On the Coast (part 1)
Earlier this month, Tanya and I packed up Carson and the camping gear and headed south to the Oregon coast for a 4-day weekend. Being a Washington native, I suppose it is sacrilegious to admit I like the Oregon coast better than the Washington coast. Most of the easily accessible ocean beach in Washington consists of broad sandy beaches like those at Ocean Shores, which I posted about recently. I prefer a few rocky headlands to provide variety, tide pools, and wave action, like is found along much of the Oregon coast. Additionally, because of longshore drift bringing sediment north from the Columbia River, the water in Washington is silty and usually has a brown tint. Without any large rivers flowing into Oregon’s coast (south of the Columbia), the water is much cleaner.
Not wanting to drive too long, we chose to camp at Nehalem Bay State Park, about a 3 to 4 hour drive from Tacoma. This site gave me fairly quick access to the Cannon Beach and Three Capes areas. The weather couldn’t have been better (well, that’s not true, a photographer is never satisfied with the weather, there could have been a few more clouds to help create interest in the sky). The main problem was that the trip was over Mother’s Day weekend, which when combined with the nice weather, really brought out the crowds to the beach. As a result, most of the images I took were in the golden hours of early morning and late evenings, which not only had less people about, but better light than mid-day.
The photos featured here are from the Friday and Saturday portions of the trip. I’ll show images from the 2nd half of the trip in my next post.

Boats in the West Mooring Basin at Astoria. The Astoria Bridge over the Columbia River in the background.
Wow – this first & last shot is striking in all aspects!!! Stunning!! 🙂 **
May 22, 2012 at 10:52 pm
Thanks Xandre, it helps when nature serves up a nice sunset.
May 23, 2012 at 7:56 am
The forest floor is a nice composition and nicely done.
May 23, 2012 at 3:50 am
Lovely shots, colors are beautiful. My favourite is the lighthouse! I think that lighthouses are very interesting subjects!
May 24, 2012 at 7:46 am
Thank you. I like to photograph lighthouses, but I’ve found the Cape Meares Light difficult to photograph – one reason, it’s so short it doesn’t stick up much above the landscape. I’ve been there twice, and still not satisfied, though I think I did better this time.
May 24, 2012 at 7:58 am
I really like the last shot, I think that the wave that crash on the rocks give movement to the compo
May 24, 2012 at 12:20 pm
I took a lot of photos trying to get a good composition with the waves crashing on that rock. This one turned out the best. Thanks for commenting!
May 24, 2012 at 12:24 pm
Inspirational
June 12, 2012 at 8:21 pm
They are all lovely. I am especially struck by the “forest floor.” It is so fresh and so green!!! 🙂
August 13, 2012 at 1:36 pm
Thanks Jen!
August 13, 2012 at 5:16 pm