Oregon - The first road trip of the year.

I knew when planning this Landscape Photography trip that the weather could be a bit dodgy . Woke at 5am to snow & an accumulation of 3 inches on the ground. Left the house 90 minutes later & thought of turning around 45 minutes later as the roads & visibility were atrocious. But once I crossed in to Oregon, the snow was gone & the roads were bare…until La Grande. The freeway was closed while crews plowed the Blue Mountains but two hours later with a full belly from breakfast the roads opened up & I was off once again.

Stuck in La Grande while waiting on Interstate 84 to open. Seeing the low clouds moving around the mountains I slapped on my 70-200mm and took a few hand held shots.

I arrived at Fort Stevens State Park Campground just in time for sunset & headed to the ocean to find the shipwreck of the Peter Iredale which ran ashore in 1906. Check the link to read a little more about the Peter Iredale and the many other shipwrecks in this area of the Pacific.

Up early the next morning for the scenic drive in to Washington to shoot waves at Cape Disappointment. I have seen a lot of fantastic images from this vantage point & shooting this location was the main purpose of the trip. I arrived a few hours before high tide to ensure a good spot not really knowing how many other photographers would be there. Upon arrival there were 6 other photographers & by the time I left, 4 hours later, there must have been 30, maybe more. If you’re in the area definitely check this out & the rest of the state park.

After capturing the waves I headed a few miles north to shoot another location but wasn’t able to get there due to high tide. Driving on the beach I spotted a few bald eagles standing in the water with the seagulls looking for food. I’d never seen a bald eagle in salt water but later learned that they are also known as “sea eagles”, so there you go. Learn something new every day.

Morning number two & I decided to check out the coastline along Fort Stevens. I wanted to get the shipwreck in a high tide long exposure image but the tide was too high submerging most of the shipwreck. I took this shot playing around with long exposures atop a bluff looking north towards the jetty.

This is a 2 second exposure creating motion in the waves but allowing the texture in the water to remain.

And then there is this image, which I’m quite sure is my favorite of the trip. Walking up the jetty I stopped to chat with a photographer who was shooting scenes with a couple of Leica’s. Turns out Fawn is an incredible fine art photographer living in Astoria, Oregon. I snapped this as we were chatting about our craft & immediately knew after taking it, that it was the image of the day.

Check out Fawn’s work here and give her a follow.

With snow and ice in the forecast I left a day early hoping to beat the storm home. It was a good plan that didn’t work out. The normal 90 minute drive to Portland took 6.5 hours! Thankfully my brother and sister-in-law live in Portland, so it was a good place stop for the night.

No point hurrying home so stopped when something caught my eye like the submerged trees above and this oak (I think) in a flooded field.

Driving home Sunday morning I knew I’d have to stop at the famous Multnomah Falls knowing that the snow & ice would make an awesome image. I haven’t finished processing the final image yet, but I think it’ll make a worthy print.

The final stop was this waterfall that I photographed in November of last year. The snow and ice made this area very treacherous not knowing where the water was, so after falling once, I called it and hiked back to the car for the long drive home.

Hope you enjoyed the images in this post. It felt good to get out and grab some amazing images to start the year. I will blog most of my trips moving forward so sign up for the newsletter to get notified when I publish a new one. Hoping that 2024 is off to a great start for you all. D