Photos

This image was taken looking north near Hug Point at Cannon Beach, Oregon. The coastline here is some of my favorite anyplace, and never tire of seeing it and photographing it.

During this visit the light had been fantastic. My initial instinct was to put a #25 or a #29 filter on the camera, wanting to penetrate some of the mist and darken the sky some to make it more dramatic. No matter how you slice it or dice it, the Oregon coast is dramatic.

But my better sense got hold of me, and I used a K2, which has a much smaller effect on the mist and is more moderate in adding contrast to the sky and water.

I chose to use a 300mm lens to compress the perspective, and add to the separation of the near and far cliffs. Since I was working with black and white, I was already in an abstract state of mind, and then choosing to want atmospheric separation in a less defined 3d setting, is also abstract.

I used TMax 400 so I could keep a shutter speed high enough with the filter to not blur the ocean too much and show the defining line of the edge of the water.

Exposure was placed to keep the very dark rock area in the foreground around Zone II to Zone III. Developement in XTol was based on the clouds. Slight compression was needed.