Photo Update From Portland

I’m teaching my Lightroom seminar in Seattle on Friday, so I decided to visit some friends in Portland and shoot for a couple of days. Well, last night, my buddy Brian Matiash and I drove to the Oregon Coast to a place near Cape Perpetua called Thor’s Well (a 3+ hour drive, each way). I’ve seen photos of it and I really wanted to get a chance to shoot it. It’s this rock formation that forms a well along the coast. At sunset, with the right light and with water flowing into it, it looks great!

Here’s a screen capture I took of photographer Gary Weathers photo of Thors Well that I liked. You can also click here to see Gary’s Flickr page where he’s got a lot of other great photos too. This is something along the lines of what I was hoping to see

Sadly, as much as you think you can plan, if Mother Nature isn’t in on it, then you’re outta luck. The tide was too low to to get the photo that we wanted. In fact, it was so low that we had a hard time even finding Thor’s Well because it just looked like a hole in the ground. Here’s my photo. It’s kinda missing something huh? Like… maybe… WATER!

So Brian and I did what any good photographer would do in this circumstance. We cried, cursed, made obscene gestures and left to go grab a beer. Just kidding. We made the best of the situation and just took some photos of the surrounding area and rocks which were actually really nice looking as well. The photo below was taken with a Nikon D800, Nikon 16-35mm lens and a 3-stop ND filter for a 20 second exposure (which is what smooths the water and gives the sky that streaky look).

(click to see it larger)

We actually had a great time. Even though it was a long drive, the time flew by and I’m still glad we went. The coast is beautiful. I’ve been along the Oregon coast several times, before but I never get tired of looking at it. Especially being from Florida. It’s about as different of a coastline as you can get from what I usually see.

I’ve got lots of other photos from the trip too. Including another visit to one of the locations behind, The Story Behind the Photo (Week 3), where I almost died (not really)

If you’re in the Seattle area, I hope to see you Friday. If not, I’ll be sure post some more photos from the trip over the next couple weeks. Have a good one!

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Matt Kloskowski

Education Director at NAPP / Kelby Training

Matt is a full time Education Director for the NAPP and Kelby Training. He's a best-selling author of various books on Photoshop and Photography co-hosts the live weekly photography talk show "The Grid" and is co-host of "Photoshop User TV". In his spare time he practices as a 1st degree black belt in Taekwondo and enjoys spending time with his family in Tampa, FL.

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