Penelope and I spent a few days at Bandon on the southern Oregon Coast this week. Bandon Beach has been one of our favorite places in Oregon since we moved to the Pacific Northwest over 30 years ago. It also just happens to be one of the best places on the entire west coast of North America (in my opinion) for photography.
Just beyond the iconic sea stacks of Face Rock and Howling Dog, this group of smaller sea stacks is known as the Cat and Kittens. All are part of the Native American legend of Princess Ewauna.
We knew from checking weather forecasts that we were mostly going to see stormy skies, lots of rain, and high winds. But we also knew from past visits that those conditions could create wonderful views of the sea stacks that make Bandon a mecca for nature and landscape photographers. And for couples looking for some quality time on beach walks and enjoying a glass of wine together in the comforts of a hotel room with views like this.
As we’ve often experienced on trips to the Oregon Coast, we saw weather that went from stormy and blustery winds to calm with sunny and blue skies (at least briefly) during our three-day stay.
Most photographers hope for glorious sunsets at Bandon, and those do happen, but I also love these stormy, gloomy days.
For this photo, I dialed in settings on my Nikon Z8 for 30 seconds and f/16 at ISO 32 (Low 1 on the Nikon Z8) and used a 6-stop neutral density filter on my 24-120mm lens to smooth out the choppy seas. As with 99% of my landscape and nature photos, I had the camera on a tripod to ensure sharpness. I left the White Balance at my normal Natural Light Auto, knowing that the scene was basically monochromatic.
Processing the photo in Lightroom Classic, I used the Tone Curve to adjust the white and black points to add a little contrast to the RAW (NEF) capture. I purposefully did not make the adjustments all the way to white or black points as I might have with other nature and landscape images, because there was nothing in the original scene that was truly white or black. All the colors and tones in this scene were very much muted, resulting in a histogram with all tones bunched at the middle of the graph, and none reaching the edges. Had I adjusted the black and white sliders or the Tone Curve for true blacks and whites, the image would not reflect what I saw or wanted to express with this image.
Photos like this are not likely to get as many Likes and Wows on social media as do glorious sunsets, but stormy weather and gray skies are definitely part of the story of the Oregon coast, and I was happy to work with these conditions for a couple of days and come away with an image that pleases me personally.
For more about Bandon and nearby locations to photograph, check this previous blog post: https://www.wandersandwonders.com/2011/12/08/bandon-beach-oregon-coast/
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