Nye Beach with time to kill

Yesterday was grand daughter Hanna's birthday party at South Beach and I took advantage of being in the Newport area to have coffee and a marrionberry muffin at Stephanie's.  The sun was playing hide and seek but at least it wasn't raining so I walked around Nye Beach, looking for whatever worked in my viewfinder. 

I'm in love with my iphone4!

Judy and I took a rain-soaked ride to Newport today to pick up some items at McWalmart.  Afterward, we headed to Nye Beach and our favorite restaurant, Cafe' Stephanie for lunch.  While waiting for our sandwiches, I took a grabshot of my water glass in Instagram mode.  When I got home, I emailed it to myself and reduced the exposure on the salt and pepper shakers and also reduced the noise.  For some reason I really love this image.  Maybe it's because I'm old and crotchety or it's almost dinner time or whatever, this fast shot of a water glass appeals to me.  So, here it is.  

By the way, my favorite sandwich at Cafe Stephanie is their turkey reuben, served with fresh fruit.  

Fishing Rock

Fishing Rock is located immediately north of Fogarty Creek State Park.  The promontory overlooking the rock is about fifty yards from the small parking area right off of highway 101.  Access to the parking lot is, amazingly enough, Fishing Rock Street.  The promontory is rocky, often slippery, and it would be easy to fall over the edge so parental control of little ones is absolutely mandatory!

When I was there yesterday, the sun was playing hide and seek with me and I was lucky to get a couple of shots that included Mother Nature's best light.  

 I took this shot of the water cascading off the rock during one of the overcast moments and forgot to redo it when the light got better.  I might revisit this image and try it in black and white.

Yeah, I think reprocessing this one in "Tri-X mode" is a little better.  

This is the view from the Fishing Rock promontory, looking north, towards Salishan and Lincoln City.

A visitor/photographer, enjoying a Kodak Moment from the promontory.

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What Fogarty's fossils look like. . .

Together with five other Oregon photographers I am starting my first month of a lifestyle blogging project entitled "What ___________ looks like," an idea inspired by a group of photographers out of Montana.  On the third Monday of each month I will fill in the blank with my own word or concept, and link to the next photographer's blog until the circle is complete.  I hope you take the time to enjoy this monthly photographic journey, and enjoy each of our monthly projects. 

What {Fogarty's fossils} look like

 My favorite place to photograph on the coast is the beach at Fogarty Creek State Park.  A good sunrise brightening up the iconic rock pile is a marvelous sight but the other subjects that get my visual heart pumping are Fogarty’s fossils. 

When the tide is low, you can walk north between the cliffs and the tide pools and find rocks that have been holding tightly to their clam shell captives for something like 15,000,000 years!  

             

                   

Now head on over to my daughter's site and see what she's been up to this month:

Kimberly Teichrow Photography

Wailin' up to Whalen. . .

Whalen Island is 25 miles north of Lincoln City and is easily accessed via Pacific City and then continuing north a few miles above Cape Kiwanda.  

I've been here a half-dozen times and have always found something interesting to shoot.  Today was just slightly overcast and the trail was dry and welcoming!

             

Eye of the beholder

Yesterday, the weather was one of those in and out things with clouds, more clouds, and then, for a few glorious minutes, a marginal bit of sunshine.  Sunshine?  Off I went in search of whatever.  

My first stop was East Devils Lake State Park, a favorite venue when I'm looking for a rainforest environment.  I really couldn't find anything that struck my fancy so I packed up my camera and started to leave the parking lot.  Well, gee, who's that birdy and why isn't he flying away?  Very quick grabshot, through the truck window, bad exposure and all of the usual excuses but, hey, Robins are a favorite so here he (or she) is.  Plus, I like the fence post.  Oh, and for you bird shooters, I shot this on burst and three frames from this one. . . .  no birdy.  Lucky me.

After leaving East Devils Lake (with bird in hand), I cruised Highway 101 through town and ended up at Mo's where I thought I'd at least get some exercise.  Not much was happening on the beach and on my way back to Zippy (my faithful truck), I found lots of back-lit grass along the beach trail.  Of course the wind was picking up and I think I shot this poor bit of grass 50 times before I got this one keeper.

The In-Fern-al Rainforest!

There I was, on my way to the doctor to have a precancerous lesion carved off of my back (thanks to my beach-boy life style during my long-ago youth) when I noticed a very nice patch of ferns along side the road.  I was kind of late for my appointment so I left the tripod in Zippy the Truck and did some very fast grabshots.  It was drizzling when I started to shoot and after a few minutes it really began to rain in earnest so this is all I ended up with.  

                                                           This one is my favorite.

And the cliffs of Fogarty come tumblin' down!

One great joy of Fogarty Creek State Park/Beach is that it is always changing.  Always!  I happened to notice the light between the big slab of rock on the right and the cliff on August 12, 2011.  I also noticed that it was "standing" on a very small, narrow "foot."  I thought at the time that this monster rock might collapse one day but I didn't know how soon that might be.

I returned several times after taking this photo and the rock slab was still standing, where it had been for so many years.

Three weeks later, on September 1, 2011, I returned again and, sure enough, the big slab had fallen away from the cliff!  I'm glad that no one was standing there admiring the cliff when it decided to let go.

On June 5, 2012. I photographed this pile of rock that appeared to have fallen away from the cliff.  

Six days later, on June 11, 2012, I was back at Fogarty and a very large chunk of rock had come away from the cliff, creating a shallow cave under the overhanging cliff.  Needless to say, I've become very wary when walking near Fogarty's cliffs.  I also note that the sand is now covering much of the foreground.

Florally Fogarty

Here are a couple of Fogarty's "other" features.

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