Tag: iPhone 14 Pro

Last Paddle for the Year

At 9:50 nine of us had our boats on the beach ready to launch. After a short safety talk and a radio check we were on the water at 10:00. Our plan was to paddle out across the shipping channel and then head north towards Red Rock and then on to Point Molate. We would be riding the end of the flood with slack water about 11:00. Alan was appointed our navigator, having set some waypoint on his GPS to help us stay clear of the shipping channels. The instructions were to “follow Alan.”

That said, it seemed like Alan was following the rest of the pod. I seemed to be lagging behind preoccupied with poking at my cameras. I’m using an iPhone 14 in a dive case and my trusty Olympus TG-5, trying to figure out which arrangement I like better. More on that later.

We paddled out to Bouy #6 marking the starboard side of the Richmond shipping channel and turned north towards Red Rock, rounding another Bouy #6 marking the Southampton Shoal Channel. We crossed a couple of eddie lines with some confused water, paddling into a light wind and riding over the wake of a couple of ferries.

From Red Rock we made our way to Point Molate Park landing on the beach at 11:45. With the high tide we didn’t have much beach so we took pains to get our boats well above the waterline. During lunch Evelyn asked for photographic proof that we were enjoying a delicious persimmon bread with bourbon a friend of hers had provided. After lunch we were anxious to get back on the water, since it was a chilly day, despite the sun.

Our return course took us past Castro Rocks where we gave some space to the harbor seals sunning themselves on the rocks. We then paddled past the Chevron wharf and back to our launch site. We were back on the beach at 1:45 having logged 8.4 miles. More photos are available in an online gallery.

Photographing the Peter Iredale Shipwreck at Fort Stevens

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.