Highway One Coastal Journey: A Field Photography Class
December 2–3, 2023
A virtual, post-class critique will be scheduled by arrangement.
San Mateo County, California
Early-bird registration until Nov. 1: $475
Regular tuition: $650
Enrollment limited to 10 people. Face masks indoors and proof of Covid-19 vaccination required.
Students will be responsible for their own transportation. Lunch stops will be pre-arranged, but are not included in the registration fee.
The coastline south of San Francisco in San Mateo County is one of the most beautiful stretches of land and sea anywhere. From eroded, rocky shorelines, to cliffs, long beaches, redwood forests and small towns, this coast is complex and varied. We'll spend the day roaming the coast and mountain roads, stopping at state parks, county parks and checking out the lunch options along the way.
My photography workshops concentrate on building detailed technical skills, sensitivity to aesthetics and heartfelt engagement with the natural world.
The coast workshop will be a dynamic combination of a traditional landscape photography workshop while diving deep into the digital age. Technical and aesthetic considerations will be discussed in detail. Our concentration will be on controlling your camera's operation to achieve your desired technical results, while building composition and visual skills to make the photograph what you want it to be. Digital exposure and dynamic range, composition, emotion and amazement-all will be part of our 2-day excursion into the evolving world of digital photography.
San Gregorio Valley from Highway One. 2012
Class Schedule
Day 1: We’ll gather at my studio in Pacifica, California, for an initial discussion about exposure, composition, and cameras. We’ll then embark into the field, heading to various parks and beaches in San Mateo County, with presentations and assistance along the way. An optional evening virtual rendezvous will allow us to evaluate the photographs we made to maximize feedback and learning.
Day 2: We’ll start the second day back in the field at Pigeon Point Lighthouse, dunes to the south, and into redwood forests—putting into practice lessons learned during the previous day.
An optional virtual critique will arranged a few weeks after the class to allow students to evaluate and share their work with the group.
Stephen Johnson
A photographer, teacher and designer, Stephen has been teaching and working in photography since 1977. His books include At Mono Lake, the critically acclaimed Great Central Valley: California's Heartland and Making a Digital Book. He runs his own photography, publishing and design company--scanning and designing his photographic books using a Macintosh computer and since 1994 photographing in the field with digital view cameras.
Projects have included With a New Eye, his groundbreaking and historic all digital national parks project, the book Stephen Johnson On Digital Photography for O'Reilly, ongoing portfolio development and extensive lecturing.
Stephen's pioneering work in digital photography, desktop color separations and digital imaging has included software and product development for clients such as Apple, Adobe, Eastman Kodak, Leaf, Ricoh and SuperMac. His work with Adobe includes the creation of the duotone curves shipped with their Photoshop software.
His photographic clients have included the Ansel Adams Publishing Trust, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Friends of Photography and many other over the years. Johnson's photographs have been widely published and collected internationally.
In 1999, Folio Magazine declared the publication of Johnson's digital photographs in Life Magazine to be one of the Top 15 Critical Events in magazine publishing in the twentieth century. Stephen Johnson was named as a 2003 inductee into the Photoshop Hall of Fame, recognized for his achievements in Art. Canon named Steve as one of their Explorers of Light in 2006. In 2007 X-Rite named Stephen as a founding member of their exclusive Coloratti group of photographers and educators honored for their skills in color management.
In 1997, Life Magazine described Stephen Johnson as an artist that "...applies science to nature and creates art." His images create "...an intimacy that brings subject and viewer close in ways conventional photographs cannot."
The Photographer’s Gallery wrote in 1998: “Stephen Johnson's photography rides on the "bleeding edge" of photography's transition to a digital media. Schooled in the traditions of fine-art western landscape photography, Johnson has taken his understanding of traditional photographic processes and brought those skills to bear on the emerging technologies and aesthetics of digital photography. He has pushed technology companies to rise to the best of what imagemaking can be, and pushed his own vision of how we see and record light in the natural world. This has led him to conclude that the way we have traditionally captured images with silver-based photography has been a poor and distortive view of the real and rich world before our eyes. His photographs look almost "unphotographic" in their clarity and purity of color. He shows us a world we know, but rarely see on paper. His is a truly remarkable vision.”
Registration
Registration fee must be paid in full to secure a spot in the class. Additional information will be sent upon registration.
Credit Card Registration online
Photography Workshops with Stephen Johnson
info@sjphoto.com
Refunds and Cancellation (note changes)
This workshop is financially dependent on adequate class registration. Where minimum enrollment requirements are not met, the class will be canceled, and a full refund given. You will be notified at least one week in advance if a workshop is not going to take place. Student initiated cancellations received prior to one month before the workshop will receive credit for a future workshop of similar value, a 50% credit will be given for notice received at least 2 weeks immediately prior to the workshop (a full credit less a $50 overhead fee will be given if another student is able to fill the spot from a waiting list). No credit will be given if cancelled less than 2 weeks prior to the workshop. Credits need to be redeemed within one year.