Many people take mid-winter vacations to a warm tropical beach this time of year. Dave and I went the other direction yesterday and ended up on the South Jetty near Florence, OR. – definitely not tropical. I had been wanting to spend some time shooting among the fishing boats in the Florence harbor and while there are certainly more pleasure craft moored there than working craft there were a few boats that showed the signs of much hard labor and rough seas. Those were the ones I concentrated on as I made my way along the icy boardwalks. Ice, debris and frozen bird poop – Oh Boy!!
Looking for and framing what I would call ‘natural abstracts’ was such fun and even though it was really cold and windy the time was well spent – I think. The first shot is a simple color abstract of a weathered bow in the morning sun.
I then found another old weathered campaigner and notice how I could frame the bow of with the two holes that mooring lines came through and it looked to me a bit like a bird.
We headed back through Old Town Florence to what I have always thought of as an interesting view – the underside of the bridge crossing the Siuslaw River. I have shot this before but the compositional opportunities seem endless. I love the detail in this bridge. Dave commented on it being like a cathedral.
After warming up a bit Dave and I headed for the South Jetty which helps to frame the outlet of the Siuslaw River. We walked the jetty to where we had decent access to the beach. The tide was moving in rapidly and I managed to get myself and most of gear wet – nothing too serious but it seems as if I can never do a shoot without ending up with wet feet. I have camera gear to clean for sure. The surf was rolling in and I took a image slice of the wave action. This is again what I would call a natural abstract.
Slopping my way back to the car – wet shoes and socks – we headed back toward the highway and Dave spotted a very interesting little pond along the road. He got out to shoot but I did not unload the camera till I had done a bit of looking and I realized that there was again an opportunity for a natural abstract along the pond edges. I focused and tripped the shutter and moved the zoom lens from shorter to longer. You never know what you are going to get doing using that technique but I think I got one nice image. Not as nice as some I have gotten using this technique in the past but still ….
We had a great outing. Personally I got to shoot areas that I have been thinking about for some time and as always there are some nice surprises along the way.
