http://www.thepixeldiaries.com

We spent a night light painting at Sunny Acres during Ben’s class at the Light Workshops in Los Osos, CA. I liked this shot I got of the cute little car peeking out of the garage.

Hi folks! As you can probably tell, I’m playing catch-up again here on the blog. Between projects, meet-ups with friends, and holiday travel, the poor old Pixel Diaries have gotten neglected. I wanted to tell you about the awesome week we spent at the Light Workshops in Los Osos, CA. This is right near Morro Bay, and about half-way between San Francisco and LA. Ben was teaching a 5-day course there on shooting for Photoshop, and we parked the bus just minutes from the photographic center.

Ben spent a lot of time in the classroom, covering techniques that would help everyone out in the field AND later in Photoshop. Then, we would head out to shoot, and the gang could put everything to practice. Our first shoot was at a place called Sunny Acres, and it was awesome, though I’m not really sure how to describe the place. There was a huge garage/shop full of vintage cars and tools, and spread across the huge property are dozens of old trucks, cars, and other unique oddities. Oh yeah… and there was a killer goose. If you managed to stay out of its way, you’d get some pretty nice shots at this place.

An image I made inside a garage at Sunny Acres

Since everyone really liked Sunny Acres, we decided to head back there at night for the light painting shoot. While everyone else ran off to try to compose something that included the full moon, I hung out at the garage and shot this adorable old car that was peeking out from behind the worn doors. The shot is at the top of this post. I’m still getting the hang of light painting and I was really happy with the result. This was a good thing, because after I finished my series of images there, my camera battery died (doh!) and I was done for the night.

The two shots above were shot at sunset off the CA coast. We drove to the bluffs hoping for some good light!

One of our other shooting locations was right along the California coast. We headed out to the bluffs at sunset, hoping for some nice light and color. The weather didn’t completely agree with us, but I think we all still managed to get some nice images. It was the perfect place to utilize some slow shutter speeds and blur out the water. During the last night of the workshop, Ben and I joined some of the attendees for dinner at the Firestone Grill in San Luis Obispo (about a 20-minute drive from the photographic center). We both highly recommend the place. It’s the kind of place where you order at the register and then find a seat and wait for your number, so you don’t want to go there on a date or anything, but the food was great and the casual atmosphere was a lot of fun.

The Light Workshops are run by Hal and Victoria Schmitt, and they do an awesome job of arranging interesting photographic events. Not only do they have the kind of “in-house” workshops that Ben did that week, but they also take students to some amazing destinations like Alaska. Check out the Light Workshops HERE.

As an added bonus for the week, Hal and Victoria took me to some of the local wineries in Paso Robles, including Midnight Cellars, where Hal also serves as assistant wine maker. And you know me, any day that involves wine tasting is a good day

After moving on from Los Osos, we headed south. Next stop: Huntington Beach!

Hal, Victoria, me and Ben in the lobby of the Light Photographic Workshops in Los Osos, CA.