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So… hopefully you’ve had a chance to look at the first part of this blog series about my photography expedition to Olympic National Park. If not, please visit the link so you can catch up on the story.

So given that I had gotten some pretty good shots of the sunset and night of the day before and the sunrise of the morning, I decided to head to the Hoh rainforest. Normally, I would reserve shooting at scenic locations for sunrise and sunset, when the sky acts like a huge softbox and doesn’t create hard to manage, dynamically lit scenes. However, the Hoh is a pretty dense forest that blocks out much of the harsh rays. Plus, the weather had called for some rain mists which would really help to control light and create a feeling of depth.

Getting to the Hoh is rather easy, but is time consuming. I wanted to get to the rainforest, shoot for an hour or so, then make the journey back to catch the sunset at Shi Shi (a sunset in the Hoh would not be nearly as photogenic given how little you can see the sky from there). Given that I had so many nights at Olympic National Park, I wanted to give the weather enough opportunities to create something special on the coasts — which were were I planned to take most of the photos on this trip.

So, I left my camping gear back at Shi Shi, and trekked back through the mud for about an hour and a half, our to the place I parked. Then, I was off on the 2 hour drive down to the rainforest.

The other photographer warned me of the difficulty of shooting the Hoh, but I had to experience it for myself to see what he was talking about. The forest has no order to it, which is beautiful in its own regard. However, it also makes composing a shot especially difficult. As a photographer, you look for patterns, leading lines, angles, and contrasts. But when everything seems to be growing from everywhere, it really throws you a loop!

The mist I hoped for never arrived, but the light was soft enough for some shooting. After a little time, I did find some interesting angles and frames that make an image. Here is the first, which shows a ray of sun bursting through a clearing in the forest, and leading to the ferns on the floor:

I continued walking around and exploring the rainforest. It was really quite a peaceful and cathartic experience; maybe some of that has to do with the fresh and fragrant air that the rainforest provides. When I inspected the moss, which is omnipresent in the rainforest, I saw a single drop of water that stayed suspended in on the moss tip. Because of the absorbent texture of the moss, the drop was held completely still, save for its bottom spinning in a circle from gravity:

As I walked further, I saw a small path in the ground. The path led through a line of mossy trees and gave a bit of organization to a section of the forest:

Then, I started inspecting the grounds where moss and other shrubs were slowly building over trees. This next one was interesting to me as is contrasted a shrub (with a point on its leaves that resembles a worm) common to the rainforest with a piece of fallen wood:

 

After I took that shot, it was already time to head back to Shi Shi for the sunset. So, I made the long drive back, hiked through the mud and marshes for another couple hours and ran back to Shi Shi to see what colors were in store for me.

It turned out to be another bluish/gray type of evening. While I didn’t have explosions of vibrant light like the morning, I was captivated by the somber hues.

This first shot shows more interesting shapes from the Shi Shi coast (including another angle of the hole through the sea stack I shot here), and offers a glimpse of Point of the Arches way in the distance. I used a long exposure to mist the waters against the other rocks:

 

I took that shot from the left side of the “King” sea stack that dominates the Shi Shi scene. I then I decided to scale all of rocks from the side I was on and get on the other side of the beach. This wasn’t easy, but was pretty exciting. Over the course of days when I was shooting this beach, I had been scaling rocks, walking over beds of mussels (for traction), jumping over large and small tide pools, dodging (or getting smacked by) waves — all to position myself for a good composition. When I scaled the left side of the beach to the right side of it, it included doing all of those things I described, but to a larger scale. I had to literally scale up a mountain to get over a wide swath of seawater, then jump down to a mussel covered rock to get into the right position. I felt pretty comfortable shooting from where I was, except that I had to remember that the tide was slowly rising and soon I may not have a path back to shore.

All that adventure was for this next shot. It shows the King from different angles than I have shown so far — and he again looks very different (and especially foreboding). I used a relatively slow shutter speed of a half second to show the water crashing up against and swirling around the rocks. In the distance, I placed the setting super full moon in a “V” shape of the rocks near the King. The size of the moon should give you an idea of how grand the King looked from this angle:

After that shot, I decided to call it a night and rise in the morning for one last try at Shi Shi. Cloud cover came over the park at night so photography was less of an option.

The next morning, I shifted compositions to try to catch something new. I’ve mentioned a few times about the low tide providing access to the shore at Shi Shi beach and its sea stacks. But low tides also give a glimpse into tide pools and the array of life in them. This next shot shows a view into the busy worlds beneath and above the water. I particularly like how the green sea anemones form a inverse column from the King sea stack. I used the pinks and greens of the kelp and sea bush to frame the anemones, and the cloud passing in the distance to frame the sea stack. This is another one of my favorites from the trip:

Here’s a close up of a sea anemone, with shadows cast on it from the sun through sea grass.

 

My last shot at Shi Shi Beach was taken when I shifted my attention away from the compelling sea stacks and towards the land and forest. In a previous shot far away from the north end of the beach, I noticed a dramatic cliff far in the distance. Up close, this cliff is much more fantastic, with its trees starkly contrasted with the  mountains in the distance. The cloud passing by add a bit of balance and framing of the image:

 

After I was done shooting… I bid Shi Shi goodbye and hiked back through the trail back to my car. My next destination was Second Beach, another venue on the coast with differing sea stacks and tide pools. That area was near the town of Forks, famous for its Twilight series of vampire movies. In case you ever forgot that, just visit Forks and you’ll be reminded .

On the way there, I passed over several bridges and small rivers. This next scene was particularly interesting to me, as a rainforest tree seemed to dip into the emerald-colored mountain water:

 

It took me a while to get out of Shi Shi and over to Forks. I had hoped to catch the sunset at Second Beach, but time was running out. I decided to head straight to my motel. Then, right as I was checking in, I looked outside and saw an incredible magenta and orange sunset! You can imagine how mad I was that I was not on the beach for this:

 

I grit my teeth and decided that it was OK… I had many more chances to get conditions like that sunset and was going to start early in the morning.

When I got into my motel room, I finally stopped to look at myself. After 3 days and 2 nights of trekking in the mud, running on the beach, ducking past the waves, and scaling up mountains, I was DIRTY and WORN. The best part was my shoes and gaiters, which were caked in mud:

 

The next morning, I headed straight for Second Beach. The hike to the beach was about 10 minutes, but that seemed like a cakewalk after my days at Shi Shi. The real challenge to getting to the beach is the heap of logs that you have to scale to get to the sand. These are trees, that over the course of time, died, fell into the water, and were washed ashore by the powerful ocean. It’s quite amazing to think about.

Once I got onto the sand, I immediately realized why photographers love that beach. During low tide, the sand usually under the water is transformed into a large, flat field. Water frequently scales far inland from the waves and slowly sweeps back into the sea. When after the water sweeps back into the ocean, the wetness creates a sheen cover on the sand that reflects the sky. These phenomena provide great opportunities for dramatic shots.

In this first shot, I captured the sweep of the water back into the sea. Pockets of foam created a “grate” shape that I find intriguing:

 

This next one is a view of another sea stack, with the water receding back into the ocean. However, the water moved more calmly and produced less foam, allowing it to reflect the sea stack on the sand. The the curve of the water on the beach and from the wave in the distance give the image a bit more intrigue:

After I got some images of the vista, I walked closer to the water and noticed a single rock getting slammed every few moments by the waves. During smaller waves, water simply rushed around the rock. As I got closer to the rock, I noticed a family of star fish gathered closely. I set my tripod up to shoot a long exposure of this scene, but kept getting blurred images. That was not only because the waves were crashing against the tripod, but that the sand that it stood on was sinking from my weight. Though it took quite a while and several instances of me running from the water with a camera & tripod in a vice grip, but I finally got this image of the water misting up to the family of starfish:

 

A bit more exploring up on the shore led me to more starfish families and my last image on this second of three blog posts on Olympic National Park. I was really intrigued by the intricate texture and pattern of the starfish. I was so fascinated that I kind of petted one — which felt like bumpy leather . I took this shot to bring attention to the pattern and texture of the starfish, and their variance in color. This is a macro of four starfish grouped together; if you look closely you can see grains of sand in the ridges of the starfish that are laced with water (which is blue, reflecting the color of the sky):

 

I hope you enjoyed part 2 on this series on Olympic National Park. Remember, if you haven’t read the first entry, please check it out here. I’ll be wrapping up this series with the third and final post within the next few days.

Thanks for looking!

This past March, I went on a photography expedition at Olympic National Park, which is on the Northwest coast of the United States, about 140 miles (or about 3 and a half hours) from Seattle, Washington and surrounding the Twilight movie town of Forks.  I spent four nights camping and touring the park, and photographed scenes on the rugged coastlines of Shi Shi and Second beaches and Point of the Arches. I also captured some shots of the Hoh rainforests and of alpine forests. I used various photography techniques including timed exposures and bracketing and used modifiers such as lens filters and extenders to record these images. Over this and two more blog posts, I’ll guide you through my time at the park, and some of the moments I photographed.

Please visit the NPS website for a more detailed map.

I flew into Seattle on a Thursday night, and first thing in the morning, I was off to Port Angeles to meet a photographer who accompanied me for portions of the trip. We continued on to Neah Bay to get to Shi Shi Beach, a beautiful coastline set with towering sea stacks and, at that particular time of the month, very low tides. I spent most of my time on the trip at this beach, waiting for the right conditions to get best possible shot.

Getting to Shi Shi Beach is no easy feat. The beach itself is on the Makah Native American reservation, which requires a permit to enter, and the nearest place to park is about 3 miles hike from the beach itself (and actually in someone’s back yard). The trail to the beach starts with wooden bridges for about a mile that wind above a greenish swamp, then a flat two miles on towards the beach. The path is in the middle of the Olympic’s temperate rainforest (one of only four in the world; the others being in southern Chile, western British Columbia and New Zealand), which means that once off of the wooden planks, the way is incredibly wet and muddy. I brought gaiters and waterproof hiking books to guard myself from the mud I knew I would step through, but nothing would prepare me for what actually happened.

Every few hundred yards of the muddy path, the trail would transform into a flooded marsh. Every now and again, I’d see someone trying to tip toe from rock to wood to try to avoid the inevitable: sloshing knee deep in mud. While at first this was uncomfortable, I quickly warmed up to the adventure and pushed ahead.

In retrospect, I wish I had taken some shots of my experience with the path on my ways in and out of Shi Shi — not only to include the mud marshes but the skunk cabbage, which were a pleasing yellow contrast, in dark brown pools surrounded by green foliage. However, I was always in such a hurry to catch the light on the beach that my camera was firmly holstered in my pack. So that leaves you 800 words in with 0 shots .

I finally reached the beach near the evening. I set down my stuff in the woods near the beginning of the trailhead and head straight to the coast.

As I neared the section of the beach where the sea stacks were, I finally started snapping some shots of the impressive landscape. Here’s the first, which shows a reflection of the steep hill that separates the area of the beach where I camped with the more interesting northern area of Shi Shi:

As I climbed atop that hill to and faced the north end of the beach, I got a slightly closer view of the sea stacks in the distance, contrasted with the grassy perch and its coupled set of trees:

As I mentioned, I timed my trip so that it coincided with very low tides. Why did I do this? Well, much of the Western Olympic Coast is only accessible during low tide. During other times, the water rises high enough to almost completely rule out exploration. Also, low tides reveal pools along the coast that are filled with life: kelp, sea anemones, and starfish among others. Here’s my first shot of the life in the tide pools. This was taken near sunset (but against the sun, such that it blew out the detail in the shot). If you look closely you can see the evidence of the rainfall that would soon drown out the sunset and its color:

That’s probably the third time you’ve noticed the large sea stack that dominates Shi Shi Beach. This thing is an absolute gorgeous geologic structure. What’s especially unique about it (and beneficial from a photographic standpoint) is how different it looks from varying angles. You’d barely know you’re looking at the same structure if you saw it from one side or the other. Needless to say, this sea stack was the star subject for me in my time at Shi Shi… so much so that I named it the “King” of the beach (corny I know but YOU HAVE TO SEE IT!).

As the sun set and the rain set in, the beach lost a lot of its color. In fact, many times I found the western coast of Olympic National Park lacking in color and contrast, except for in lucky moments when the light complied. To catch that colorful and intriguing light was the reason I returned to Shi Shi so many times at sunrise and sunset.

Though the color faded, the subjects themselves remained spectacular and I was still able to get some pretty cool shots. In this next one, I silhouetted the sea stack in the foreground to bring emphasis to the group of sea stacks in the distance, at Point of the Arches. I used a long exposure (as I did for several of my coastal shots) to mist the water:

 

In this next one, I zeroed in on some of the low lying western facing rocks. To me, the scene is like a miniature mountain range in the sea. This bluish color is the one that dominated the scene as the clouds covered the sun:

 

After the light faded, I made my way back to camp. I also timed my trip around the time of the month when the moon was fullest. This made for some interesting night shot opportunities.

The first of these night shots was a zoom in of the family of sea stacks at Shi Shi Beach. The scene immediately struck me as eerily beautiful. It seems to me like an otherworldly cityscape made of wind, water, and rock — rising high above the fog and mist below. Note that this shot was taken around 9:30pm and its just the moon that is illuminating it so much. Note also the window through the sea stack on the right:

 

I then shot another from a slightly wider angle. Showing the trees on the ridge and the water on the beach, this shot brings a bit more earthly sense than the last. Note the layers that the mist creates in the rocks and cliffs on the right:

 

As I turned my attention back south, I noticed that the clouds that had dominated the scene since sunset were clearing towards the stars. While the mist of the coast blocked much of the starlight near the horizon, I was able to catch these stars that shone high above the Point of the Arches:

I then tried to get a closer look at Point of the Arches from Shi Shi Beach. This next shot reminded me again of an alien type of skyline or city — but with a bit more earthly elements given the trees that grew from the sea stacks in the distance. I really like how each segment of the line of sea stacks has its own character and adds to the depth of the shot:

 

By the time I finally made it back to camp, it was past 12am. That normally wouldn’t be a problem — but when you’re setting your sleep schedule to sunrise times, it does turn out to be quite late. Now as I mentioned, I had never really camped much before. One thing I can say after this trip is BUNDLE UP. Because all evening I had the ocean slapping up against me, the rain pouring over me, and the humidity of the rainforest sticking to my body, I never dried up at all my first night. Combine that dampness with 30 degree winter temperatures at night, and it equaled me shivering my butt off in my tent. It was quite an experience. Because I do this so infrequently, I had to get a shot of my campsite — with my large tent in the foreground and the other photographer’s in the back. I shot this in nearly complete darkness except for the faint hints of moonlight:

 

The next morning, I rose for the sunrise and headed straight back to the north end of Shi Shi Beach, hoping this time for a bit more color. And… my hopes were answered!

I had spent much of the last evening scouting my shooting location. I had a pretty specific shot in mind, until the sunrise colors finally made their way to the beach.

As I was watching the sea stacks, waiting for the sun to rise above the horizon and light the western rocks, beautiful pastel hues of pink and green swept in from behind. The most beautiful and colorful light fell slightly short of the King and surrounding sea stacks and I HAD to shift my camera to catch its beauty. Unfortunately, the area where this light shone only had some complementary geologic formations. In this shot, the pink from the sky mixed with the green colors within the water and blended rather smoothly:

 

After I got a few shots where the light was best, I shifted my attention back to the King and my initial composition. Elements of the colorful light shone one the scene and really gave it some character. In this next shot, note the green from the water in the left of the shot, and the pink in the clouds that was reflected on the right side of the water. A clearing in the clouds lent a little blue as well. I used a 1/8 second shutter speed to emphasize the violent motion of the waves crashing in:

 

Coasts give a great opportunity to shoot at long exposures — some of which I’ve already shown. Water (especially) and clouds can be “painted” with light to create surreal images. In this next shot (which is pretty much the same composition as the last), I used a 10-stop neutral density filter, to allow me to capture a very long exposure without overexposing it. The neutral density filter also did a great job of pulling the pink elements of the sunrise forward. This one is one of my favorite images from my trip:

 

Like I mentioned, low tides exposed shallow tide pools where life thrives. Stay tuned to the next part of this blog series for much more on that. Here, though is a different take on some of those scenes. In this shot, I made the King and the background sky black and white, while leaving the starfish in color. Just an experimentation that I think turned out relatively well:

The last shot in this multi-part blog series is another long exposure with a neutral density filter. After I took the above images, I scaled the exposed rocks on the beach, looking for a new venue to shoot from. When I saw water creeping from one tide pool to the next, slowly bubbling and swirling, I knew exactly what I wanted to shoot. What I got, besides an angle where the King looked different — ended up looking like a satellite view of a hurricane:

 

So, that’s what I’ve got for round 1 of the blog posts from my trip to Olympic National Park. Stay tuned for the next in the series!!