Changing Sands

[AlanLichty]

Staying in one place for almost a week along the southern Oregon coast is not something I have done before as I have always hopscotched my way up and down the coastline on a night by night basis. I have never really watched what happens with the various local streams that dump directly into the ocean across the beaches. In this case I have gone down repeatedly to observe/shoot in roughly the same area all this week (except for Wednesday with gray skies) and the fun part is that the primary stream where I have been shooting changes its path entirely after every high tide. High tide flattens out any traces of the previous low tide stream path so a new path is carved out as the water recedes for the next low tide. I have watched the path vary by as much as 50 yards in either direction from the night before.

Last night's sunset was rather subdued compared to Mon/Tues nights but still offed up some nice visual treats. This was one of the few occasions where a hard stop ND grad filter came out so I could get details in the beach textures. I was a little disappointed with the darker lower clouds in the front. I was thinking that at some point they would take on some color but they stayed a dark gray from the start of the sunset until dark.

Subdued Brookings Sunset

• AlanLichty
• Feb 2, 2018

An almost clear night along the southern Oregon coastline.

C&C always welcome.

 

[Ben Egbert]

This is a fantastic project you have going Alan. I like this one a lot, but yesterdays was the topper.

 

[lionking]

Love those lines and details in the FG it almost looks like an aeral shot.
Good work Alan.

 

[Joe Colozzo]

noithing to be disapointed with, I like the dark clouds. They add depth and texture. Very nice capture

 

[Jim Dockery]

I'm with Joe, the clouds are nice all round. Fun project that is leading to some great shots. What would really be cool would be having a camera on a tripod set-up and left in place for a few days to do a time-lapse of the stream flow. Pretty much impossible on a public beach like this unless you could camp right next to it, but a cool idea.

 

[Mike Mancil]

The stream pattern and sand textures and lines take center stage and makes the sunset secondary; so the clouds aren't a big factor. Super shot.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

Beautiful, Alan. I love the leading lines created by the water flowing back into the ocean.

 

[BarryHamilton]

Really lovely palette of color, and the comp leads you right into the scene. Love those reflective sands!

 

[Martín el Escocés]

Hey Alan. I am really enjoying this series from my favourite area of coastline (Bandon on South). The shifting streams certainly give you a variety of foregrounds and, of course, the sky and colour are different each day. Shifting beach streams seem to be a feature of this coast - all up the way to Washington, where Ruby gets altered every winter.

 

[AlanLichty]

This is a fantastic project you have going Alan. I like this one a lot, but yesterdays was the topper.

Love those lines and details in the FG it almost looks like an aeral shot.
Good work Alan.

noithing to be disapointed with, I like the dark clouds. They add depth and texture. Very nice capture

I'm with Joe, the clouds are nice all round. Fun project that is leading to some great shots. What would really be cool would be having a camera on a tripod set-up and left in place for a few days to do a time-lapse of the stream flow. Pretty much impossible on a public beach like this unless you could camp right next to it, but a cool idea.

The stream pattern and sand textures and lines take center stage and makes the sunset secondary; so the clouds aren't a big factor. Super shot.

Beautiful, Alan. I love the leading lines created by the water flowing back into the ocean.

Really lovely palette of color, and the comp leads you right into the scene. Love those reflective sands!

Hey Alan. I am really enjoying this series from my favourite area of coastline (Bandon on South). The shifting streams certainly give you a variety of foregrounds and, of course, the sky and colour are different each day. Shifting beach streams seem to be a feature of this coast - all up the way to Washington, where Ruby gets altered every winter.

Thanks for the comments - this has been a very fun project over the past week that I have been down here watching the daily changes. The beach I have been going down to was a 10 minute hike from my campsite so it was easy to watch the tide cycles and the results several times per day. With the high tides that accompany the super moon the entire beach is under water right up to the vegetation at the base of the cliffs so the paths seeps and creeks that drain across the sands take are entirely new for each low tide. I was down here for the last super moon cycle and saw what the beach looked like at the lowest tides and that was my real target for this trip. I didn't expect to stay in one spot all week but the conditions made it worth sticking around for.

It would be fun to watch a time lapse of something like this beach although there is no place on the beach itself you could plant a camera without it getting washed out to sea. The creek I have been shooting kind of comes out of the dense vegetation that lines the 130' escarpment along this part of the coastline and high tides waves can crash right into the edges of the vegetation.

I have a ton of shots from this week including a night (Friday) that I haven't even started processing yet but all good things must come to an end and I am packing up for the 6+ hour drive home today.

 

[AMaji]

Great project... wish you many great pictures like this one.