Oregon coast photographic exploration

[tim rudman]

I plan to explore the Oregon coast in September. I have just 2 weeks at my disposal for this and I have a penchant for trees, as some of you may know, but enjoy photographing many things, especially coastal.
I plan to start at the top (geographically!) and work down.
Any recommendations would be very welcome.
Many thanks
Tim

 

[blaze-on]

Tim, there's a lot of info on Oregon locations on the LF forum.
Just try a search there

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/

I'm there end of May for a week...one of my favorite spots.

 

[tim rudman]

Tim, there's a lot of info on Oregon locations on the LF forum.
Just try a search there

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/

I'm there end of May for a week...one of my favorite spots.

Wow, that was quick. Thanks Blaze-on.

 

[David Henderson]

I've photgraphed on this coast three times and I imagine that I'll do so again .

Here's some thoughts

First buy the "Oregon Coastal Access Guide" by Kenn Oberrecht which is supremely useful

If you want gritty port towns with residual character then try Astoria and Newport, with Eureka in N California another strong candidate. Astoria and Eureka have good collections of Victorians too.

For me the most interesting areas of coast are:-

The Samuel H Boardman Scenic Corridor just north of Brookings and south of Gold Beach. In particular I've photographed productively on Harris beach, Whalehead Beach, and especially in the Pistol River area where Myers Creek flows into the ocean through the beach near some stacks. At any time you'll find some of these beaches with lots of seaweed, and others inexplicably pristine.

At Bandon the waterfront is a bit ersatz (its reconstructed) but the beach and stacks make for fabulous photography, and on the other side of the Coquille River there's an attractive disused small lighthouse you can get to.

I've always liked to photograph at Yachats, and make a point of staying there whenever I'm on this coast. There's good rocks on the north edge of town and the main bay itself is very atmospheric when the fog comes in- which it seems to do often. Unlike some others I don't really get Cape Perpetua, but there are lovely beaches to photograph at Seal Rock; Ona Beach and Lost Creek between Yachats and Newport

I like the coast around Pacific City and Cape Kiwanda between Lincoln and Tillamook.

Cannon Beach is busy and a bit of a shopping centre really, but the view south from Ecola State Park at either end of the day is justly regarded. Haystack Rock, on the beach at Cannon Beach itself is another obvious candidate though you won't be alone.

All my trips have been in September or summer and I'm afraid I have never had any luck with the redwoods at all. The best groves I've found have been just over the border in California, in particular the Stout Grove part of the Jedediah Smith facility not far from Crescent City. Sadly, for me finding good tres and finding good photographs have not so far coincided and I've simply had far too much sun.

Best of luck

 

[Katharine Thayer]

Hi Tim,
I've spent the first 18 and the last 16 years of my life on the Oregon Coast.

I don't know how long it's been since David's been to Astoria, but in the last five years it has gone upscale and yuppified; I'd no longer call it an interesting and authentic port city, much less gritty-- one factor in my decision to leave Astoria and move inland next week. Five or ten years ago you could buy one of those Victorians for $100,000 or so; now they're more likely to command half a million to a million. New restaurants spring up every month, and more condos being built along the river (and even the new condos and townhouses--all pretending to look like Victorian-era dwellings-- are half a million dollars)-- well, you get the idea, and you can tell how I feel about it. Just another once-interesting and once-real place has been turned into a theme park for the moneyed to pretend they're living in an authentic fishing port, but without all those disagreeable fish smells and working class people that used to inhabit the place. Most of the new buildings sport a faux-cannery look, to keep the sense of "authenticity", but there's nothing authentic about a brand new multimillion-dollar hotel or brewpub tricked up to look like a 1900-era fish cannery.

September and October are the months of the year when you can pretty much count on warm sunny weather at the coast; to me it's the least interesting time to photograph. I like to photograph in storms, myself, and prefer the normal grey-green color of the ocean under an overcast sky. When it turns blue, it looks abnormal to me, and I put my camera away til it gets over that.

I know of some good trees, if you like trees, and since I have your book and like your work, I'll tell you privately where my favorites are if you're interested. But don't bother with the "tallest Sitka Spruce in the --US?--world?" off US 26; it's a very sick and damaged tree and should be put out of its misery.

The Tillamook Forest is an interesting place; it's a 50-mile square area that was burned in a series of huge forest fires in the 30s and 40s, and was replanted by a massive effort by all the schoolchildren in the state of Oregon in the 50s. Now those trees are approaching maturity and it looks like a forest again, though when I was a kid all you could see for miles was mud and dead snags and elk skeletons. They'll start logging there again soon, but for the moment, there are lots of trees there.
kt

 

[blaze-on]

Also, the area between the 5 FWY and the coast from no/central Oregon south is filled with wonderful meadows, farms, barns...and trees..

Katherine...I have Tim's books..Does that count for getting secret places??

 

[tim rudman]

Thank you Katherine and Blaze-on - lots to look into here.
The last 2 weeks of September is when it has to be (after my workshops at the Formulary). The colour of the sea doesn't worry me too much as I shoot mostly B&W, but I do some colour and my wife shoots all colour so I hope we can find subject matter for each of us.
I am hoping to explore the coastal trees in sea mists too if I am lucky.

What a wonderful recource this list is.
Tim

 

[tim rudman]

Oh Katherine, I forgot to say - yes I am most definitely interested in your trees! Thank you
Tim

 

[Robert Brummitt]

Hello Tim.
You must come to Portland while you're traveling the coastline. If you can spend a half a day or so? I can arrange for you to do a little lecture or book signing with the Portland Photographers Forum. I'm sure they would love to hear from you. Let me know if you can?
Thanks
R

 

[dwross]

Hello Tim:

You're in for a treat. My husband and I moved to the Coast three years ago and I keep discovering new and wonderful photography every other day. We're in Newport if you need a safe harbor while you're here.

I hope you have the time and inclination to visit with the Portland Photogs. You have a lot of fans in Oregon.

Best wishes for a great Oregon Coast vacation.
Denise Ross

 

[David Henderson]

"I don't know how long it's been since David's been to Astoria," Katharine Thayer

Well I was there in September 2005 and September 2004, and briefly in August 2001. Of course I didn't photograph the newbuild, or the yuppies, and the criteria for assessing the photographic potential of a place are a lot different from deciding whether I'd like to live there. Frankly as a photographer I don't expect to photograph everything in a place and my judgment of it is based on whether there are things I'd like to photograph, not on the appearance of things I won't. In Astoria you have a great iron bridge, some atmospheric old pilings, a fishing port, a good scrapyard or two where thick layers of carbon are burned onto old machinery, the shell of an original cannery that I was invited on to photograph; a bakery east of town that doesn't look like much has changed in fifty years. Thats enough for a couple of days of my life and I hope I can do it again. I have no doubt that its changed- such places always do, and often for the worse - but for a visiting photographer its whats there now thats important and IMO the answer to that is "enough".

 

[tim rudman]

Hello Tim.
You must come to Portland while you're traveling the coastline. If you can spend a half a day or so? I can arrange for you to do a little lecture or book signing with the Portland Photographers Forum. I'm sure they would love to hear from you. Let me know if you can?
Thanks
R

Thanks Robert, that's a very kind thought. However, I'm driving across from Montana and hope to be shooting around some areas en route that I want to revisit, so I don't know when I will hit the coast exactly and I don't really want to be pinned down to having to be anywhere on a particular date in case I find an area I want to spend extra time in.
Tim

 

[roteague]

Thanks Robert, that's a very kind thought. However, I'm driving across from Montana and hope to be shooting around some areas en route that I want to revisit, so I don't know when I will hit the coast exactly and I don't really want to be pinned down to having to be anywhere on a particular date in case I find an area I want to spend extra time in.
Tim

Forget Oregon Tim. Hope on an airplane and come on over to Hawaii. I'll show you spots you won't find anywhere else.

 

[Robert Brummitt]

Thanks Robert, that's a very kind thought. However, I'm driving across from Montana and hope to be shooting around some areas en route that I want to revisit, so I don't know when I will hit the coast exactly and I don't really want to be pinned down to having to be anywhere on a particular date in case I find an area I want to spend extra time in.
Tim

Well, keep it loose and give me a call if you should have the time. We'll love to see you and share what we have.

RB

 

[Katharine Thayer]

"I don't know how long it's been since David's been to Astoria," Katharine Thayer

Well I was there in September 2005 and September 2004, and briefly in August 2001. Of course I didn't photograph the newbuild, or the yuppies, and the criteria for assessing the photographic potential of a place are a lot different from deciding whether I'd like to live there. Frankly as a photographer I don't expect to photograph everything in a place and my judgment of it is based on whether there are things I'd like to photograph, not on the appearance of things I won't. In Astoria you have a great iron bridge, some atmospheric old pilings, a fishing port, a good scrapyard or two where thick layers of carbon are burned onto old machinery, the shell of an original cannery that I was invited on to photograph; a bakery east of town that doesn't look like much has changed in fifty years. Thats enough for a couple of days of my life and I hope I can do it again. I have no doubt that its changed- such places always do, and often for the worse - but for a visiting photographer its whats there now thats important and IMO the answer to that is "enough".

All true; I didn't mean to suggest that no good photographs can be found in Astoria, only to disagree with the description "gritty port city" as somewhat outdated. And yes, there are great scrapyards, in fact there's a great old boatyard off old 101 near Miles' Corner that has oodles of gorgeous old stuff just lying about. You have to ask at the office if you can go in and photograph, but they usually don't mind. The most interesting gear and shapes and angles and textures of things.

I still love Astoria; maybe that's why I'm so cranky about the direction it's going. Several years ago some of the fishermen and other characters of Astoria started an opposition movement named "We Ain't Quaint" and put bumper stickers on their cars to that effect, but you don't see those much any more, since they lost the battle. I loved the place best before they started fixing it up, when there were wonderful things everywhere to photograph. But you're right, to new eyes it's probably still a very interesting place. I didn't mean to rain on your parade or anything, really.

 

[John Simmons]

Hi Tim, on the Oregon coast west of Coos Bay, Shore Acres is often termed the “Point Lobos of Oregon.” It is an area of convoluted rock forms and tide pools. North and south along the coast are pristine sand dunes and volcanic "seastacks" forming the rugged coastline. Bandon would be a good place to go out of.

Regards,
John

 

[tim rudman]

Well, keep it loose and give me a call if you should have the time. We'll love to see you and share what we have.

RB

Thanks Robert. I hope I don't seem ungracious. I didn't mean to.
What exactly is the Portland Photographers Forum?
Tim

 

[tim rudman]

Hi Tim, on the Oregon coast west of Coos Bay, Shore Acres is often termed the “Point Lobos of Oregon.” It is an area of convoluted rock forms and tide pools. North and south along the coast are pristine sand dunes and volcanic "seastacks" forming the rugged coastline. Bandon would be a good place to go out of.

Regards,
John

Thanks John. Thanks everyone.
I'm just leaving for the airport and may not have much email access for the next 10 days. Will check in when I get back. I do appreciate all your suggestions. Thanks again
Tim

 

[Robert Brummitt]

Thanks Robert. I hope I don't seem ungracious. I didn't mean to.
What exactly is the Portland Photographers Forum?
Tim

Portland Photographers Forum is a non profit fine art organization that promotes fine art photography and photographers. We do this with monthly meetings, lectures, workshops and events such as our "Photographers Fanfaire".
We are a volunteer group. Our funding is by our membership dues and from our workshops. None of the extra monies goes into anyones pocket. After the instructors from our workshops are paid. Our bills are paid. we do things that promote photography in our community like our Cameras for Students program, introduction to photography to Campfire USA kids, We organized lectures with a local city art organization, PPF has helped build a art hanging system for a local community center and we gave a large money donation to the Portland Art Museum's photography program.
PPF was founded by photographers Stu Levy, Stewart Harvey,Chari Haiser, Harrison Branch and once PPF's news editor was Brooks Jensen.
Currently, we're working on Fanfaire two with an eye on lectures on photo journalism, women photographers, color photography, art and law and more. So stay tune.
I hope I didn't over do the answer, Tim? But I'm really proud of PPF and I really want to do what I can do for photography. So if you should wish to visit with us? Call me. I can also help you with Southern Oregon as well.
Thanks
RB