Hopefully all of you are hanging in there during this challenging and difficult time. So much has happened since my last post. I made another trip up the coast during my Spring/Winter break at the end of February and drove right through virus country when it was taking off and then went right back to teaching after arriving home. A week later I traveled to a convention in Salt Lake and when I returned, I may or may not have had COVID-19. I had all the symptoms and dutifully contacted Kaiser about the possibility of getting a test but was turned down, presumably because they didn't have enough tests in the early days of the pandemic. Not to be deterred, I headed in for a flu test so I could rule out the virus, but the flu test came back negative. And they STILL wouldn't give me a COVID-19 test. So....after two weeks of coughing and a fever that kept coming back...I'm symptom free. Whatever I had is now gone. :)
Along with almost all of my classes. :( My online classes are still going strong, but my on campus ensembles were all cancelled for the semester...which now has given me quite a bit of extra time. What to do? Well...I guess it's time to start digging through the thousands of shots that I haven't had time to get to for the past 8 months or so.
So I thought I should probably start with a shot that represents the reason I dropped everything and made the 2000 mile round trip to the Oregon Coast last December. I had seen a couple of other shots from Shore Acres toward the end of November and I promised myself if I ever had the opportunity to head up there with the right conditions, I would jump on it. After checking the forecast and seeing a high surf warning with high winds and waves approaching 25 feet, I was in the Prius and heading North the next day.
After spending most of the day shooting facing North with a hardy crowd of photographers who didn't seem to mind the gale or the rain, I began to wonder what this section of beach looked like from the opposite direction. Either way you look at it, this particular section of the Oregon Coast is simply awe inspiring if you show up on a day with a high tide and a high surf warning. From what I have seen, the coastal rocks in this area must form some sort of ramp and as large waves approach and crash, they are launched dozens of feet into the air....possibly over 100 feet at times. It's like the fourth of July with 20,000 cubic feet of water.
Granted this isn't the cleanest photo I've ever taken as the air was full of mist and it was still raining off and on while I was shooting, but it's one of the larger explosions that I witnessed over the two days I shot there. If you look closely, you might be able to see the ant sized people standing just to the left of this massive wave.
Later that week I made the trip up to Cape Disappointment before turning around and heading home. I was hoping for similar conditions on my February trip, but unfortunately, the sun came out for several days which must have been awesome for the folks who live up there....but not as much for wave junkies like me.
--------------
Thank you so much for your views and comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:
Instagram |
Blog |
Website |
Facebook |
500px |
Twitter 