I hope you’ll indulge me, I want to shine a spotlight on my Oregon Coast workshop coming up May 19-22, 2022. Of all the locations I travel to, all of the amazing things I’ve witnessed during my years of photography, coming back to this location is always near and dear to my heart and is a place that I love to share with other folks.
The workshop is based in the small town of Yachats, which is a quaint coastal town between Newport and Florence. 
By “quaint” I also mean small…it has less than 1000 residents, yet it has several great restaurants and hotels to cater to the wanders who venture to town. It has be named one of the “coolest coastal towns” and other similar accolades, but that’s not why I base the workshop in this location. There are two reasons why I chose this location…1) it is central to some of the most amazing landscape on the coast. The Northern Oregon coast is characterized by long sandy beaches with occasional sea stacks offshore. Great moods and settings in the North for specific kinds of images. The Southern Oregon coast is characterized by a lot more sea stacks (Bandon!) and some wide sandy beaches. The Central Oregon coast is best characterized by a more rocky coastline, dramatic cliffs falling in to the ocean, tide pools, blow holes, a huge inter-tidal zone filled with amazing sea creatures, dense coastal forests, dramatic weather changes in short distances…..in a word, it’s AWESOME! It has such a wide range of photographic potential, enough to fill several weeks of a workshop, not just the 4 days we are there.
The second reason I base the workshop there is that I have spent a good part of my life visiting Yachats and I know the area as intimately as possible, without living there every day. My grandparents had a house in Yachats and my fondest memories of childhood are from there; sleeping in bunk bends, digging holes in the sand, exploring the coastline, clamming and crabbing, and all the trouble that a young boy can get in to. As I got older, my parent continued the homestead in town and I spent as many days as possible exploring the area. Now with my family, we have continued our presence in the town and visit quite often throughout the year. All in all, I’d say I have spent about 40% of my life in that area and feel that I know it’s topography, weather and moods extremely well, which helps me get the workshop in to the right locations at the right times to create the best photographs possible.
On a workshop like this, it’s typically a small group so I have lots of time to spend with each person, giving as much (or as little) photography instruction as they may want. It’s this part that really brings excitement to me…being in a creative space with others and helping them to see beyond themselves and push their artistic boundaries. We will to this by visiting a few locations several times to build familiarity, as well as similar scenes. We will work on photographing water motion, the art of composition to tell a compelling story, as well as just crafting pleasing images.
Besides the rocky shoreline and crashing waves, we will spend time in the temperate rain forests next to the shoreline, photographing lush forest scenes. Plus, we will venture a bit north to the town of Newport and spend time in one of my favorite areas..the fishing harbor! So many shapes, textures and patterns. For some, this may seem a bit foreign at first, but I will talk to you about how to “see” in this unique location and craft interesting photographs. This is one of the highlights of the trip as folks typically come away with some amazing images that they didn’t anticipate getting.
One of the other non-natural features we’ll visit is the Yaquina Head lighthouse area. 
Some beautiful landscape, an iconic lighthouse and a huge avian rookery on a nearby sea stack all provide lots of photographic possibilities.
If you’ve ever wanted to photograph the Oregon Coast, this could be the trip for you. Knowing the landscape and the weather patterns are essential for a productive trip and its both of these that I bring in spades to this event. Please consider coming along! Click HERE for more information about the workshop and to register.
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