Next, Shelley and I headed down the coast along US-101 to Tillamook, Oregon. At Tillamook, we left US-101 as it heads inland and away from the coast for serval miles. Our first stop off of the old Federal road was to be Cape Meares Lighthouse followed by Cape Kiwanda, before driving just past Yachats, Oregon where our next base camp would be for the next couple of nights.
Cape Meares Lighthouse
I have to say that during my initial pre-trip research Cape Meares was not on my radar. It was after talking with locals back in Seattle that we added it. I was glad that we did. It is one of the shortest lighthouses along the Pacific coast, but it is by no means one that should be skipped.
As Shelley and I arrived at the gate to the area, we were presented with a timing issue. The gates were automatic and would close an hour before sunset. We had roughly 15 minutes after driving down the entrance road and parking, to walk down to the lighthouse, photograph it, and walk back to the car. No problem, right? Well except for the quarter of a mile hike with a 13% grade. Getting down was easy, hiking back up the hill was more of a challenge, especially with the added weight of the camera gear. That being said, I came away with a couple of compositions that I am happy with. Both of the following photographs were shot bracketed without filters at ISO 100, f/9.
Cape Kiwanda
Shelley and I arrived at Cape Kiwanda about 30 minutes before sunset. This left little to no time to explore the area. We headed down the beach looking for quick compositions to photograph. We both have seen many videos and photographs of the Cape Kiwanda area and were looking for something different. I was able to come away from the sunset shoot with two photographs that I really love. Shelley and I both would love to have had more time to explore the area and are wanting to go back.
Cape Kiwanda Driftwood
While Shelley and I were walking along the beach, we notice a large tree that had washed up. Parts of its roots were still attached even though all of the branches and bark had been stripped away. I felt that this old tree could add foreground interest to a photograph on an overcast day. I tried many different compositions, a couple using it to frame the Cape Kiwanda Haystack Rock, but each of these were too busy and cluttered for my taste.
The composition that I finally settled on made use of the roots of the old tree on the left side of the frame as if the viewer was peeking around them. This allowed me to reveal the scene of the beach and sandstone hills in the distance. While on location, I knew that I would like more dynamic range available to me than my camera would capture natively, so I shot a bracketed set. The final photograph was made at ISO 100, 24mm, f/9, and 1/10 of a second.
Sunset at Cape Kiwanda
For the second composition, I wanted Haystack Rock to be featured in it. I walked further out on the beach towards the Pacific Ocean looking for an arrangement with Haystack Rock and the sandstone cliffs reflecting in the water along the beach. Here again, for this composition, I decided not to dig into my bag for any filters, and instead. I shot bracketed. The final photograph was made at ISO 100, 24mm, f/22, and 1.6 seconds. In post-production, I applied a 2-to-1 aspect ratio crop to make the photograph a panoramic.
Please check out the corresponding video over on my YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVEf9aXoQMPTAVTztNkNIxg.
