I drove up to Oregon for a week-long photography workshop. There are lots of smaller roads where you have to wait for construction behind giant trucks hauling wood.
The group hiking down to our first spot: Secret Beach in Brookings.
Getting set up.
Me getting a different angle.
The Samsung Pay app has some older gift cards I received...
... and now has nearby deals.
I didn't get any data connection in most of Oregon, so I had to stop at places with wifi to look where I was going on maps.
I tried turning on data roaming, and it said it was on AT&T, which lots of other people used there, but that didn't work for me.
Making a reservation for the next night's motel and they don't take Visa, weird.
We got up really early the next morning to get out to Secret Beach again for a sunrise shot.
All set up.
A shot of Secret Beach by Caryn before processing on the computer.
And what it looks like after editing in Photoshop and Lightroom.
One by BJ.
And Nick from a different angle.
And Nicole.
Driving through the redwoods.
A shot by BJ.
And by Caryn.
And Nicole.
Lots of trees on the side of the road.
Lots of logs.
A bridge that turns sideways to let ships through.
Lots of nice bridges.
Protection from the rain, aerodynamics, or both?
Next stop was Gold Beach, where we stayed at Jot's Resort.
Pretty view from the room.
Nice reception area with a cute dog.
An attached convenience store with lots of fishing equipment.
A shot of the nearby bridge by Nicole.
A duck in the middle of the road everyone was driving around.
Set up at Thunder Rock Cove.
One of my pictures got viewed a lot on Google Maps.
One Ogii took of me playing poker and one of the oldest McDonald's.
The motel has really fast internet, which is nice for transferring files.
Reddit had a reminder to vote.
It's close, but Clinton is in the lead, as expected.
Wake up the next morning and what, is this a joke?
Wow, it really happened.
It was raining this morning, so no group photos, although some of us went out on our own.
Protecting my camera from the rain. I'd pull the umbrella away quickly when the waves came in to get a picture.
Then I'd have to dry the lens off from the rain that got on it.
Lots of driftwood.
Uh oh, my tripod got pushed over by a wave. Thankfully my camera wasn't on it and it only went a few feet and then got stuck in the sand.
We met for some post-processing tips from Nick. This is definitely their off-season; they're storing mattresses in the meeting room.
It still worked, though.
Our next stop was in Bandon. People stayed at different motels here but I stayed at the Bandon Beach Motel.
Nice room.
And right by the ocean.
Some steps leading down to the beach.
A pretty house.
And another one.
There's a Jupiter Ln...
... and a Saturn Ln right by each other.
What's that behind the house?
Some deer in town.
There's an old town area.
Lots of little shops.
A Radio Hut.
A map of old town.
The town had a little newspaper.
With small-town notices.
A neat little lighthouse.
Horse crossing?
Ah, there are horse rides here.
Some of the horses.
Going out to take pictures of the rock formations.
A picture of Ryan taking a picture of the sea stacks by Nick.
Caryn got a shot of a photographer.
Dave's shot of some sea stacks.
And Ragnar's.
Rob got the sun behind the edge of a sea stack.
This is my favorite shot of the whole trip, a log and some sea stacks, by Catherine. Great flowing lines.
We were out on the beach and waves would come up. You really wanted to be out a bit to get the best shots, but then the water would come above my boots. Waterproof boots become bowls that hold water in when water gets above their tops. Thankfully the motel had a hair dryer.
It was pretty wet out in general, so my camera would sometimes stop working. Just have to dry it out with a hairdryer back in the motel, though, and then it works fine again.
Letting everything air out.
We neded up staying another night there and the room I was in was reserved, so I had to move to a different room.
I went to do some laundry and put in laundromat in Google. It said there was one here but it was actually a private cleaning service in the back of a woman's house. Is this town so small it doesn't have a real laundromat? She said just keep going a few blocks and there'd be a regular laundromat, though.
The hair dryer didn't completely dry my boots, so into the dryer they go.
The boots kept flying out, though, so I had to keep putting them back in and restarting it.
Time for another post-processing session, this time with Majeed.
Going out late at night to get a picture of the lighthouse at Cape Blanco.
Caryn's shot.
Nicole's.
And Nick's from the other side.
There aren't any McDonald's close by.
The sun starting to rise the next morning. Most people were out on the beach but the cliffs blocked most of the color, so I decided to dirve somewhere else.
I went over to the little lighthouse and this alarm.
I gave up on the boots for the day and just went in sandals and socks instead.
Another drying session.
That's nice.
I stopped at these sea lion caves.
But they were closed for renovations; they were fixing the elevator that takes you down to the caves as shown on the right.
You could still see them over the edge, though.
Along with a nearby lighthouse.
There were some rocks with huge waves crashing on them that we stopped to get pictures of. This is Rob's shot.
One by BJ.
The next stop was Thor's Well, a big hole that waves go through.
A shot of our group from behind by Mike. There were a few other photographers there as well.
A closer one by me.
The group from the side with me in the middle.
Nick had a really big tripod.
You need to time your shot for the best picture of Thor's Well. Usually it's when the water is flowing down out of it.
BJ got a cool selfie there standing on this log.
Catherine's shot of the well.
Nick's.
I got a little wet.
Thankfully I had learned from hunting with dad and duct taped my pants to the top of my boots.
Bought some hex wrenches at a Walmart on the drive to the next town so I could flip the top of this tripod head around to fit my camera.
Looks like a lot of rain coming.
The next motel was the Alsi Resoort. We woke up the next morning and it was pouring.
Really strong winds, too; it was blowing the rain horizontally.
We thought about going out but it was too wet.
However, a few minutes later the rain let up, so we grabbed out stuff and took off to Thor's Well again.
Eric went up over here to get a shot of the bridge.
Most of the others were over here.
A huge wave splashes over all of us at Thor's Well. I'm the third from the right and you can see me turn around and curl over my camera to keep it dry. Majeed yells "We dead" at the beginning when he sees how big the wave is going to be and then cackles as we get soaked.
Even with waterproof clothing I still got fairly wet.
This little park in town has a metal whale tail statue and then a little "blowhole" that shoots water out.
Time for breakfast at the Drift Inn Cafe. Neat menus.
Umbrellas hanging from the ceiling.
And nice glassblown lights.
Neat lamp.
Live music.
We went off on some dirt roads in the forest and got a few shots there. This is one of Nick's.
Our next stop was Heceta Head lighthouse.
Nicole and I taking a break.
Some minor injuries getting taped up.
The we headed to Devil's Punchbowl. You're not supposed to go beyond the fence.
That didn't stop BJ and Ryan, though.
Catherine's picture.
Onto Yaquina Head Lighthouse.
BJ's shot.
And Nick's.
The group eating dinner.
Fun chairs.
Neat lights.
No Lyft out here.
Aw, my tripod leg broke off. Guess it's time for a new one.
Ragnar's shot of the Yaquina Bay Bridge.
A neat rock with embedded shells.
You can't pump your own gas in this state; there are attendants who do it for you.
On the way back I stopped at a town called Yreka. I guess another town already had the name Eureka.
Big metal sculpture in a field.
The entrance to California, checking for fruit and such.
Fun bridge.
Lots of fog.
I stopped to try to get a picture of the full moon on the way back through San Francisco. I went to Treasure Island to get a picture of the skyline from across the bay. There were a few other photographers there as well. I saw a woman running for the bus and missing it. Since it was still too early for the moon to be close, I ended up giving her a ride across the bridge and into San Francisco so she wouldn't be late for work.
It was rather cloudy, but the moon poked out for a few minutes.
And then it was gone.
A few other people showed up but didn't get a shot at the clouds didn't open up again.
Pretty cheap parking for San Francisco.
A neat bank sign.
It's electronic and has fish swimming in the ocean.
The cops checking on a homeless guy.
The old office.
Neat color-changing frames.
Some more.
And more; that's really catching on now.
A Christmas tree at the wharf.
A musician.
Big submarine.
From the back.
That'd be fun.
And a big ship.
There are a ton of water Pokemon around the wharf.
Slowly walking Grimer to get a Muk.
That's a funny bumper sticker.
Cool sculpture.
Fog between the skyscrapers from the Bay Bridge.
Foggy on the bridge.
I hit 88,8888 miles in the Prius on the trip.
Trying to merge some of my panoramas; unknown error doesn't give me any hint at how to fix it.
Lots of different types of twilight.