Second Beach, WA
Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200 f/2.8L IS. 200mm, ISO 50, 242 sec @ f/8.0.
My first photo trip to the La Push area of the Washington coast was just after Christmas, 2009, and most of the time shooting was spent at Second Beach.
One of the challenges of shooting at Second Beach is that it’s a pretty popular photography location, particularly at sunset. I was determined to come away with something different than the standard sunset with islands shot. One way to help that was the restrictions I placed on my shooting prior to leaving on the trip: every image had to be black and white, and cropped square.
Those two restrictions completely changed how I looked at Second Beach. The visits were no longer about waiting for perfect sunset light (I didn’t care, the photo was going to be black and white anyway), and instead became all about looking for curves, textures, and tones.
The above photo was taken about an hour before sunset on our first day at the beach, and what drew me to the shot was not only the curves of the rocks but the green seaweed. I knew that the contrast of the green against the rocks would give me all sorts of interesting post-processing opportunities. Working on the image after the fact was a joy, and when this photo is printed the seaweed glows on the page.
Have you ever visited a popular beach location? Did you come up with a new way to interpret the scene? What was it?
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