The Top Three Workshops in San Marcos, California
The local Palomar College in San Marcos offers some of the best adult workshops I have ever experienced, at a fairly low cost. Most of these workshops are only a day or two long, and may be fun to try out if you are ever in the San Diego area.
I have taken quite a few of these workshops, and have been quite pleased with all of them. I also feel that they are much better quality than some of the higher priced workshops found in the larger cities. You can learn everything from sushi making, to belly dancing, to podcasting, to filmmaking, to hologram making. I am going to discuss my three personal favorites.
One of my favorite workshops is the two day “Photography: Beginning” class with Paul Johnson. Many places have photography workshops and classes, but there are two things that make this particular workshop different.
The first is that the first day of the workshop is spent in the classroom, learning how to use your manual camera (either digital or film), and the second day is spent at Balboa Park, practicing what you have learned. What better place to take pictures than Balboa Park? It is a beautiful place to spend the day and, since you provide your own transportation to the park, you can spend as much time there as you want once the class is over.
The second thing that makes the Photography workshop at Palomar college wonderfully different is the instructor. Paul Johnson is extremely knowledgeable, and really teaches you all the best tips and tricks for taking highly professional artistic photographs. He covers some things that many other photography instructors are either unable (because they don’t know) or unwilling to share, and in a very short period of time.
My only suggestion is that you bring not only your camera, but a writing utensil and plenty of paper as well. You may want to bring your paper and writing utensil on the field trip day at Balboa Park as well, because he sometimes covers additional hints and tricks that he did not have time to cover on the first day. You definitely don’t want to miss anything. He covers quite a bit of information in a short period of time, and you will later find yourself looking, often, at your notes.
Another great workshop to take at Palomar College in San Marcos is their “Rock Making” workshop. This is a one day workshop, and makes my top three list because it is so unusual. Even if you never plan on making faux rocks, this class is great fun because it is so fascinating. Think Disneyland. This class shows you how the types of faux rocks you find at Disneyland are created. You also get to see other types of ideas people have come up with for their backyards, such as elaborate bridges and water slides.
This is not a hands-on workshop. It’s more of an informative introductory class. They give you information about taking an in-depth, hands-on class later if you decide you want to either build a big project or become a professional faux rock builder.
Finally, my favorite workshop was “What Were You Born To Do?” with Curtis Adney. This workshop is one day long, and is nothing like the usual self-help type of class it may sound like from the name. It is an extremely interesting workshop, and has the potential to change your life forever.
In the workshop, Curtis Adney explains how we all have a specific natural talent that we are born to express. The class includes a book that is still in progress, and a workbook. In the class, you complete the workbook, with help from Curtis, to figure out what your natural talent is.
When the workshop is over you can take the book home, and use it to figure out how to use your natural talent. It is an extremely helpful and insightful book, explaining the entire process of figuring out what your talent is, turning it into a career, making money from it, and finding resources to help you learn more about how to develop and use your talent. It even explains, in Curtis’s opinion, why we all have a natural talent, and how expressing it makes the world a better place for everyone. It’s wonderful!
All of the workshops can be found at venture.recware.com. Just search for the name of the workshop that interests you. Some workshops are only offered once a year and can fill up fast, so plan ahead.
The campus is located at 1140 W Mission in San Marcos. San Diego County is very large, so it may take up to an hour, if traffic is bad, to get to San Marcos from San Diego proper. Parking on the San Marcos campus costs $3 per day. If you do not want to hassle with the drive, you can take an Access Shuttle from San Diego to San Marcos for $50. In fact, you can use Access Shuttle to get to or from anywhere in San Diego County, Orange County, Los Angeles and the Mexican Border at a reasonable rate.
