Oregon Coastline Photo Gallery
I have split this up into two parts since there were so many images of the Oregon Coastline on this past trip. So it's is simply separated into Oregon Coast North and South.
Bandon Beach
We flew into Portland late in the evening and drove all night to Bandon Beach. We arrived there about 3am. I wanted to get the first light there and did not feel like spending money for a hotel for a few hours. So we slept in the car at the Face Rock parking lot and set the alarm for 5:30. Then drove to the beach access parking lot as the morning glow was just starting to appear. I was hopeful for some really pretty skies. But as it turned out, the morning fog was dominate that day. Still got some good shots I think, but could have been better. I was planning on stopping here a few days later for sunset on our way north. But that turned into a rain day.
Harris Beach - Brookings Oregon
We drove on to Brookings as we were staying at Whalehead Beach Resort. A great place to stay since it is just outside of Brookings and centrally located for the trips along the coast from Brookings to Cape Sebastian. We spent three nights in this area. I got up at 5am every morning for the sunrise shots and was shooting well into the late evening for sunsets. During the day I spent my time hiking around looking for the next spot for the photoshoots.
Harris Beach in Brookings was first up for that days photo shoot. It's a great places with a lot of rocky coastline to photograph. It was still a cloudless sunset but the colors turned out great for that evening.
Very easy access to the beach from the parking lot. This was something I was thankful for considering I was shooting the Washington coast in May and had quite a few hikes to do to get to each location. Most of the areas along the Oregon coast have very easy access.
Lone Ranch Beach
Lone Ranch Beach was my sunset spot for the next day and is an area I will be going back to. It's just four miles north of Brookings. Very rugged and jagged rocks all along the beach area. A bit of hiking and wadding into the surf from the area I explored. But there is also a trail to take above the shoreline that goes on for several miles.
You could easily plan on shooting three different evenings here to cover the area well. Which is why I will be focusing more on the southern area of Oregon more on my next trip.
Cape Sebastian - Hunters Cove
This was the area I was saving for the perfect sunset. I had my weather report printed off for the trip and the Monday evening was supposed to be partly cloudy. The weather was changing and rain was moving in sooner the forecast. I made plans to change my schedule a bit and decided to shoot this for a sunrise and then go back for sunset that day. Glad I did. I at least got a decent shot for that morning. But by mid day the sky was cloudy and rain moved in and ruined the sunset. Our next day called for use to leave the area and head north. The plan was to shoot Bandon again but it was till raining. My back up rain location was to head to Kentucky Falls. But the wife was getting sick and she would either have to stay in the car most of the afternoon or hike the trail in the rain. So we moved on north as we were scheduled to stay in the town of Yachats the next three days.
Heceta Head Lighthouse
Heceta Head Lighthouse was a location off hwy 101 just outside of Florence. It's the most photographed lighthouse in the world and I did not plan to spend much effort on it. My sunset for the following day was to be spend along the Devil's Churn and Cook Chasm area. These images are in the northern Oregon gallery. I let the Heceta Head Lighthouse fall into the Southern gallery.
I spent the better part of the late afternoon in this area. It was the best sunset evening of the whole trip. Perfect dramatic clouds and thunder heads in the distance made for almost perfect shots. As the light was starting to fad, I packed up the gear and drove as fast as possible to the Heceta Head Lighthouse. These images I captured I am very pleased with. Beautiful dramatic light with rain shafts falling from the isolated rain clouds. If I was going to spend time photographing a subject that has been shot to death by millions of people, I could not ask for a better evening doing it.
While we were staying in the town of Yachats, I was to meet up with two other photography friends the next day. A few mornings later we all drove back here and photographed it in the morning. We got up before 5 am to get here before the sun came up. We were greeted with beautiful magenta skies that morning and had near perfect conditions for this morning's shoot. You can see all the different views of Heceta Head light house in the southern Oregon Coast photo gallery.
