Seascape Photography Lessons

The sea is beautiful but ever-changing and elusive. The purpose of these seascape photography lessons is to show you how to capture the ocean in all its beauty, power and awesomeness. Check out other Photography Workshops as well.

Photography Lesson Intro

Seascape photography is one of the hardest sub-genres of landscape photography to master. That’s because, in a regular landscape, your surroundings are pretty much stable and constant except for the moving clouds. In seascapes, the sea, which could take a large part of the frame, is also moving. The rolling waves, the wave crashes, splashes, flow streaks, bubbling foam, etc. A lot of things are happening. It can be overwhelming at first and often, a photographer needs some guidance to get past through the initial amount of information.

What You’ll Learn

First and foremost, we’ll discuss safety as the ocean can be really dangerous if not taken seriously. We’ll go through the seascape camera settings, learn how to smooth the water, how to keep its fluidity. I’ll show you how to research the area, how to find excellent features for the foreground like rock waterfalls or receding wave flows. As an option, we can go shooting the waves after the main session.

Skill Level Requirements

To access this workshop, you must have knowledge and skills in camera handling. You need to know how to change aperture, shutter speed, what is Aperture-priority mode, what ISO is doing. Just basic simple things. If you are not sure about these, please book a Beginners Photography Course first.

Fitness Level Requirements

There are two types of this workshop. One is safer, the other one is more fun. Essentially, to get good seascape photos at the beach, you need to get wet by going into the water. The safer workshop includes some cliff walk, rock pools and puddles, long exposures and rock waterfalls. Works for any fitness level. The “Get wet” workshop is for those, who can stand the receding wave. Also, nothing extraordinary.

Where We’ll Be

There are many fantastic locations on the Gold Coast. The exact location may differ due to the weather conditions (some spots work on high tide, some on low tide, for instance) and personal preference. We’ll visit some of the most scenic spots, which I have already researched and visited many times. Some possible locations:

1. For the sunrise:
   1. Currumbin Beach
   2. Miami Beach
   3. Fingal bay Causeway
   4. Elephant Rock
2. For the sunset:
   1. Elephant Rock
   2. The Spit

Timing

There are two options for this workshop:

1. Sunrise workshop starts 1h before the sunrise and lasts 1h after the sunrise, making it 2 hours in total. There is nearly no one around, no noise, less buzz. Also, the sunrise is an amazing and energizing start of the day.
2. Sunset workshop starts 1h before sunset and lasts 1h after it, making it 2 hours in total as well.

In addition, you can book an extra hour. This can be used for the waves photography mini-workshop. The best timing for this is after the sunrise.

What to Bring

1. Camera with a charged battery and a memory card or two
2. Lenses (wide and telephoto are essential, mid-range is optional)
3. Tripod (good sturdy aluminium tripod at least 1.40m tall)
4. Torch or headlamp (a powerful torch is better)
5. Rain jacket (if weather demands)
6. Spare clothes
7. Microfibre cloth or two
8. If you book a feedback or editing session, bring a laptop

Private Workshops and Groups

For the seascape photography lessons, you can book either a private or a group workshop. The group size is up to 4 students, which allows max attention to each student. All bookings are private, i.e. if you book as a group, then it’s a private group, I won’t add any other students.

Summary and Booking

Duration	1.5-3 hours
Location	Multiple seaside locations depending on the weather
Participants	Up to 4
Time of day	Night-to-day or day-to-night
Price	$250 plus $80 per additional student

Before commencing to buy, please read Terms and Conditions first.

Final Word

Seascape photography is my passion, I enjoy ocean more than any other scenery type. And I’d love to share this passion and knowledge with you. Hopefully, I can help you to progress and learn a few new tricks. Let me know if you have any questions.

An important thing is set the right expectations. There is a chance we’ll witness something epic and create a masterpiece, but more often than not it doesn’t happen. It takes time and patience to capture an unusual scene. And we cannot control the weather. So the right expectation would be to fill the gaps in your knowledge, to practice old and new tricks and to get on track for future self-development.

Gallery

Testimonials

Michelle – October 2018
I had a lot of fun at this ocean sunrise photography workshop! Anton was a great host – he picked me up early in the morning and gave us really useful tips on what parts of the ocean area we should focus on. He also checked in on us the whole time to make sure we were doing ok, which I appreciated. It’s a great way to experience the sunrise in Gold Coast! Thanks Anton!

Zhongsheng – October 2018
Great experience. Got some good pictures of the sunrise and helpful tips from Anton! He also offered pickup with his car which helped a lot considering how early we had to get there. Highly recommended! A Good way to start the morning!

Gabby – September 2018
Anton is an amazing host! He picked me up and dropped me off at my place and showed me a great deal about how to shoot photos like a pro. He is very meticulous and professional in his instructions and the photos I shot turned out to be better than anything I had ever done before!! Anton also requested me to send him my best picks and gave me a lengthy, detailed feedback on my pictures. Great experience!!

Jasper – August 2018
Had a good time with Anton doing sunrise seascape photography. Anton was thorough with the safety procedure, which was a nice thing considering that there always is a potential danger when you’re shooting by the sea. It was a shame that the weather wasn’t exactly great for sunrise photography that day, but Anton did teach me a couple of tricks on composing a picture. It was overall an enjoyable experience.

Henri – June 2018
Had an awsome private session with Anton. This was my first experience doing seascape photgraphy and had absolutely no idea at what to expect. At the beginning of the session Anton went through all of the safety procedures and showed me how to create good seascape compositions. The 2 hour workshop went by so fast and I managed to come home with many good shots. Post workshop Anton checked in providing feedbacks on the photos I took during the session which was valuable. All in all I highly recommend this workshop.