Coastal photography, we have spent a great deal of time shooting on the east coast of the US when we lived in South Carolina. The west coast is a different beast altogether. Rocky coastlines, big waves crashing, fantastic tidal pools all make for very different shots and of course the fact that the sun goes down over the ocean instead of rising again makes shooting very different.
The view from “Secret Beach” one of many stops along the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor.
Nature along this coast is also very different, we don’t see many different types of herons or egrets and gators are not something we need to worry about but we can look forward to sea lions, elephant seals and sea otters.
Since we are on the road continuously we are at the whim of the weather for the few days we were at each location. This means that whatever conditions we see that day is likely what we have to shoot. In that sense we often stopped at many locations during the day with the hope that one of those locations would be a good sunset shot…with the hope that conditions at sunset will be good or at least interesting enough. With storms and rainy weather following us down the coast it did make for some interesting seascapes and sunsets.
Photo taken with Sony A7RIV and 70-200 f/4 lens at 82mm, ISO 1000, f/4, 1/2000s. This was just a quick stop at a lookout along the highway where we saw waves crashing from a distance.
Writing these articles helps to ensure I look back at the photos I’ve taken. I usually pick what I think are the best photos from that day when I download them into Lightroom but what I have found is that if I go through them again a few weeks or even months later I find quite a few shots that I overlooked when I first downloaded them. I’m not sure what it is that changes how I look at them but I’m glad I do this once in a while.
I almost overlooked this shot on my first pass. After a couple of months I looked back through the library and this one stood out for some reason.
Our first real taste of the coast was at Cape Disappointment as the south end of Washington State. We basically didn’t get much of a chance to see anything else due to two full days of rain that kept us on the road from Port Angeles along hwy 101. I’m hoping that we will get a chance to revisit the Washington coastline but grey and rainy is not the best way to see any of that area.
Disappointment was definitely not disappointing. In fact as our first real taste of this rocky coastline it had a pretty big impact on us. One of the first sights was the Lighthouse and with the first bit of sunlight we had seen in many days it was the first time we wanted to get out with the cameras. One of the best small hikes we did was to head into Deadman’s Cove which turned out to have a cool island in the middle with a lone tree….an interesting subject to do a bit on long exposure photography and after the trip I still think it gave me one of my favourite shots of the trip.
It took some time to get this shot just right. With a 6 stop filter we were trying for long enough exposer to smooth out the waves but that log to the right moved when the waves were too large. This was one of my favourite shot of the trip. Photo taken with Sony A7III with 24-105 lens at 50 mm, ISO 100, f/13, 30 seconds.
Oregon has been on my list of places to visit for a long time. I’ve been watching a landscape photographer on YouTube named Nick Page (https://www.youtube.com/@NickPage) so I had some ideas of what was possible, although I knew it was unlikely I would be lucky enough to get an opportunity to get shots that were as good as his when our window was usually one or possibly two days at any one area. I just hoped that we would get some weather windows at dawn and dusk with interesting weather…not pure grey skies and drizzling rain or pure blue skies. If you are looking on a map some of the spots we stopped at are Bandon Beach, Shore Acres State Park near Coos Bay, Cape Blanco, and Secret Beach near Brookings. This is just a few as we stopped many times along the highway all the way through Oregon.
Bandon Beach as the sun was getting low. Very little colour with the grey clouds and mist from the sea so I thought black and white would give a better feeling. Photo taken with Sony A7RIV and 70-200 f/4 at 100mm, ISO f/13, at 1/640s.
Turned out we did get some really windy days but we managed to miss a king tide with those winds by just a couple of days. That being said we did manage to get some nice shots around Bandon and scoped out a few areas around what is referred to as secret beach?? This is a place I would like to come back and spend some time near so that I could find a better spot to take shots from. The places I stood made me feel like I was just missing the shot.
We did manage to get very lucky on one of our coastal walks. By lucky I mean we ended up with a storm coming right over us as we wandered down the beach and got absolutely soaked but as this storm moved off we got one of the most amazing rainbows that I have seen with dark skies in the background and sunlight hitting the rocks. It was worth the painful rain/ice hitting us as we tried to get these shots.
A wet and cold walk on Lone Ranch Beach through a very windy storm was all worth it for these shots as the storm passed through. It was a fleeting moment but one I’m glad we caught. Photo taken with Sony A7RIV with 24-105 f/4 lens at 27 mm, ISO 160, f/11, 1/200s.
Before heading inland we took a little time along the California coast.
Along Highway 1 we continuously saw hawks hovering above the cliffs over the grassy hills hunting. At times they would go into another hawks territory and that would cause some interesting interactions. If we didn’t need to get to our campsite I could likely have stayed for hours waiting and watching those hawks.
A pair of Red-tailed hawks fighting above Highway 1 in Northern California. This was a quick stop on the side of the road as we saw numerous hawks hunting in the grass above the ocean. Photo taken with Sony A7RIV with the 200-600 lens and 1.4 teleconverter at 840mm, ISO 250, f/9, 1/1250s.
I am always eager to find some wildlife and we hit the jackpot with a sea otter that was getting ready to sleep, rolling in the kelp and fluffing up its fur for a good half hour only 20 feet from us on the beach. It finally settled in to sleep, seemingly without a worry in the world.
Sea Otter wrapping itself in the weeds and starting to puff up and clean before settling down for a nap. Photo taken with Sony A7RIV and 200-600 lens at 400mm, ISO 2000, f/9, 1/1250s to ensure I stopped the motion and was able to get the whole otter in focus.
You can see more of this cuteness in our vlog on no.fixed.plans on YouTube, you can also look directly at the West Coast Gallery for more pictures.
With horrible weather always just one step behind us, we really did not spend the amount of time we wanted to on this trip. It was a good sampler and now that we have some ideas I think that we can make some more trips down to the Oregon coast especially and hopefully get to spend more quality time behind the camera. With that cold and wet weather coming for us again our next step was to head inland towards Death Valley, but that will be in the next post.