The Oregon coast
The world has a lot of beautiful places, and the Oregon Coast ranks right up there in my book as one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. I was visiting that area this past August with some fabulous photographers and friends, and we had a great time firing shots at nearly everything we saw. It was a lot of work, but we got it done. :-)
This is the view from Ecola State Park, looking south along the coast at a secluded cove, towards Cannon Beach. Isn't this place awesome?
Golden Hour at Haystack Rock
Ecola to Haystack
One more photo from my recent Oregon trip. I loved everything about the trip and the spots we chose to photograph, but after 5 straight posts from Oregon, I am a little tired of the subject.
Don't get me wrong - like I said, I loved everything about it - but I tend to crave change here on the blog and I need to mix it up a little. Besides, I can only say "this place is awesome" so many times. It starts to sound a bit hollow, you know?
I do have many, many more shots from Oregon to share, but I will just sprinkle them in here and there. Change is good. Variety is the spice of life. It keeps me feeling energized. Is anyone else like that?
So about the shot - this is the view from Ecola State Park, looking down the coast towards Cannon Beach. You can even see Haystack Rock (the one in my last post) way off in the distance. Just another beautiful spot along the Oregon coast...this place is awesome. :)
Blue hour at Haystack Rock
Some places just steal your heart, and Cannon Beach along the Oregon Coast is one of them for me. You just can't deny the incredible beauty of the coastline here, and no spots are more well-known around here than Haystack Rock.
Haystack Rock is a 235 foot tall monolith which, as you can see pretty plainly here, is just a short stroll from the beach (though access onto it is not permitted). We shot there all through sunset, into golden hour and blue hour, and eventually late into the night where we watched the Perseid meteor shower and shot star trails.
In short, it was freaking incredible!
Walking the beach in Naples
I tend to be more of a mountain guy as opposed to a beach guy, but I can totally get the beauty of a wonderful beach under a blue sky. There is something about it that appeals to me at some level. I caught this shot while wandering along the beach in Naples, FL. I only had a little free time there and knew I wanted to see the ocean up close. What I didn't know is how close I was going to get. Take a look at this second photo. The beach was COVERED in shells, literally. They were everywhere, and lots of those little conchs were walking around like they owned the place. It was awesome!
Churning seas
Just a bit of a post and run here - long week of travel behind me and heading out again right away (but this time for fun). Thanks for the visits and all that this week, I really appreciate it!
I caught this one at Point Lobos State Reserve which is just outside of Carmel, CA. It's an incredible place full of natural beauty, so be sure and pack the camera when you visit! And keep the camera dry, those waves get a little crazy!
Snug Harbor
For starters, I just want to thank everyone that commented on my photo yesterday here on the blog, or on Google+ and for all the shares, etc on Google+ as well. I really appreciate that so much!
This has been a crazy week, and it included a quick trip out to San Francisco but sadly no time for shooting while out West. Luckily though, I did get the opportunity to meet with Thomas Hawk and had a great time chatting with him. He is an insightful and interesting guy, not to mention a great photographer. More on that later, but I wanted to share the below shot which I posted on Google+ yesterday...taken with my iPhone. This is Thomas, hanging out with the Bay Bridge in the background.
Ok, on to the photo post for today...
I shot this one while up in Seattle earlier in the year. We took a weekend and ferried up to the San Juan Islands, which are fabulous by the way. We spent the weekend in Friday Harbor and at some point that weekend decided we wanted to go on a kayak tour around the coastline. The tour took us up to Snug Harbor, which is where we launched from, and the beauty of the area is just incredible. I took so many photos - many from the kayak itself - and have a lot more to share. So, you will see more of this place! It's beautiful all the way around!
Washed ashore
There is just something about wandering around on a beach that people seem to like, including me. I think we all have some distant hope that we will discover something valuable, or amazing, or historical, or at least interesting. (Spanish Galleons would be cool! Plus I could sell them to a museum and buy a lot of new camera gear!! Ok, back to reality.)
Sadly, in most cases I think we just find junk. In this case, I was wandering at China Cove in Point Lobos State Reserve (just outside of Carmel, CA) and didn't have to look very hard to find this large clump of kelp. I am not sure how things this large get dislodged from their grove out at sea, but sure enough there it was, waiting to be photographed.
La Jolla Cove
Ahh, La Jolla. That place just totally rocks! Do people that live in SoCal just love it or what? The beach is gorgeous, the weather is fabulous - pure bliss! I caught this shot while wandering around on the beach there, waiting on the light to change. You know, as photographers we spend some time waiting...and waiting...and waiting. But, it's always worth it!
La Jolla portal
La Jolla, CA is just a fabulous place and I love the beach there. That's about all I can say about that. I was there on the beach, camera in hand, stepping on rocks, talking to seals (or are they sea lions??), and listening to waves crash around me. It was pure heaven. I took some pictures too.
Beachcombing
I took this shot while standing in the water on St. Joseph Island, just off the Texas coast. We were staying in Corpus Christi, and took the ferry boat over to Port Aransas, and from there took a little jetty boat out to St. Joseph Island. We have been once before, and as a state preserve (or something like that) it offers some incredible unspoiled beaches. We have found many sand dollars while walking along this beach - it's that pristine. I was drawn in to those wonderful clouds and the deep blue of the summer sky.
Toying with a Carmel sunset
Sunset is such a great time to go shoot, especially for the clouds. Doesn't it seem like there are better clouds at sunset than at sunrise? It does to me, but I am not sure why. There is probably some easy explanation for it, so if anyone knows feel free to share in the comments.
Anyways, this was an incredible sunset that I witnessed (and photographed!) while in Carmel, CA. We had a little family picnic on the beach and watched the waves crash, and watched the surfers crash, and saw the moon rise behind us. But, the best part was this incredible sunset. The light was fabulous, but the clouds were the real star of the show.
I adjusted this one only with Aperture, using one of their presets called "Toy Camera". I thought it created an interesting look to the photo. Hope you like it, and thanks for stopping by!
Clouds over Snug Harbor
While we were in the San Juan Islands, off the coast of Washington State, we took one morning to go explore the coastline via sea kayak. We kayak semi-frequently in Austin, and enjoy it quite a bit, though it is obviously a bit different on the ocean. For starters, we saw a pod of orcas as well as a harbor seal, and I can't say I have ever done that in Austin. hehe Plus, the weather was cool and I had these fabulous clouds to look at, so all in all it was about the best morning I can imagine! This was one of many shots I took from the kayak that day. It's pretty hard to take pictures, keep your camera dry, paddle and steer a kayak, and enjoy the scenery all at the same time - but hey it sure is fun trying!
Chasing orcas and eagles
Well, I just returned from a combo business/personal trip to the Seattle area. We spent last weekend in Friday Harbor, which is on San Juan Island. It’s an incredibly beautiful area full of wildlife and lots of photographic treats! We went whale-watching last Saturday and saw what seemed like a million orca whales, and many times they were breaching! It was incredible. The whole area is just fabulous - honestly, I can’t think of enough superlatives to begin to describe it. So, a picture is worth a thousand words, yes?
I caught this image while heading back on the boat from whale-watching. This was some mostly-uninhabited island, but what caught my eye was the bald eagle sitting at the top of the tree. See him? I saw 5 bald eagles last weekend. Incredible. Amazing. Fabulous. Got any more great words for me??
Oh yeah, and I have 800+ photos to add to the backlog. I love doing this stuff!!
Point Lobos, painted
I have been experimenting a lot with using a painterly effect in my photos, though I haven't really shared many of them (ok, I guess none of them!). It's not something I would normally do, as I tend to like using HDR and other effects for bringing out details, etc - but I find that sometimes using painterly effects really works for me. It softens up the details and gives it a dreamy effect. It's kind of fun. This is one of those cases. I took this single exposure at Point Lobos State Reserve, just outside of Carmel, CA. I tried it several different ways, and although I liked them all, I really liked this version. Hope you do too!