| This year, I decided to go on another Oregon Coast tour. This one was titled the Extended Oregon Coast because we were exploring a few parks that had not previously been included on the tour. This trip was also different because we were staying in beach homes, rather than hotels. The first couple of days it rained and rained, eliminating a lot of photo opportunities, however, we didn't let that dampen our spirits too much. We just went exploring. Over the length of the tour, we covered the entire Oregon Coast, from the state of Washington down to California. These first few photos are from Astoria.. I highly recommend taking the trip up into the Astoria tower if you get a chance. It's a bit of a climb, but the view is pretty incredible! |
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| Our first great beach opportunity was at Seal Rock State Park. Seal Rock has always been a favorite of mine, offering plenty of different opportunities of beautiful shots. The golden colors of sunset were beautiful reflecting off the water! |
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| Yaquina Head Lighthouse - the tide was really out this time and you could see exactly why the lighthouses were so important...imagine running ashore on some of this! |
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| I wasn't able to get to the areas that offered some of the best views of Haceta Head Lighthouse, however I had never noticed this particular view! Beautiful sunset at Bandon State Natural Area. The roses are always beautiful at the Shore Acres Botanical Garden! |
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| Bandon State Natural Area - Face Rock State Park - Bandon is always a great place to combine some beautiful sunsets with incredible sand forms. The sunrise lights up the seastacks with a golden light! We're always able to find a few sea stars around the sea stacks. |
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| Shore Acres is a great place to catch some incredible wave crashing....if you're there at the right time. This was my 3rd tour to this park and I've never been lucky enough to catch the major waves. This time, although not as large as some of the photos I've seen of the waves crashing, we were lucky enough to catch some decent crashes. We took a little hike down closer to the action to try to capture the largest wave crashes...the hardest part was to get the wave in the photo....and not have it explode out of the top! |
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| Pelicans flying at Shore Acres |
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| We moved on to Harris Beach State Park. This was the first time I'd been here that police weren't waiting for us to leave when we walked back up to the cars! |
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| Sunrise at Pistol River State Park - always a great place for lots of sand ripples! |
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| We took advantage of most of the time we could shooting whatever we could find. This is the historic bridge in Gold Beach, OR. We had a pretty nice day to photograph Cape Blanco Lighthouse. |
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| I can always be found shooting at ground level, capturing all those little details in the sand, creating a unique photograph. Unfortunately, that leaves you open to friend laboradors that are out enjoying a run on the beach. Was I was lining up the perfect shot, and waiting for the sun to be in just the right location, this big old loveable dog came running over to me. Then he took off to visit other parts, running right across the sand in my foreground and splashing sand and water all over my camera. I wiped the water and sand off and repositioned my camera for more shots! After the sun set, we built a little beach fire and enjoyed photographing the fire ....then we fixed S'mores! |
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| I had never tried star photography before....and didn't really expect my camera to be able to capture them very well, but I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to try my hand at it, so I walked down to the beach house. These shots were taken from the deck of their beach house! I think it surprised everyone how well my camera did! |
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| Battery Point Lighthouse - Crescent City, FL. This lighthouse is always one of the attractions on the tour. You can only visit the lighthouse during low tide...it is surrounded by water during high tide. My favorite photo of this lighthouse is from my first trip...it was higher tide so we took shots from the viewpoint across the water...I was able to get the waves crashing against the rocks and the lighthouse light on! Going up to the lighthouse always offers other unique opportunities. These first few are of the flowers, then I found these bouys, and the last shot was taken from the front side with a fisheye lens...this is a complete 180 degree view. |
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| As we headed to our next location, we passed by this beautiful river scene, with the flowers. We had been trying to find California poppies and finally did! |
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| Part of the Extended Oregon Coast tour included a trip to Crater Lake. There was a lot more snow left there than we anticipated, but it made for some fun shots. I would love to go back sometime and be able to move around even more to get those detail shots! |
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| We took advantage of another clear night to take a few more shots of the Milky Way...over Crater Lake. I think we got about 2 hours sleep (at the most this night) because we shot sunset, then went back and relaxed a little while, then headed back out at 11 or so, then shot until about 2 or so, and then back to the cabin and up and ready to leave with all our stuff (for the airport) to shoot sunrise and head straight to the airport. It was another great trip with lots of fun and stories. Thanks to Mark Rasmussen and Lightchase Photography! That's 15 and counting! Getting ready for #16! |
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