Second Beach

• Francis of Assisi.

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Another shot from the spectacular sunset we experienced at the second beach in the Olympic Peninsula. The main challenge of taking shots here is the incredible change in lighting that happens in a very short while during sunset.

This shot was taken just before sunset when the sun was creating an extremely high dynamic range scene. About 5 minutes after I took this shot, the sun went down and we had beautiful pastel low dynamic range scene that I posted before. This one required about two graduated filters to balance out the high tones with the low tones. I also tried to get a Sunstar through the natural arch in the rock but got a sun portal instead. Hope you all like this image.

• Anton Chekhov.

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One of the star locations of our summer road trip to Washington state was the accidental discovery of the Second Beach near La Push. Our original plan was to spend the sunset at Rialto Beach and we reached the beach parking lot with hours to spare. But the problem was the high tide that ruined any decent photo opportunities. So, on a whim, we decided to drive to the second beach which looked like only moments away from the beach. It turned out to be a pretty long drive and quite an exhilarating hike to get to the beach.

Once we were at the beach we found an amazingly scenic beach with stunning haystacks, lush green forests, and even a natural arch. I took this shot just after sunset when the color in the sky became even. This is a panorama shot made of 5 shots with a two stop ND grad filter to balance the light. The challenge was to do the panorama quickly to get a continuation in the waves. Thankfully this came out perfectly while combining in Photoshop.

• Khalil Gibran.

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One of my favorite shots from our trip to the beautiful state of Washington was taken at the second beach just as the sun was setting and lighting up the few sea stacks that were close to the shore. I waited patiently with a wet hiking shoe to get the waves just right. The best part about the second beach is that to get here there needs to be some commitment from the photographer. There is a hike and a bit of scramble over accumulated logs that the ocean deposited by the beach. So, it's not as crowded as Rialto beach which is located just off the parking lot.

The light that was falling on these sea stacks were coming in perfects once the sun was behind a cliff which had a natural arch in it. The delicate light rays falling on the sea stack illuminated the rock perfectly with the red and golden light and shadows to provide depth to this amazing rock formation. Add to that gentle waves and the pink hue in the sky, all the elements came together for a perfect landscape shot. All I had to do was do justice to the scene with my technique and timing and I hope I nailed both.

A clear sky and incomming tide. Not the best conditions to shoot this wonderful beach but still better than the next two days where it was just fog and flat grey skies.

Although I didn't find tide pools at the beach I found an interesting foreground near one of the larger sea stacks at the beach and with the sun lighting up the scene I found this to be a very nice composition. I waited for the right wave to complete the middleground and had my picture.

Start2Finish Post Processing Tutorial

• Yogi Berra.

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On our first day at the amazing Olympic peninsula, we decided to hit the beaches. First, we went to Rialto beach but due to high tide we couldn’t find a good composition and decided to bail early and get to second beach. Now this required a decent hike through a rain forest and traversing a bunch of fallen logs all the while carrying a camera bag and tripod. But we prevailed and reached the beach, the views were stunning from here and the surf was much tamer. I was happy and soon set about find a good composition near the water only to have a rogue wave completely drench me in ice cold water.

To say I was not in a good mood would be the understatement of the trip. After the usual bitching and moaning, I settled back to the business at hand and started taking pictures. As we were nearing the tail end of the shoot, I looked away from the setting sun and we found the breathtaking scene. It looked something out of the Caribbean rather than the cold summer beaches of the Pacific northwest and it one of my absolute favorite shots from the trip.

Quite simplified comp here. Not tide pools, no clouds ... So I put my wide angle lense aside and looked for some closer shots.

Hope you like it!

cheers

• Aesop.

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After a rainy morning at Moulton falls we drove straight into the Olympic Peninsula and to the beautiful little town of Port Angeles. Here we kind of underestimated the sheer size of the peninsula and had a tiresome couple of days. The problem of summer road trips is that days are super long and landscape photography road trips can tire you out as you get very little time to sleep in between locations.

One of the first spots I wanted to visit for sunset was Rialto beach but unfortunately, it was high tide and we couldn’t get close to the sea stacks. So we decided to get to our backup spot which was the second beach, now this location is even more spectacular than Rialto beach but there is about a mile of hike plus some sketchy hops over fallen logs to get to the beach. I had a feeling that we will not enjoy scrambling over wet logs and a hike through a dense forest after sunset and that was the only reason for this spot being plan b. But after the quick hike, we reached the beach without many issues and the logs turned out to be way easier than the ones at the beginning of Oneonta Gorge. We reached just in time for sunset and to add to the plus side the waves were much gentler than the battering surf at Rialto beach. Hope Y'all like the images from the stunningly gorgeous second beach of the Olympic Peninsula.