[/caption] With a view like this, who needs to ever leave Oregon if you want to visit one of the most beautiful places along the Pacific Ocean. Again, the Southern Oregon coast offers some of the most spectacular views on the edge of North America. The hiking trails are well kept and rarely over run with hikers. You can hike along the edge of the cliffs that separate you between the ocean and the Siskiyou National Forest. There are literally dozens of hidden beaches begging to be discovered as well as hundreds of rocks that shroud the rocky coastline waiting to be photographed. If you like to camp, you are really in luck since there are several campsites throughout the Southern Oregon coast. They are very well maintained and extremely quiet. You will also have access to some of the best scenery and beach access in the state. I took this photo looking north and away from the sun. This photo includes Cape Ferrelo and Whalehead in the far distance. The same trail will also take you to the secluded beach just below the cape. the Siskiyu National Forest borders the coastline and there are several creeks entering the ocean via the beach below. I witnessed several sea birds flying close to the rocks and could hear several sea lions just below from where I was standing. I was standing on a narrow cliff that juts out and stands over a hundred feet above the crashing surf below. I was using my Canon T1i and attached my Sigma 17-70mm lens and had the focal length at 25mm. I was using my tripod, bubble level and remote switch since the wind was howling and I was standing on an exposed ledge with no vegetation to block the wind. The camera was in normal/program mode and I set the ISO at 100 and the white balance at -0.7. The aperture was automatically set at F-5.6 and the shutter speed at 1/100 second since I had also attached my CIR-PL and warming filter in order to eliminate some of the sun glare. The sun was directly behind me and I took the photo at about 9:20am. If you plan to visit and take pictures I would recommend that you bring several batteries and memory cards. I took over 1500 photos in just three days and had to recharge my lithium batteries several time since the sunsets are fantastic and I took several long exposures.
Tag Archives: Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor
Cape Sebastian, OR
[/caption] Cape Sebastian is a great place to seek some awesome sunset views or watch windsurfers and kite boarders brave the cold water along the Pistol river. The Southern Oregon coastline offers some of the best beach access along with several primitive beaches, rocky cliffs, great hikes and views of some of the hundreds of rocks that lie just off the beaches. This area is bar far the most beautiful coastline in the state of Oregon and you are sure to be blown away by the natural beauty. There are several rivers that feed in to the ocean and you can drive just a few miles inland to escape the salt air and trade it in for some serious white water rafting or take a mail boat ride. Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor stretches from the Pistol river all the way to Brookings and there are several miles of hiking trails that are absolutely stunning. You can hike to several private beaches or hike above the Pacific Ocean and look down to the rocky coast below. Some of the vantage points are a dizzying 500 feet or more above the water. There is no other way to explain how beautiful this area is without just believing me and planning a serious road trip to the Southern Oregon Coast. Bandon, Port Orford, Gold Beach or Brookings are some great little Ocean towns that offer something for everyone as well as a great base camp. This is my second photography trip to the Southern Oregon coast and this time I made sure to spend several days here so I could really take advantage of the area between Gold Beach and Brookings. We hiked the majority of the Samuel H. Boardman trails and ended up in Brookings. However, you need to be prepared for some high winds since the winds can really howl in these parts. I guess that’s why they have some of the best windsurfing on the planet. In fact, I wasn’t able to take any sunset photos while standing right on the beach. The sand was blowing so hard that it almost ruined my filters and soaked my camera and camera lens with salt spray. I spent several minutes cleaning my camera and then hiked just above the beach to take this photo. I still ended up with a wet camera as well as needing to constantly clean my lens in order to take a photo. This was probably the most frustrating part of my trip. For the sunset on the next day I made sure to find a spot that was nearly 600 feet above the water in order to avoid another sunset disaster. I was using my Canon T1i along with my Sigma 17-70mm lens. I attached my warming, CIR-PL as well as my ND8 filter in order to cut down on some of the glare. I also made sure to use my tripod, bubble level and remote switch to avoid any blur or camera shake. The sun was scheduled to set at 8:58pm and this shot was taken at 8:50. I set the focal length at 17mm in order to get the most panoramic view of the beach. However, I had to crop the corners due to the ND8 filter causing more vignetting than I expected. I set the ISO to 100 and the white balance to +0.3 since the sun was extremely bright. I was experimenting with the shutter speed but on this photo I had the camera mode in Program/Normal mode and the aperture was at F-2.8 and the shutter speed at 1/3 second. Since the wind was so strong I found myself cleaning the lens after every shot and whenever I set the shutter priority to over 2 seconds the salt spray would coat the lens.