Beautiful photo of downtown Portland, Oregon in early Fall. Portland, Oregon offers some of the best fall colors, weather and temperatures on the planet and if you don’t believe me, check the local weather and you will see that the first week of October offers clear and sunny skies with temperatures reaching the high 70’s to low 80’s. You can almost guarantee some of the best fall weather anywhere in the Pacific Northwest. The awesome fall colors are just an added bonus but also offers visitors some of the most spectacular colors on the planet. I’m beginning to believe that the term “Indian Summer” was started in the Pacific Northwest since we experience that exact type of season perfectly. We experience early frost in the morning with cool temperatures that can dip down into the high 30’s to low 40’s. The morning’s can sometimes be a little foggy but by afternoon, the temperatures reach well into the 70’s with nothing but blue skies overhead. Almost anywhere in the Pacific Northwest offers the same Indian Summer season during September and October. Again, the fall foliage is an added bonus and it can hold it’s own to almost anywhere on the planet. It’s also nice to know that you can have a massive waterfall, river or snow capped mountain as your backdrop. One of the great things about visiting Portland, Oregon during this season, is that the tourists are gone and the days are perfect. There are still several festivals celebrating the fall season and you can get a much cheaper hotel as well as avoid the massive crowds at the best drinking holes and eating establishments. The Willamette Valley also boasts some of the world’s best wineries and wines. You are only a few miles from many of the best wineries, near downtown Portland, and I would recommend that you take advantage of them since the harvest season is at the same time.
Tag Archives: Indian summer
Waves crashing against the Oregon Coast
[/caption] Unbelievable! I mean simply unbelievable! That’s the only way that I can begin to describe how awesome the swells were at the Oregon coast on 9/28/10. Not to mention that it was 78 degrees and balmy as well as one of the best sunsets I’ve witnessed this year. The Oregon coast offered everything that a landscape photographer could ever ask for on this day. Who said that summer is over? It may be in other parts of the United Sates but not in Oregon. While making the drive from Portland to the coast, I was welcomed by a low cloud system that surely threatened to ruin my beach trip. I thought for sure that it would be either foggy or completely overcast on the Coast. However, I was glad to see that the clouds stopped just 1/16th of a mile from the coast but there were some wicked clouds that lingered just over the water that made for some really dramatic shots. I couldn’t have asked for a better afternoon. I took this shot from cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It doesn’t have a name but if you’re a longtime Oregonian you may have been here before. There is no marked trail and if you come here during the summer months, you won’t be able to find the trail. Most people either just make their way to this spot by following other hikers. the trail ends at a 100 foot cliff that offers incredible views on either side. One slip and you would surely become chum. However, if the fall doesn’t kill you first, you would be thrashed by the huge swells crashing against the rocks and then eventually forced under one of the many caves lining the cliff’s. It’s best to just stay near the middle of the rock platform and set up your tripod or just sit on the only rock available. On a sunny day you can take in the suns rays and ponder out towards the horizon. To get this shot I set up my tripod and used my bubble level and remote switch. Because the sea water was getting my lens wet with salt water, I had to constantly wipe the lens and camera. I was using my 18-55mm Canon lens and had the focal length at 24mm. Because the sun was so intense I made sure to attach my UV, warming and CIR-PL filter. Don’t even bother to attempt this type of shot without a CIR-PL. I had the camera in Program mode and shutter speed was taken at 1/166 of a second. The F stop was at F-8 and the ISO was at 100. I also had the white balance at -0.3 due to the intensity of the sun as well as the glare from the water below. Since I was taking these photos around 4:00 pm, the sun was somewhat low at the horizon and I was forced to manipulate my settings as much as possible before getting the right exposure. This was especially tricky since I was also trying to get the crashing of the waves against the rocks from both sides of the cliff.