Oregon

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By the way, I’m working on an Oregon road trip post with everything we did in the week we visited. Reflecting back on the trip, there were definitely a few things that I would have done differently and discussed that in the post. If you have any other questions about Oregon, please let me know. I’ll try my best to answer them.

In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying going through the images from the trip. It’s been sort of a slow process but I’ve been really happy with the results so far. Especially this one for some reason. By the time we arrived at Myers Creek Beach Viewpoint, the sun had already been up for a while. It wasn’t the middle of the day but we could definitely feel the heat from the sun. It made for harsh lighting conditions so I was a little bit hesitant to even attempt to edit this image. I remember being so excited about the water reflections in the sand that I started shooting right when I got out of the car. I captured this just steps away from the rental in the parking lot.  Although you can’t see any reflections, you can tell how glassy and still the water was. OMG

My camera settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/800th sec and ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 24-70mm lens.

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Before leaving for this trip, I had made a mental note of the new moon. I was so happy that we would be along the Oregon coast for it. I don’t make enough effort to photograph it in the DC area because we would have to drive at least an hour away to get to a decent place to photograph it. But in Oregon, it was so much easier to photograph the stars and milky way.

This image was taken at the Samuel H Boardman State Scenic Corridor in southern Oregon. We had clear skies all day so I knew this night would be perfect. Right before sunset, Andrew and I scouted different places I could go to photograph the milky way and decided on Meyers Creek Beach. One, because it’s so beautiful with the rock formations in the water. Two, because we would be able to park along the edge of the beach and not go very far to capture images. It was a win-win for everyone.

I had so much fun photographing these star images. I’m going to try to make more of an effort in the future to photograph the milky way.

My camera settings for this image is F2.8 at 10 seconds and ISO 3200 with my Sony A7II and borrowed a 24-70mm lens just for this trip. I wanted to test it out as an everyday lens but came in handy for these night shots because of how fast it is.

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I was TIRED! I don’t know why but driving down to the Samuel H Boardman State Scenic Corridor was a trek! It took way longer than I thought it would have and by the time we were in the vicinity, I was just ready to go straight our Airbnb and lay in bed.

But then we drove past Meyers Creek Beach. Holy cow. This place looked beautiful. It woke me right back up. Since I was the one driving, I made a mental note to remember the name. As soon as we parked, I went into my phone and wrote it down so I knew where I wanted to go for the next day. Luckily, it was already in my notes as one of the first places I wanted to visit in the corridor. LOL, it was honestly no surprise.

So this image was taken the very next day. We didn’t make it for sunrise but this was still taken in the early morning. Unfortunately, the whole time we were in South Oregon there were barely any clouds. So I tried my best to fill the frame with the lines in the sand. But I think one of my favorite parts about this image is that even though there weren’t many clouds, you can still see a few clouds above the mountains but then you can also see it in the reflection in the sand. OMG.

My camera settings for this image are F6.3 at 1/2000th sec and ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 24-70mm.

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We spent 2 nights in Portland at the end of our trip. It was definitely necessary because no matter how much Andrew loves me, he’s way more of a city boy than someone who would want to spend the entire trip in nature. Which is completely fine with me. I enjoy both.

This was taken on our last full day of the trip. We decided to head to Pittock Mansion to watch the sunrise but it was so foggy that you could barely see anything. So I quickly shifted the idea from taking landscape images to more people images. For a Monday morning, I was surprised to see at least 10 other people at this location. But I’m glad they were there because it gave me plenty of opportunities to create different kinds of images. I believe these two were checking out the images they had just captured on their camera but they were so close to each other that it looked like it could have been a loving embrace. I love how they are silhouetted and the only color you see is from the city.

Next time I visit Portland, I’m going to have to come here during the day. Not only was the view amazing but Pittock Mansion itself looks like it would have been really cool on the inside. And there will be a next time. I think Andrew and I both agreed that we didn’t have enough time in Portland or Oregon in general. There’s still so much more to explore!

My camera settings for this image are F4.5 at 1/10th sec and ISO 800 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

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So after taking a few pictures of the coast, I thought it would be a perfect time to fly the drone for a bit. I prefer flying in the early morning because there are fewer people out who may be bothered by the drone. So I got the drone up in the air and began to fly around the water.

It’s always an interesting perspective from up above. You never really know what you’re going to see until you’re up there. I was able to capture some cool images but I ended up really liking these “self-portraits”. I had no idea how clean looking the sand was until I saw it from above. I thought the lines that cars created in the sand were cool but my favorite of them are these long shadows Andrew, Frankie and I created.

So from left to right is Frankie, Andrew, my black camera bag, and then me 🙂 LOL I had no idea my camera bag would create such a long shadow and so when I looked at these images on my computer, I was a little confused as to what that 4th shadow was. When I zoomed in and figured out it was my camera bag, it made me like this image even more. My camera was definitely like the 4th person on this trip. LOL.

My camera settings for this image are F2.2 at 1/800th sec ISO 400 with my DJI Mavic Pro.

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Our second night in Oregon was spent in Pacific City, specifically Cape Kiwanda and I loveddd it. The afternoon that we arrived was super foggy. So foggy that you weren’t able to see the Haystack Rock in the ocean. It was pretty interesting to see (or not see…). I think I loved Cape Kiwanda so much because it was definitely quieter than Cannon Beach but I just felt so relaxed and at peace there. The fog may have added to the mood as well.

But that limited our photo opportunities in this area so Andrew, Frankie and I woke up early the next morning and just hung out on the beach in front of our hotel. The skies had cleared up by morning time and created this amazingly warm glow all along the beach. My favorite part was playing with the reflections that the ocean tide created on the sand.

So this is an image of the sand dune that was on the side of the cape. I noticed some kayakers getting ready to get into the water and thought that it was the perfect focal point to break up the landscape. I love seeing the scale of the people compared to the sand dunes. Andrew and I were actually really impressed because the night before we saw so quite a few people sledding down the dunes. Looked like fun but I was in relax mode. LOL.

My camera settings for this image is F7.1 at 1/160th sec and ISO 640 with my Sony A7II and 24-70mm lens.