Secret Beach, Sisters Rock, and now I was heading up to Bandon, a place I had visited twice before but where good weather always eluded me. On my first visit, I got clear blue skies and high winds, and on the second trip, I ended up being chased off the beach by driving rain and a rapidly rising tide. I really really hoped that the third visit would in fact be a bit more charming.
On my drive up, I stopped at Arizona Beach, where I found a pristine, incredibly still tide pool that acted as a giant mirror. Everything looks so calm, so unhurried. Like so many mirrors, it ended up being nothing more than an illusion as I got caught out by the incoming tide within the first 20 minutes of the day. Wet shoes once again!
In fact, it was right after taking this picture that a rogue waves came over the embankment and filled the tide pool with fresh new water. It also filled my shoes with fresh new water.
I had other socks and sneakers with me, but that put me at risk of also getting those wet and then I’d really be in a pickle, so I resolved to just live with squishy wet feet for the day. I rolled down the windows in the car and blasted the heat onto my shoes in hopes of drying them out slightly. I made a few stops along the coast on my drive north, met a Very Brave Seagull, saw what may or may not have been whales far off the coast, and quietly grumbled about my cold, wet feet.
Port Orford Heads State Park was the next place on my itinerary and it was a lovely walk in the woods. For some reason, it seemed to be quite popular with retirees, as every person I passed was having a nice mid-morning amble with their dog. Aside from a couple guys who looked like they were stoned out of their gourds, I was the only person under 65 in the whole park.
The same water from roughly the same vantage point, but as it got shallower, you could see its green hue.
After that, I tried to go to the Cape Blanco lighthouse, but the winds were so strong that even the gift shop had given up and was closed by the time I got there. I walked around a little but it was impossibly cold and exposed to the elements, and I still had a lot of daylight to use up before checking into my hotel in Bandon. I looked at what else I had earmarked in the area and decided to do a long but relatively flat hike in Floras Lake State Natural Area. Most of the hike was uneventful, but then it took a turn into some beautiful old growth forest, and I got to witness the magic of light filtering through the tall pine canopy once again.
No, I will in fact never tire of the way light streams through the forest.
Happy with the walk in Floras, I decided to just drive all the way up to Bandon, maybe change into socks that weren’t soaking wet and see if I could dry off my hiking shoes with a hairdryer in the bathtub like I’d already done twice before.
As I alluded to at the beginning, I have history with Bandon. On my first trip in 2020, my hotel was in Cannon Beach but I was swayed by pictures I’d seen from Bandon, so I drove FIVE HOURS IN EACH DIRECTION just to spend a couple hours there. It was clear blue skies and winds coming in from the ocean that swept sand into your face every 15 seconds. I didn’t get many good pictures, but I did fall in love with the place. On my second trip in 2022, my hotel was in Yachats, which isn’t nearly as bad but still not exactly close at 2 hours in each direction. It was raining pretty insistently when I got there, but I was equally determined and walked the length of the beach. I barely made it to the stairs that take you back up the cliff before the incoming tide got me, and I found myself having to leave right as the clouds were lifting. I probably missed out on a great sunset.
I hoped that this time would be different… but like, different in a good way.
It did not start out promising. Bandon kept coy for a long time before it decided to put on a show.
Does anyone else see a bunny rabbit, the kind you get around Easter made of chocolate? Only me? Cool cool.
This has such a strong wild west vibe about it.
Even though the light wasn’t anything spectacular, the beach was full of people walking around, some with their dogs, and quite a few photographers. There are always photographers in Bandon. Well, except perhaps that one time when it was raining something fierce while the tide was coming in. Pretty sure I didn’t see anyone else that day.
My feet were dry for the first time all day, so I was in a fantastic mood, and since the tide was receding, I didn’t have to worry nearly as much about getting them wet again.
This is where things started to get interesting. As I got to the magician’s hat, I noticed the silver mannequin. Then I noticed the disco ball, and the photographer set up behind both of them, clearly doing some kind of professional conceptual shoot. The problem for him, of course, was that he’s on a public beach, with every member of The Public not only walking through his shot, generally oblivious, but also stopping dead center to take a picture on their iPhone. He seemed resigned to his fate.
However, I was curious. I wanted to understand what he was doing, so I walked around back to see how it looked from his perspective. I managed to fire off that one single shot before he noticed me and got up from where he was crouched, and started milling around the scene. I understood in that moment that he was trying to prevent me from stealing his concept, while also acknowledging that he couldn’t just tell me to sod off because we were in a public place.
Sci-fi novel cover art featuring the magician’s hat.
Same rock, not five minutes earlier, from a different angle where it looks more like a Muppet.
I moved on, but I did take some amount of pleasure in walking across his field of view a few times on purpose.
Just as the two pictures above show, the light was wildly different depending on which way you faced on the beach, ranging from cool, almost icy blues, to the vibrant yellow of the slowly setting sun. In neither case have I made any significant changes to the temperature of the images.
It was at about this point that I started to have real hope for the sunset. It was just one cloud, but it was perfectly positioned to catch the light. I watched one photographer get so focused on the light that a rogue wave caught him all the way up to his knees, sea water pouring into his boots. His shoulders slumped as he realized there was no saving the situation. He leaned against a rock, took off each boot and spilled the remaining water back into the ocean. I felt for him. (Note: the pros wear sealed neoprene socks instead!)
As the light started to get good, I became a kid in a candy store, running around from one place to the next, seeing where the compositions might be interesting. The rocks, the reflections in the receding water, the placement of the single cloud.
Listen, if you’re laughing, I don’t think you understand just how stupidly excited landscape photographers get about clouds and light. We are always at the mercy of the weather, and it is incredibly fickle. The forecast said partly sunny and 60F? Here, have a sudden downpour and some winds that push the temps down to 35F instead. It’s the single biggest factor in landscape photography, and it’s often utterly unpredictable. We talk about it. A lot. We moan endlessly about clear blue skies. We scowl when a bunch of clouds hunker down around the horizon and kill the sunrise or sunset. Oh, but when the light is good…
I am not kidding when I say I was walking all over the beach hunting for compositions. I think I racked up 12k steps just that night.
As I was handling the light kicking off with exactly zero chill, back and forth, back and forth, I happened upon a group on horseback. OMFG are you kidding me?? I squee’d on the inside. On the one hand, I didn’t want to be rude… on the other, they were so perfectly positioned! I snapped a few pictures and moved on, but the timing and location were a dream. I did of course photoshop out some of the tracks because they were distracting, but I realized I had to leave some of them in the frame or it would look like the horses had just teleported onto the beach.
The whole night was amazing. A highlight of the entire trip, and redemption for me and Bandon.
Goodnight!