Cannon Beach, OR

Memorial Day weekend was spent traveling out to the northwest coast of Oregon. Our first stop of the trip was to Cannon Beach, which is located roughly 30 miles south of Astoria off of HWY 101. I'd seen photos of this beach before, and had an idea of what I wanted to shoot, but as it turned out, the weather didn't want to cooperate one way or the other, and the time of our arrival probably wasn't the most appropriate for certain shots. The wind was low, the sun was in and out of clouds, and the haystack rock was much larger in person than I anticipated...photos don't do it justice at all. I definitely want to come back and shoot this beach either at sunrise or sunset to see what happens.
Photo 1 - 1/100 f/14 ISO 125 Sigma 10-20 @ 10mm, polarizer
Photo 2 - 1/2 f/14 ISO 125 Sigma 10-20 @ 13mm, polarizer and ND.9
Photo 3 - 1/100 f/10 ISO 125 Sigma 10-20 @ 10mm, polarizer

Westport, WA

In a trip that lasted slightly more than 24 hours, we drove out early Saturday morning to the town of Westport, WA, for some coastal camping. The drive is really quick, just over 2 hours, and the campsite that was chose was awesome. It's a few minute walk from the ocean huddled in this forest of tall grass and dense trees. The town itself looks like it is going through a makeover, so there was very little people activity, but the fishing boats were plentiful and pretty neat. I shot most of my photos at or near the beach this trip, as we were only in town for a short while. Again, the sun was in the best position to throw my shadow onto a lot of things, so some careful maneuvering was needed. When I go back I would like to see what happens at sunset, as by that time we were already back at our camp next to the fire. I used a polarizer for all shots, and some with an ND .6 and .9, at ISO 125. All shots were taken with the Sigma 10-20 as well! There's also a pretty awesome sausage shop just outside of town...very tasty stuff!

Discovery Park

This weather was awesome this last weekend, and in order to take advantage of this, a few of us decided to go to Discovery Park for an afternoon. We arrived shortly after 11, the sun was shining brightly, and as it turned out the tide was out leaving large(er) expanses of exposed beach and rockscapes. If one had planned to photograph this beach in a more 'planned' manner than I had, one would have known that the early afternoon is not the time to photograph, as the sun was in the perfect position to cast shadow directly on to any photo taken towards the water. So upon realizing this, i made the best out of what I could do, and had some fun searching for starfish and other assorted sea creatures that were hidden in the rocks!
Info: Image 1- 1/60 f10 ISO 100 @ 20mm (image 1) and 10mm (image 2)
Image - 1/80 f8 ISO 100 @ 20mm - polarizing filter used on all

Seattle Sculpture Park

On Saturday afternoon I headed down to the Seattle Sculpture Park for some practice with my new Sigma 10-20 and a couple of neutral density filters and grads. I headed down to the 'stick beach' for some long exposures and was pleased with the overall scene of somewhat choppy waters, bold clouds and mostly good visibility. The angle of the sun wasn't the best for the shots, as it reflected off of the neutral grad filters and caused some glare, and I quickly found out that the Cokin P filter system isn't the best for the super wide Simga.

At 10mm you can clearly see both the filter edges as well as the light leaks from the filter system itself. This went away at around 13mm, but it was still frustrating not being able to use the lens's full angle of vision. I am currently researching ways to avoid any of this. I took my last shot around 3:45 and furiously began to pack my equipment after I watched the latest rain storm make it's way across Elliot Bay. It started to rain at about 3:48 and by the time I was back at my car I was quite wet. Overall a good day of practice. Any comments about the filter systems are welcome!