Oregon Coast Workshop September 9-13, 2025 (Deposit)

Oregon Coast Workshop September 9-13, 2025 (Deposit)

Regular price $1,200.00 Sale


Total workshop fee: $2,795, which includes 5 days of field and classroom instruction. A $1,200 deposit secures your spot in the workshop.

Download the workshop PDF for a complete description of the workshop, including an itinerary, lodging info, what to bring, and more.


Oregon’s spectacular south coast is the perfect place for a photo adventure, providing something for every photographic style and taste. In this small, 10-person workshop we’ll spend time both in the classroom and the field honing your photographic skills and creative vision through training, shooting, editing and critiques.

Our home base will be in Brookings, just north of the California border, with miles of sea-stack-strewn coastline and a forest with gargantuan redwoods just inland to the south. From coastal landscapes and lighthouses to wildlife and spectacular forest streams, this part of the coast is teeming with a diverse array of visual stories to tell. This workshop’s focus will be on honing your skills to better tell those stories. We’ll also have opportunities to shoot the Milky Way on at least two evenings, weather permitting.

I’ll be joined in Brookings with my friend (and workshop coordinator) Rick LePage, who will be helping me teach and lead participants during the workshop. Rick is a great photographer and instructor in his own right, with a passion for teaching all aspects of photography.

Locations

Brookings has epic locations, like Natural Bridges, Secret Beach, and Whaleshead and Harris beaches. It is also within easy striking distance of California’s spectacular Jedidiah Smith redwood grove, the Pistol River mouth’s famous kite-surfing action, the lighthouse at Cape Blanco, the mouth of the Sixes River and many locations in-between.

In the field, we’ll explore from Brookings south to the redwoods and north to Cape Blanco, and conduct sunset, Milky Way and dawn shoots close to Brookings. Along the way we’ll cover advanced techniques like using a star tracker to capture the Milky Way, photographing action sequences, time-lapse creation, building panoramic mergers and focus stacking. And you’re always welcome to head off and photograph something that piques your interest more.

Tentative course schedule

In addition to field-based instruction, we’ll have scheduled classroom time during the week for post-processing demos, instruction and Q&A. We will do our best each day to conduct image reviews/critiques taken by the group the day before. There will also be midday breaks for rest, lunch or small-group interaction.

Day 1: Tuesday, September 9 (9 AM START)

  • Meet and greet in the classroom.
  • Overview: Brookings as a location, and the week’s light & weather forecast
  • Student portfolio reviews
  • Sunset shoot at Harris Beach State Park

Day 2: Wednesday, September 10

  • Student day one image reviews
  • Open editing session and Q&A
  • Classroom Milky Way preparation and demos

Day 3: Thursday, September 11

  • Road trip to Cape Blanco Lighthouse with optional hike to the The Sixes River mouth
  • Photograph Kite surfing at the Pistol River on route back
  • Student day two image reviews
  • Open editing session and Q&A
  • Sunset at Secret Beach, followed by Milky Way shoot

Day 4: Friday, September 12

  • Sunrise TBD
  • Student day three image reviews
  • Post-production wrap-up and Q&A
  • Sunset at Whaleshead Beach, followed by Milky Way shoot

Day 5: Saturday, September 13

  • Morning drive to the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
  • Final image review
  • Discussion and demo: editing Milky Way images
  • Group dinner

Logistics

Classroom and lodging information

Our classroom will be a short-term rental in Brookings proper, about 3 minutes south of Harris Beach State Park.

There are quite a few hotels available in Brookings, at a wide variety of price ranges. Make sure that you’re staying within a 10-15 minute drive from Brookings’ center. While Brookings is off the beaten track for most toursits, it can be busy in September; you’ll want to book four to six months in advance of the workshop to ensure availability.

Here are a few hotels to check; I like the Beachfront, but it can be spendy. (Check in September 8, check-out September 14.)

  • Beachfront Inn (541) 469-7779
  • Westward Inn (541) 469-7471
  • Ocean Suites Motel (866) 520-9768

If you are thinking about renting via Airbnb or VRBO during the workshop, and would like to see if any other attendees wish to share the cost, get in touch with Rick six months or so before the workshop. He’ll help you get the word out to the group.

Transportation

Participants are responsible for their own transportation to Brookings; during the workshop, we will utilize my 12-passenger Sprinter van and an additional vehicle to access photo locations along the coast. Participants are welcome to drive their own vehicles, if desired.

As we get closer to the workshop, we’ll be happy to help participants coordinate travel plans for carpooling among the group from Portland or other airports. We can’t guarantee anything, though.

Food

Each participant is responsible for meals, but people from my workshop classes regularly choose to dine together for many meals. With our schedule oriented to early morning and sunset shoots, we’ll tend to have breaks in the middle of the day, and dine in town for lunches and early dinners.

Snacks, coffee, tea and water will be provided in class. Bring a reusable water bottle and snacks for evening and early morning shoots. We’ll have a large water jug in the van that people can use to fill up water bottles.

Payment Terms

The Oregon Coast workshop is priced at $2,795, which includes five days of field and classroom instruction. Participants who reserved their position with a deposit instead of the full fee will receive an invoice for the balance remaining no later than 90 days prior to the workshop. The balance must be paid in full 60 days prior to the workshop to hold your place.

All workshop payments are fully refundable less a 10% fee up to 60 days prior to the first day of the workshop. If you cancel anywhere from 59 to 30 days prior to the workshop, we will make every effort to find a replacement. If we can fill your spot, 90% of your workshop fee will be refunded; if we cannot find a replacement, we will refund 50% of your workshop fee. Any cancellation within 30 days is non-refundable.

Download the workshop PDF for a complete description of the workshop, including an itinerary, lodging info, what to bring, and more.