The Artful Engineer

Our reigning favorite place to go for a week is a house high up on a ridge in Oceanside, Oregon. There are elevated views across a wide swath of ocean and coastline. The views are amazing, but are somewhat constrained by some evergreen trees. One of the unobstructed views is of Storm Rock, featured in every image in this post. Given the trees and terrain, unless you zoom in very tight on the rock, there is not much option other than having the rock in the bottom right corner. Given this, there is little compositional variation in today’s post. But the light and weather and color varies so spectacularly!

Winter is a great time to visit because the weather can do almost anything in a single week. The image above has a nice front of rain approaching that is lit by the low sun despite dark clouds overhead. This next image was taken about forty minutes later, as another squall approaches.

Earlier that day it was snowing:

Clear days may have less drama, but can offer great color. The rock makes a nice silhouette around sunset.

Mornings fill the scene with pinks and lavenders and mauves:

Once the sun peaks into the sky, the southern face of the rock is bathed in warm light that contrasts with the teal sea:

Going with a longer focal length let me make a different composition, showing just half of the rock. The way the sun is raking across the gentle swells of the ocean gives the negative space some interesting texture. This is a peaceful image.

Not bad from a single deck, you have to admit. Next week I’ll share some images that look to the south instead of the west, as well as venture to some beaches nearby.

Thanks for visiting!