Gems of Pacific North West
As a lot of you already know, I am just coming back from a trip that I have wanted to do for a very long time: the Pacific North West! Now some of you asked me where in the world is the Pacific North West? The Pacific North West is a region of the United States of America that consists of Washington, Oregon mostly and the northern part of California. That whole area has so many gems and treats for your eyes! It’s a real photographer’s paradise!
Now trying to time a visit there in such a way that you can get the most out of it can be challenging. I love waterfalls…PNW has a ton of waterfalls. I love seascapes…well guess what, PNW also has a ton of them! I also happen to love vegetation and flowers. When would be the ideal time to get a little bit of all of the above?
I chose late spring season and it didn’t disappoint at all! Read below and find out why! Here are the first few images I edited from that trip.
DRY CREEK FALLS
Which waterfall in PNW could potentially be crowned as my favorite one of them all? Hmmm…that’s a very good question because so many of them are truly amazing. Some of them blew my mind off that universe! But I think my favorite one is Dry Creek Falls. That place has a little something special…the hike to get to the waterfall isn’t really difficult but truly lovely and quiet! We didn’t see a single soul on our way to and from the waterfall. The amount of ferns on each side of the trail is mind boggling! As a vegetation lover, I just couldn’t believe my eyes!
And then we reached the point where we could not only hear the waterfall more but we could start seeing it through the trees. She is tall and so elegant! Instead of standing very close to it, I decided to go down the river a couple meters and used some of that rich vegetation to create a frame around the waterfall. The location where I decided to set my tripod was a much more shadowy area which automatically created a lovely natural transition from cool tones in the foreground to a much warmer light setup near the waterfall. And then I decided I would pose for myself…with the 10 second timer on, I ran into the scene to grab a few shots of me to give the scene some scale.
HECETA HEAD LIGHTHOUSE
Oh…and did I ever mentioned that lighthouses are my all time favorite man made subject to photograph? I 100% love what a beautiful lighthouse adds to a landscape image. I think they all add a truly romantic feel to any landscape scene. I have seen images of Heceta Lighthouse for almost 10 years and I have wanted to photograph it ever since the very first image I saw. It really is a gorgeous location which screams out loud how crazy and beautiful the Oregon Coast truly is!
Driving along the Pacific Coast is a wonderful experience! I love rugged coast line scenes and what makes them shine is late afternoon light. As the sun gets lower, everything looks much more rich and warm. The one interesting phenomena that we witnessed almost every night on the coast was the thick marine layer above the ocean. That thick layer was doing such an amazing job at softening that sunset light to a point that I have rarely seen! Look how soft and pink everything is!
ECOLA STATE PARK
Of the many locations I wanted to visit in PNW, Cannon Beach was very high on my list. I didn’t expect it to be such a touristic location though. The beach was so crowded…don’t get me wrong, I am not a people type of person but it doesn’t mean that I am not social! I just like to have some quiet time with my camera when it comes time to capture some images. Then I remembered that Ecola State Park was also on my list of must see locations. And that State Park just so happens to be located just a couple minutes away from Cannon Beach. I told Gina: Let’s just go there and see what it looks like!
After the required short ride to reach the State Park, we made our way onto the beach and started to look for possible compositions. And there were a ton! Since the tide was coming in, we had to use caution so we didn’t trap ourselves somewhere. We both spotted that arrangement of rocks on the beach. We both knew that these would later be in the water later. When the tide was high enough, I decided to set up my tripod where I wanted to shoot and let it sink into the sand as the waves were coming in and out. Then I started shooting a few images with the focus set on the closest rocks…and later, I took a second series of bursted images while the focus was set further into the scene and so on…no camera equipment was harmed while trying to create that image!
MEYER CREEK BEACH
In some part of the world, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to get an accurate weather forecast. I have noticed that PNW was certainly one of those kinda difficult places to get an accurate weather forecast. That morning for example was one of those moments where we had a surprise! Not a bad surprise but a very good one! Along the Pacific Coast, chances of fog are pretty common. And some weather forecast apps have predictions for fog. Meyer Creek Beach wasn’t suppose to be foggy on that morning…
As we were driving there for sunrise, I noticed that there was some beautiful fog surrounding the sea stacks! And only just that, the sky was suppose to be 100% clear! The Weather Forecast was wrong again…but wrong in our favor for once! We were both getting super excited! Right after parking the rental car, we both rushed onto the beach but my love for flowers kinda hit hard here and I made a stop right next to these lovely lupines! I knew they would create an impactful foreground!
REDWOODS NATIONAL PARK
Have you ever seen tall trees? No…the ones you have seen aren’t even tall compared to the Redwoods you can find in Redwoods National Park. You literally have to look 90 degrees above you to see the tip of them tall trees!
Just like any other forest scene, trying to create minimalist images in such a busy environment is a real challenge. You will find layers and layers…and even more layers of trees and vegetation all densely superposed and it becomes extremely difficult to make sense of all of this heaviness! Unless you have fog…we were hoping to get fog on a particular morning on the coast so we were carefully looking for the fog forecast and our best chances were on that morning.
But then, even with fog, how can you give proper scale to these giant trees? I decided to once more pose and be part of my images. 10 seconds timer on and run! I also love the fact that the only element of the scene that contrasts nicely with the rest of the scene is my very bright yellow jacket! And speaking of selfies, I dedicated a whole Blog Article to selfie photography! You can find it RIGHT HERE!
…IN CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the Pacific North West was nothing short of spectacular! Every little corner of Oregon, Washington and California that we had a chance to see all blew my mind! It’s not everywhere on this planet that we have such a wide variety of subjects to photograph in such a small radius.
As I edit more images from that absolutely amazing trip, I plan on creating a part two article with more memorable moments witnessed during those quick 12 days. 12 days isn’t enough to see all the beauty that the PNW had to offer…a couple thousand words sure wasn’t enough to tell you all about it either!
