposures and get some smoothed out water. This shot is a classic composition of the Big Sur Coastline and all the rugged beauty that it has to offer.

Our final stop for the evening was a return trip to the Bixby Bridge…with twilight descending on us, we had the opportunity to shoot the car headlights and taillights as they curved and meandered up highway 1. These car-trails really make for an interesting shot with the wonderful architecture of the bridge as a subject, and the faint glow of the remaining light of the day illuminating the ocean and coastline. I think this shot was really the icing on a great day for us. The slides gave us 23 miles of coastline to use, and we made the most of it!

Until Next Time,

Scott, Aron and the rest of the Aperture Academy Team

P.S. If you'd like to join us at one of our workshops, you can find the schedule/sign up here.