CAPE KIWANDA
The last time we wondered down the coast we almost got down to Cape Kiwanda but we were running out of time and daylight so we had to head back. Today, however, we had the entire day ahead of us so we decided to head back down and explore. Cape Kiwanda is an interesting place, as you are driving down a pretty empty and uninteresting road all of a sudden you see a parking lot on your right and then you look at the end of that parking lot and you see a beautiful beach with huge dunes and rock formations. This particular photo was taken towards the end of our day as the sun was coming down over the beautiful horizon and next to the massive haystack rock in the middle of the beach. This particular rock rivals in size the haystacks that are present at Cannon Beach.
Sometimes the only true way the show off the size of a haystack is to take a panoramic shot showing the entire beach to provide some perspective. Aside from making the decision to go panoramic I also decided to focus on the colors the sun was creating by allowing the exposure settings to make all of the rocks black. I felt like the contrast in the orange and black played really well, I also loved that I was able to get a reflection of the haystack in the wet beach sand.
One thing that I love to do is play with perspective and its impact on the apparent size of objects. In this particular photo I got really low and had my camera almost on the ground to get this perspective where the rocks that are in reality only about a foot tall look like a large, deep, canyon. Aside from the perspective, I also absolutely loved the sky conditions that I was seeing while taking this photo, I mean just look at those colors and clouds!
This shot was not technically taken at Cape Kiwanda but rather a pullout right before you get there. On the way home from our day at the Cape I saw that the sunset was much less obstructed here and that it was casting some magnificent colors on to the beach and this random stump that happened to be there. Naturally I decided to take a photo, I think it turned out pretty good.
As much as I was happy with the fist photo, I was really hoping that the clouds would clear a bit to allow me to catch an unobstructed sun. I didn’t have my hopes all that high as it had been a super cloudy day to that point, but almost on command as I thought it, it happened and the clouds moved for me to grab this photo. I have to say Cape Kiwanda is one of the most beautiful beaches on the Oregon Coast.
As I mentioned earlier, the giant rock on the beach at Cape Kiwanda rivals that of the rocks at Cannon Beach and I think this photo shows it! I absolutely love the sharp detail that I was able to get at this distance (goes to show how good the A7RIV is when paired with Sony’s G Master lenses) and that I was also able to get a fairly clean reflection in the wet sand as well.
As most who have read my bio know my history is primarily in automotive photography, with that said I love all types of photography and really want to explore other types and styles. Two types of photography that especially interest me are astro and night photography, exactly what I got a chance to play with in this photo. The reality is, I am still new and inexperienced in both night and astro, so it took quite a few bad shots (thanks goodness for digital) to get this one shot that I am happy with. What I love about this photo is the sharpness and detail of the rock, I do wish the stars were a bit sharper, but again, for one of my first few astro shots I am happy with the results. Overall our trip to Cape Kiwanda was a good one. Till next time…
