rlketcham.com
If you make a little time the sun will peak out from the edges every once and awhile. My friend Chris over at Patterns of Light and Dark and Paul at Paul Lester Photography have been making a few beach images so when I was in town today I couldn’t resist and join the fray. Cold and windy and that seems to be the order of the day for these type of images no matter where in the country you are. The tower in the distance is on the Navy Base on Indian Island which stores munitions, that in itself is pretty ironic given PT politics and general outlook. The pier is one of several city piers for visiting boats, empty now but full in the summer.
Not my usual type of image but I am trying to get out and shoot something everyday for awhile, just to see what happens when you go out for a walk with the camera and no idea of what you are after. That approach will probably change to going out with a vague idea of what I want to shoot, we’ll see how things progress. Slow and lazy time of year, short days and wet wet weather, counting the days til spring.
Holy smoke this is beautiful! I wish I had grabbed this! Stunning! For me the thing part that really makes it is the wave breaking. Wow!
This is a beautiful image. Looks like a painting. And speaking of poster….you may want to send this file off to MPIX and get it printed big.
Wonderful shot Ray. I love the perspective and the clouds. I didn’t realize you got that much driftwood washing up.
Jeff
Funny thing is I see this kinda thing all the time so don’t really notice it a lot. The images I have been seeing lately opened my eyes some. Sometimes we don’t see the familiar until someone shows it to us. It was a pretty windy rainy … wait for it…. shoot… kinda day.
@Jeff The beaches both inland and on the coast are covered with logs that have been washed up from years of log rafts being towed to the mills up and down the coast, that along with stuff coming down the major rivers that cover the area. There have even been several outfits that make a living towing logs off the beaches to the mills. It isn’t so much that way anymore as there isn’t the demand for logs and lot of the mills are closed, but we still got lots and lots of driftwood.
I rather like beaches with driftwood and rocks. I have been looking around here for such a beach, but have only found sand.
Mind you, most of the beaches around here, being tourist-heavy beaches, are cleaned up regularly. I’d love to find some old growth forest and rocks. However, having these types of beaches just adds a challenge to ‘see’ differently. I’m sure that if I were around that all the time, I’d seek other. It’s just the nature of the beast. The mind hates repetition and seems to categorically ignore it, even if there is something new to see.
Perhaps I’ll head up to Folly Beach near the lighthouse.
All of that babbling and I forgot to tell you how much I liked the shot! Damn!
This image speaks of “power”, natures power. Your use of lines keeps me inside the image, studying it. It’s really good! Going for walks is physically and mentally healthy and if we have our cameras look what we can find our view finders.
Interesting information about the driftwood. Another reason to be reading blogs.
Paul, Monte
For raw power the coast out around La Push at the mouth of the Sol Duc river is something. Logs the size of houses on the beach and all that water fighting to get into the ocean creates some pretty spectacular formations as well as driftwood stacks. Big trees, big driftwood and big waves, it can be pretty cool to see at times and a little dangerous.
Monte, the lines kinda drew me to make the image, the piers and that tower can be seen from anywhere in town so it can be a challenge to make it interesting.
All have been said, I think. A spectacular scene and very nicely captured too. You can really feel the elements in it. I also like the tone palette with the slight browns in it, this in combination with the light. You should get out more often.
[...] all the lovely images from Paul’s Charlotte, from Chris’ trip to California, and also Ray’s image from Port Townsend, wouldn’t it be nice to show how the beaches look around here? Here they are, but beware, do [...]