Photography

[RefSteel]

Wow, yeah, that "sea smoke" looks amazing, and I love the composition with the sternwheeler angled in the foreground in the iced-in-looking harbor! I had never heard of Sea Smoke or Ice Volcanos before, and I love that I get to add them to my Mental Collection of Incredible Things That Exist. (I love the mist effects of long-exposure waves from further upthread too - really neat photographic effect!)

[KingOfPain]

Pacific Coastal Ocean Drive - 15 minute Drive Part II

Indian Beach - Something primal about this


Indian Beach is a stunning rocky coastline located 4 miles north of Cannon Beach and 10 miles south of Seaside in Oregon. It is a scenic Pacific Coast destination attracting surfers looking to catch waves and avid hikers planning to explore miles of coastal trails. In addition to surfing and hiking, you can explore tidepools, watch wildlife, beachcomb, and hunt for agates. The surreal Indian Beach is a secluded sandy beach that offers great surfing, hiking trails, tide pools to explore.

I Seefood



I know I am going to get very wet, didn't care. Of all the places I've been to, I felt at home here.
Even at the quietest moments like midnight in a winter wilderness, I felt the most at peace among these crashing waves.  




If you got sharp eyes you will see a surfer struggling in the first 2 clips.



Looks like a Chinese watercolor. Why Not....


Made it into a shower curtain? I love it!





.

[KingOfPain]

Pacific Coastal Ocean Drive - 15 minute Drive Part III

Cannon Beach is a small coastal city in northwest Oregon.
It’s known for its long, sandy shore. Standing tall in the ocean, the famed Haystack Rock is a seasonal haven for tufted puffins. If you feel rich, there are many rental properties right on the beach. I did one better, I slept on the beach, free like a hobo.

A view of Cannon Beach from Indian Beach.



A survey of the land



Sunset



Twilight, when most people thought the show is over.





.

[Mjmd]

Was there any editing done to the sunset / twilight photos? That color is great.

[KingOfPain]

Was there any editing done to the sunset / twilight photos? That color is great.

I usually do a 5 exposures HDR with tough lighting conditions such as these. From 2 and 4 times under exposed (to preserve the highlights), normal (if there really is a normal), to 2 and 4 times over exposed (to bring out shadows) and merge them together. The dynamic range the series of photos in the merge (it gets complicated but suffice to say) have a workable range of ~100 bits

Preserving highlights example - the sun and the surrounding in the sunset photo, not to have it all blown out white with no detail. It is not just about the details. Anything over the max (or the lowest) value is not registered, there is no data to play with.

Bring out the shadow (while preserving highlights) example - Showing the stars in such "bright" light. You can see the Big Dipper constellation clearly. And it can still be further enhanced but I think it would fight for too much attention.

Too much information:
One of the challenges of the moon landing hoax is "why are there no stars in any of the photos from the moon?" We didn't have such High ISO film or HDR technology back then. To properly expose for the foreground, the back ground star would have been way too dim to register.

A 24 bit photo is around 14 million colors. That is 8 bits for each primary, red, green and blue. And we add in another 8 bits of Alpha/Luma to make it 32bits. The Alpha is related to Transparency, Luma refers the Brightness.

8 bits is a scale from 0-255. Anything outside of that range is registered as 0 (for under exposure) and 255 (for over exposure)
Sure we can use more bits but they would mostly be useless for non scientific reasons since that is outside of our normal perception, and display technology. We have come a long way since Black and White, 1 bit; which isn't that long ago for someone who had  B+W TVs

Why our audio equipment are mostly from 20 to 20000 Hz- unless we are trying to communicate with whales or shatter glass.


.

[KingOfPain]

Devil's Punch Bowl & Thor's Well

A 2 and 3 hours south of Cannon Beach is Devil's Punch Bowl and Thor's Well. You have got to love the names, and we have it here back to back. The Devil's Punch Bowl doesn't offer too much in terms of variety but it's a nice natural wonder to see none the less. My timing wasn't too bad that I had the sun peeking thru the door and lit up the interior a bit. But I would pay for that getting to Thor's Well "too late"...



But maybe not. As a travelling photographer, we make the best of what we get. I got to Thors' Well just as the sun is disappearing below the horizon. It would have been great timing, if I have been here before and know the land. That I have any idea where and how to shoot the place, and setup for it already. So I rushed to put my gear together and hiked down to where most people were hanging around. First thing I do when in a scramble is just to plop the tripod down and squeeze off a few shot while I catch my breath. Looks like I might have 10 minutes at most before the sun disappears.

Thor's Well, aka, “the gate to hell” and “a gaping sinkhole.” The well itself is a bowl-shaped sinkhole made out of basalt that appears as if it is draining the Pacific Ocean. Thor’s Wells is likely to measure around 20 feet in depth. A fascinating feature about the well is that it never fills with water despite the unending stream of water provided by the majestic Pacific. Researchers speculate that the well started out as a cave whose roof collapsed, leaving two openings at the top and side.

I like this first shot, really shows off the ruggedness of the scene with crashing waves onto the channel. Oh wait! This sure looks different than photos I have seen of Thor's Well. But, I don't see anything else around, and most people are gathered here... I am a bit confused but kept working the scene anyway.  



Maybe this is the WELL, view a few feet up and to the right from above. But that's not it. It's okay, I am loving this place.



It turns out the famed Thor's Well is far off in the distant, in front of that lone photographer on the left (so I found out next morning). WTH was everyone back here!? LoL.

Good thing is, I usually plan to spend a sunset and a sunrise at major stops. Next morning,
Moon rise in the twilight zone.
Still not clued in I am not at the right place, not until I explored further.


Most of the time, I would remove human figures from photos but I would leave them it they provide a sense of scale and perspective.

Lots of see food



So, the well is right up to the edge of the ocean.





I have to say I did not do the place justice, comparing to some awesome work I have seen. Blame it on low tide for not having epic sprays. Blame it on not having enough time with the place to find the best angle. I told myself the well needs a do-over.

However, I am quite happy of this epic scene with the well in the distance! I love the juxtaposition of the crashing waves against the calm tide pool with a rock in the middle, and the heat of a sunset against the cool blue foreground.
It's not a waterfall in mid-ground, just ocean sprays cascading back to the ocean.






.

[KingOfPain]

Going Off Course

Heading a little bit inland to Crater Lake then homeward bound afterwards. Some random images

Waving goodbye to the coast, for now.


A welcome change of scenery driving through Southern Oregon's lush forest. Mile and miles of green and golden. Why I always travel around mid Sept.
A beautiful back drop for a selfie, of my van.



Hiking up to Toketee Falls, an unplanned stop just off the side of a random highway. A hidden gem.




The pay off. I can see myself climbing down there for a swim - in my younger days ;p


Somewhere


Mount Hood, Trillium Lake, Oregon
Lovely well maintained easy hike around the lake


Mount Rainier. 
I usually love bad weather for photography. It is what makes those special unique photos rather than your average blue sky sunshine postcard fare. But this day was a super rainy stormy day for the whole weekend. I couldn't see Mount Rainier but I followed on anyway. This was the only spot with a little bit of clearing, which only lasted a few minutes. It was super beautiful to experience, but a bitch to photograph. A phone grab, I didn't even bother to take the camera out.


Since I was using my phone, I might as well make a video. Same spot as above - See how it changed in a couple of minutes.
My Selfie Van




.

[RefSteel]

A phone grab, I didn't even bother to take the camera out.

I see what you mean about stormy weather - even this phone grab looks incredibly beautiful, but I can see how a better camera (and post-processing) would have improved it a great deal.  I assume "didn't even bother" was because you knew by the time you had the real camera out and ready, the weather would have closed in and made it unphotographable again?  (Or at least that it was much too likely to justify wasting the time and effort in the midst of a storm....)

I find all of those pictures compelling though; the trails and the shot of the falls all make me want to experience them myself - by giving me a taste of doing just that!

[Mjmd]

Ya I'm not going to lie going up northwest coast is now on my to do list.

[KingOfPain]

You guessed right. If it was a destination then I would spend the time no doubt.
Why I like phone photos, especially for scouting to make it easier to plan future trips.  I took a look at the info on Google Photos.
So it was 4:30 Oct 16 on a stormy rainy day and only an hour or so before the sun disappears. Notice on the mini map there are 3 more scenic spots before the destination, Panorama Overlook. Turned out I might as well have spent the time here.

Sometimes, it's just fatigue.

Sometimes, it's just bad attitude.
Thinking it wouldn't make much of a sell-able image to worth the trouble
I can always fix it in post
If I could only reach out 20 more ft.
I think, what separates an amateur from a pro is their attitude. 
An amateur can say, "Lousy day, nothing to see here. Moving on."
A pro has to work the scene and get something out of it.



The trails look good but it's hard to capture the cool autumn air and the freshness yet somewhat musky smell of the forest. The total experience


.