Oceanside Oregon

[Photojeep]

I will be traveling to the Oregon coast in mid August, to Oceanside specifically, and since I have never been there before, can anyone suggest some nearby locations that would be conducive to landscape/seascape photography? My wife hopes to plant herself on the beach to relax and read so this gives me some "alone" time with my camera.

Thanks in advance,
Randy

[Robert Brummitt]

There are the Dunes in Florence. Shore Acres, Bandon, Cannon Beach and so many more. Just be aware that Oregon coast isn't always sunny and warm. Yesterday, I took the family to Ecola Beach to some relief from the heat the Portland Metro area. Relief we got! I nearly froze out there photographing while my kids made sand castles.
My wife wanted to read but sat covered in her blanket instead.

[Photojeep]

There are the Dunes in Florence. Shore Acres, Bandon, Cannon Beach and so many more. Just be aware that Oregon coast isn't always sunny and warm. Yesterday, I took the family to Ecola Beach to some relief from the heat the Portland Metro area. Relief we got! I nearly froze out there photographing while my kids made sand castles.
My wife wanted to read but sat covered in her blanket instead.

Thank you for the response Robert! Your day at the beach sounds exactly like what we are looking for. I have lived in Las Vegas for 28 years where it will be 101 tomorrow and 103 the day after that. I can't wait to freeze!

It's funny, when we travel to the Pacific Northwest, everyone we meet always apologizes for the weather when they hear where we are from. Heck, we want the water to fall from the sky! (What do you call it? Rain?) When you live in a place that gets less than 4 inches of rain yearly, it is a wonderful experience when it happens. It is even better when we go someplace on vacation and it actually happens!

Thanks again for the recommendations,
Randy

[Robert Brummitt]

Thank you for the response Robert! Your day at the beach sounds exactly like what we are looking for. I have lived in Las Vegas for 28 years where it will be 101 tomorrow and 103 the day after that. I can't wait to freeze!

It's funny, when we travel to the Pacific Northwest, everyone we meet always apologizes for the weather when they hear where we are from. Heck, we want the water to fall from the sky! (What do you call it? Rain?) When you live in a place that gets less than 4 inches of rain yearly, it is a wonderful experience when it happens. It is even better when we go someplace on vacation and it actually happens!

Thanks again for the recommendations,
Randy

Well, I hope you get rain when you wish and light fog or light clouds for your photography. You're heading to the coast to get cool and possibly wet and I'm heading over to Central Oregon to get heat and dry off. I wish you a great visit!
:) :)

[Photojeep]

Well, I hope you get rain when you wish and light fog or light clouds for your photography. You're heading to the coast to get cool and possibly wet and I'm heading over to Central Oregon to get heat and dry off. I wish you a great visit!
:) :)

Thank you very much!
Randy

[Kuzano]

Here is a sketch of the Oregon Coast. Oceanside is on that little nub that is right next to Tillamook. Tillamook is dairy country (Tillamook Cheese?)... lotta fields with cows and barns. Oceanside is on the cost and Tillamook is on the south end of Tillamook Bay. All up and down the Oregon Coast is riddled with scenery... lighthouses, Overlooks (called Heads... like Heceta Head), beaches, and rocky shorelines. The head above Cape Perpetua (south) was a Naval Installation during WWII, a lookout station for enemy Submarines. Incredible view up and down the coast if you drive to the top. Breathtaking vistas, particularly if you are sensitive to heights.

On another note, when you are on that part of the coast (north Oregon), you will not be an overly long drive in to McMinville Oregon, were the Evergreen Air Museum has built a beautiful building to primarily house the "Spruce Goose". I live in Central Oregon (Bend), and before the project to move Howard Hughes Flying Boat to McMinnville began, I met the man who was put in charge of the project, planning it, overseeing the disassembly, shipping and reconstruction of the craft. They actually hired 8 of the original Spruce Goose engineers to assist on the mission. Also breathtaking in a different way.

I hope you are allowing enough time to see, and record, all the wonderful sights. If not, you will likely try to find a way to come back. Another area with amazing sights is further south.... Bandon area, Gold Beach, Brookings and down to the Northern California coastline. But that's close to 200 miles south and part of the trip is inland.

I live roughly where the OR is on the Map... Bend (central) OR

http://www.nwcoast.com/realestate/images/oregon_coast_map_detailed.gif

[Photojeep]

Thank you Kuzano!

We will only have about 3 days to shoot so I am sure we will be going back.

I really appreciate all of the info. The map is wonderful!

Thanks again,
Randy

[Really Big Cameras]

Randy,

You picked a GREAT spot. Oceanside is located on the Three Capes Scenic Route. I've driven the route and photographed in the area many times. The Three Capes are (from north to south): Cape Meares, Cape Lookout and Cape Kiwanda (my first published photo was a shot of the sandstone cliffs of Cape Kiwanda that ran on the cover of Oregon Coast Magazine). You could devote one day per Cape, or mix it up. Oceanside is located between Cape Meares and Cape Lookout, and Cape Kiwanda is still within reasonable driving distance (about 20 miles).

Three Arch Rocks are just a short walk up the beach from Oceanside. One of Oregon's two Haystack Rocks is located off shore near Cape Kiwanda. You also have Tillamook Bay and Netarts Bay to photograph and there is a lighthouse on Cape Meares. I don't think you'll have any trouble filling up your three days with interesting things to photograph.

Kerry Thalmann
Really Big Cameras

[Kuzano]

Thank you Kuzano!

We will only have about 3 days to shoot so I am sure we will be going back.

I really appreciate all of the info. The map is wonderful!

Thanks again,
Randy

Google or Yahoo those towns north and south of Tillamook. Most of them have Chamber of Commerce web sites with great photos. As you can see, there are a lot of communities and most are one or near beaches. There are a lot of parks and public access on the beaches. Have a great trip. Bring lots of fresh film.

[Photojeep]

Wow! I had no idea so many of you folks live there or have been there. Thank you to all!

I do have one question though, how do you pronounce "Netarts"? I don't want to insult anyone there or sound stupid. I think it rhymes with sweet tarts but my wife just laughs at me. :confused:

Thanks again to all!
Randy

[Really Big Cameras]

I do have one question though, how do you pronounce "Netarts"? I don't want to insult anyone there or sound stupid. I think it rhymes with sweet tarts but my wife just laughs at me. :confused:

Knee Tarts

And while you're here, you should probably know that Oregon is pronounced Or a Gun, Willamette is pronounced will LAM et and further down the coast Yachats is pronounced ya HOTS.

Kerry Thalmann
Really Big Cameras

[Hollis]

Im in Gold Beach right now after cruising through the redwoods. Its a bit far from Oceanside but I there are tons of your offshore sea stacks types of settings down here. The weather was perfect yesterday, nice a foggy but today was clear and cool. Ill be up Oceanside way tomorrow...

Cheers!

[Kuzano]

Knee Tarts

And while you're here, you should probably know that Oregon is pronounced Or a Gun, Willamette is pronounced will LAM et and further down the coast Yachats is pronounced ya HOTS.

Kerry Thalmann
Really Big Cameras

As In "I'm gonna go down town tonight and pick me up a couple of Knee Tarts.... just for laughs, of course. Maybe I'll do that down in Yah Hots! I just have to remember not to say Oree Gone in front of some native Ory Goneeyans (correct)."

Many of the communities in Oregon are named with Native American names, which are pronounced much differently than they look. Just ask a local. They are used to it, and usually quite friendly. However, I remember a National Guard Summer Camp in West Virginia in 1965, when a bunch of us Oree goneyans were drinking at the NCO club with a bunch of boys from Boston. After a few rounds and lots of BS, we had those Bostonians convinced we still had trouble with Indian uprisings. I tell ya.... you folks on the East Coast have to get out more. Leave the big city once in a while. I guess it's not surprising however. Those boys were still celebrating some ancient tea party. Some people just never move on.

Oh, and we don't... the uprisings petered out in the 1980's. It's safe to put your head under a dark cloth on any beach in Oregon without a lookout.

OK, maybe that's not absolutely true. During the Rhododendron Festival in Florence the beaches are filled with Bikers... ie. Hells Angels, Gypsy Jokers, Free Souls and Bikers for Christ. Included in those ranks must be one or two Native Americans. The Rhody Festival was the third week in May, so there are probably only a few bikers sleeping on the dunes by now.

[jetcode]

there's a nice aeronautical museum near Tillamook worth taking a look at - they have a Zero, an F-14, and several other war planes of different vintages

[DarkroomDan]

The following thread over on APUG may be of interest.
http://www.apug.org/forums/forum49/51141-pacific-northwest-subforum.html
Several of the NW members are meeting for a 2 day get together in Newport on the 13th and 14th of September. I would really like to be there but am not going to be able to.

Dan

[Kirk Keyes]

Oregon is pronounced Or a Gun,

"Or EE gun" - all run together into one word with no pauses.

Kerry, not from here? :^)

[Really Big Cameras]

"Or EE gun" - all run together into one word with no pauses.

Kerry, not from here? :^)

Not from here originally, but I have lived here almost 20 years.

From the Wikipedia Oregon Page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon):

"Present-day Oregonians have a preferred pronunciation of "Oregon": it's "pronounced OR-UH-GUN never OR-EE-GONE" (according to the Oregon Tourism Commission)."

Kerry Thalmann
Really Big Cameras

[Sheldon N]

I'm with Kerry, or-uh-gun. If you say it fast enough and slur it, you can get away with or-gun. Or even pronouncing it like the word "organ".

To the original poster, don't forget to visit the Tillamook cheese factory and try their sharp cheddar. Mmmmm.

Also, buy yourself a couple solid ND filters to play around with long exposures at the ocean. Fun stuff!

[Kirk Keyes]

I don't want to say you can't believe anything you read in Wikipedia, but our own University of Oregon sells "Orygun" merchandise. I'm sure they teach the kids there how to pronounce the name of the state correctly...

http://uoduckstore.com/spiritduck/details.cfm?id=2348&section=55

But Sheldon and Kerry both know this state well. Sheldon, how about posting that really cool long exposure photo you took at the beach this (?) year for Photojeep.

[Turner Reich]

Tillamook is dairy country (Tillamook Cheese?)... lotta fields with cows and barns.

Tillamook cheddar cheese is the best in the world, stop in they have café, tour, and out of this world ice cream.

[Sheldon N]

I don't want to say you can't believe anything you read in Wikipedia, but our own University of Oregon sells "Orygun" merchandise. I'm sure they teach the kids there how to pronounce the name of the state correctly...

http://uoduckstore.com/spiritduck/details.cfm?id=2348&section=55

But Sheldon and Kerry both know this state well. Sheldon, how about posting that really cool long exposure photo you took at the beach this (?) year for Photojeep.

I know, I see those Orygun stickers everywhere and think they're all wrong! It must be something that those U of O folks in Eugene are smoking, they are known for that. :)

I'm not sure which long exposure image you are referring to, I have a bunch that I like.

Photojeep - check out my Flickr site in my signature for some images of the coast. If you see anything that you're interested in, I'd be glad to point you in the right direction.

[Kirk Keyes]

Yeah, I guess there's some flexiblity on the second syllable, but it definitely has to end in "gun".

Sheldon, I was thinking of the photo you posted to the landscape thread a few months ago - the one you brought to the East Bank meeting.

[Kuzano]

I don't want to say you can't believe anything you read in Wikipedia, but our own University of Oregon sells "Orygun" merchandise. I'm sure they teach the kids there how to pronounce the name of the state correctly...

http://uoduckstore.com/spiritduck/details.cfm?id=2348&section=55

But Sheldon and Kerry both know this state well. Sheldon, how about posting that really cool long exposure photo you took at the beach this (?) year for Photojeep.

Fourteen years on the U of O campus and another 6 years just off campus almost had me saying Ory--Gone and Willa-Met (Eugene is in the South end of the Will-Am-Mutt valley), which may have been the prompt for the Book Store merchandise. We had to shield ourselves from the mispronunciations of out of state students and foreign students and visiting professors

[Sheldon N]

This one was from Ya-Hots (Yachats) ...

It's right off Highway 101, no hiking required. Just look for "Windy Way" which is a little dead end street.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2150/2067276037_3ae5133aef_o.jpg

[Kirk Keyes]

That's the one - I love that shot!

[don12x20]

Oceanside - Fabulous location on the coast.

Beaches are owned by Oregon State Highway Department - years ago they were used as a highway (look up "Hug Point" for example.). A tunnel exists under the bluff in at the north end of the beach in "downtown" Oceanside. I was told it was part of that old route (but its rather small..but so were cars back then)...who knows?

Watch for a tide that is going out....and take that tunnel. Its long and dark. The north end exits on a beach (when tide is out) and there are some fantastic rock formations in the surf and sandy beach.
Just watch the tide - as it goes in, you want to be back in the tunnel. Don't get trapped on the beach north of the tunnel entrance (others have).

Have fun.