The first morning in Shelter Cove was filled with fog. And it was the kind of morning fog when the air is still and quiet. It was moving, swirling, raising and falling back to Earth breaking into myriad of due drops.
We chased the fog around but it was tough to find a good view point to get a good photos of Shelter Cove in fog. Eventually we found one:
After that we dived into the fog and went to Black Beach:
Back in May my family and friends took a trip to Shelter Cove. It is a very small town located in the area with an intriguing name The Lost Coast. It is the only section of Pacific US coast that does not have Highway 1 following the coast. Once you get there you’ll understand why. Mountains with steep drop-offs come directly to the ocean. There is a small piece of flatland squeezed in between the mountains and the ocean. And that’s where Shelter Cove is located.
The road there is hard: long, narrow, windy and slow. That kept the place remote and less developed than the rest of the Pacific coast. There was no cell phone coverage, no Internet access, which made it into a nice experience. Suddenly there was so much time for family fun and games once those distractions were removed.
While this was a family vacation there was still a little bit of opportunity for photography. With the next few posts I’ll share the images and experiences I captures during the trip.
Sometime I find a photograph just by accident. Like this one.
I was photographing flowers in a forest. The flowers were across a small creek that I could not cross. So, I was photographing with my hands stretched out, composing by looking at a live view on a screen on the back of my camera.
As my hands got tired I let my camera hang on a strap. That’s when I saw reflections down in the stream on the screen. I was immediately captivated by interweaving mesh of branches and interplay of continuously changing reflections in a moving water.
Day 5, Sunset
Finding water is a bit of a challenge in Death Valley. On a rainy year (which was a few years ago) there was water on Badwater flats and lots of photographers and spectators were taking photos of reflections. This year there was no water at all on Badwater.
As I was driving thru the valley I noticed a brisk reflection of the Sun. It must have been water.
Indeed there were a few small creeks with salty banks. And where water is there is life. There was some grass. Most of it dried out but there was some still green. The dry ones mineralized with salt turned into sharp spikes.
That’s where I settled waiting for a sunset.
Here are a couple of images I took at that place. The first one is right before the Sun disappeared, the last rays just touching the tops of the greenery:
Last Rays
And here the afterglow:
Afterglow
Spring… What do you do to us. Emotions over the top. Creativity spruces.
After dreadful winter rains nice spring weather came to Pacific Northwest. And I cannot stop photographing. I have not sorted thru all the photos from Death Valley trip yet and I already took photos of cherry blossom, that I have not even looked thru, tulip festival, that I only quickly looked thru.
Today I wanted to hike up to some waterfalls, stopped on the way there to check out a creek running over the rocks and got stuck there for hours photographing the creek, rocks, flowers, reflections. I have not even made to the trailhead to the waterfalls that I was originally planning to go to.
Here is one of the photos from today’s trip:
I really need to step up processing of all my photos.
PS And today while reviewing photos in camera I accidently navigated to the first photos on the card a discovered interesting images of plum blossom that I have not even download off the card yet.
When night looks like day? When it is full moon. And tonight is full moon. With a fellow photographer I went to photograph Aurora which was supposed to be very strong today but the full moon was stronger. Its light was so strong that we could walk on a trail and work with photographic equipment without flashlights.
And here is a proof that night can look like day – a couple of photos I took tonight. The only hint of it being night are star trails in the sky.
Rattlesnake Lake in Moonlight #1
Rattlesnake Lake in Moonlight #2
"When you’re finished changing, you’re finished." – Ben Franklin
I’ve sent a photo that I posted in my previous post Stormy Sky to one photo community up for discussion. I’ve got a few interesting points that I need to think about. There was one common thread though all the feedback that it was not my style, that my style was more artsy images.
It was flattering that people saw style in my images. At the same time it showed that having style may box you in because people expect certain style of the images.
For me trying something new is what keeps me moving. And for those who like my artsy style here is a panorama that I made recently at Rialto beach in Olympic National Park:
Rialto. After Storm
vitali prokopenko | fine art 