West Coast School and San Diego June 2018

This was my fourth West Coast School from the Professional Photographers of California, headquartered at the University of San Diego.  This time I spent five days with architectural photographer Randy Van Duinen. 

We started off doing table top light painting and that requires a pretty dark room to pull off.  These are long exposures on tripods using small lights to paint across the objects.    


The University of San Diego has many interesting places to photograph.  Since the focus this week was on architecture, we had to photograph the inside of the USD churches.  All were taken using a tripod and a shutter release.  

 
On one of the evenings we went across the way from Maher Hall where we were staying to light paint the USD School of Law.  One of the interesting challenges I had was the lamp on the right side of the building was burned out.  So I cloned the left lamp on the right side in Photoshop!

On another day we ventured to the University of California San Diego to photograph the "Dr. Seuss" (Geisel) Library.

Then I went underneath the library building to get a shot through the structure.  Note the house on top of the other building in the bottom right corner of the photo (below).  

Another evening we drove down to Ocean Beach.  After finally finding a parking space, I was able to capture a couple of surfers as the sun was going down.  

On Thursday evening of the week, we went to Borrego Springs, about two hours east of San Diego, to photograph the unusual animal sculptures in the desert.  The evening concluded with some light painting.  And oh was it dark!

After the class concluded on Friday, it was time to relax and take in San Diego for a few days before returning to Phoenix.  

Until My Next Adventure,

See You On Down the Road!

Jim Patterson