After leaving Whidbey Island on July 12, we headed to Fort Stevens on the northwest tip of Oregon. My motivation to visit this location was based on photos I had seen of a shipwreck on the beach. This is the wreck of the Peter Iredale, a four masted square rigger that ran aground in 1906. One of the rangers told us that this is the most photographed shipwreck in the country. I had envisioned a photo of the wreck against a glorious sunset.
Alas, we had fog. This put the wreck in a whole new light and offered some opportunities that I had not anticipated. I had my Nikon D850 and tripod as well as my trusty iPhone 14 and my Sony RX100. I put all these devices to use.
I had an idea to capture the scene as a long exposure to blur out the surf while keeping the wreck in sharp focus. That’s the first variation you see here.
For the second variation I wanted to use the soft light of the overcast to bring out the rusty color. This being a popular location, some patience was required to find an opportunity when people were not swarming over the wreck. Then as people were exploring the wreck I thought it might be interesting to employ some Intentional Camera Motion (ICM) to create a blurry image. This turns out to be my favorite images from this photo session. The blur and the people seem to add a sense of mystery. In the morning the sun came out and that created a whole new feeling to the scene.
In addition to the wreck, some of the old military installations make for fascinating subject matter for photography. Here are several images I captured at West Battery which seemed to lend themselves to a black and white presentation.
