Olympic Coast Photography Trip PART ONE - Sunsets at Second Beach

I recently returned from a trip to Washington State’s Olympic Coast, where I visited a couple of beaches by the seaside village of La Push. Besides being a gorgeous place to visit, this area gained global recognition because of the town of Forks, which was the setting for the Twilight books and movies.

Rialto Beach is famous for its “Hole in the Wall” spot, a naturally made gap in the rock sticking out into the sea. There are several large seastacks around this spot too, making it very dramatic.

Nearby you can find First, Second, and Third beach, each progressively a little more challenging to access.

First Beach is located in La Push, the village that sits at the mouth of the Quillayute River. There are several large dramatic rock islands at this spot, next to the very long sandy beach.

Second Beach requires an easy .7 mile hike to access, but the views are the most dramatic of the three beaches south of the river. In particular this spot is known for its sunsets, as the seastacks and rock formations line up perfectly for the setting sun year round.

Finally you have Third Beach, which I have never personally been to but that requires a 1.4 mile hike out to get to. This beach has a slim waterfall running down the rock wall on its south side, with several smaller seastacks pointing out to the sea.

For this trip I stuck to Rialto Beach and Second Beach, for two very different types of landscape photography. In this post (Part One of two) I want to focus on my experience shooting sunsets at Second Beach.

Plans change

On the first and second night of my 3 day trip, I walked the short trail to Second Beach. The first night my intention was to survey the beach and photography opportunities so that when I returned the second night I would be able to really go for the shots I wanted.

As it happened, I actually ended up with completely different photos on each night.

The main shots at Second Beach are of the large semi-triangular seastack island and of the smaller hole in the wall (not the same as the one at the nearby Rialto Beach), both of which are very well framed with the sun setting right behind them.

These spots are always quite busy - everyone wants to take these photos.

The first evening I tried a few shots with these background features and then tried getting some rocks and wave breaks in the foreground (to practice long exposure). As this was the first time I had gotten out my camera on the trip, I was more than a little rusty. I was also trying out a new tool - ND filters. I share more about those later.

I wasn’t feeling these shots, so I moved to the side a bit to get a different angle on the light coming through the hole in the wall, and ended up with the final image below, which I am quite proud of.

The hole in the wall at Second Beach, during a summer sunset.

This image is abstract and artistic to me, and I love that. It isn’t a sweeping vista, but it is more my style I think.

I had to pay attention to composition here, as originally I had the actual hole in the way centered in the middle. By cropping in and move it to the right, I put more of a focus on the light rays as the central focus. It also draws the eye across the image better.

Zooming out a bit, I captured these images with a similar style.

I’m pleased with the sun star and the foreground sand lines in this photo.

This image has perhaps the strongest, and simplest, composition of these three.

I did some basic color editing to these photos to make the golden light more of a focus. Namely, I took out all the saturation of all colors besides yellow and orange. This took the silvery blue out of the water.

Practicing Long Exposures

As I mentioned, I wanted to try to get some longer exposure shots of the waves lapping the shore, hopefully with some interesting rocks in the foreground. It wasn’t until the second night at Second Beach that I really focused in on a setting that I liked a little away from the main crowd where I could practice this technique.

I had very recently purchased a beginner set of ND filters to try on this trip. The set had a solid ND filter and two graduated NDs, which I actually never tried while out on this trip. I did get plenty of practice with the solid ND filter, and I think it worked out well enough.

Below you can see my favorite longer exposure shots from Second Beach. It was a very unique experience trying to get these shots. There was the testing out of different shutter speeds (my favorite being in the range of 1/4 to 3/4 of a second), the timing of the two-second timer with the waves, and the jumping out of the way of the waves as they sped past my tripod for my feet.

Note: “Long exposure” refers to a wide range of shutter speeds, generally anything slower than 1/60 or 1/30 of a second - depending on who you ask. Most people think of long exposure as shutters speeds as slow as several seconds to several minutes, but I found that anything slower than about 2-3 seconds took out the drama of the waves covering the rock, and turned the water flat.

Shutter speed = 1/4 of a second

I’m quite proud of myself for these images. I managed to keep the rocks in sharp focus as well as most of the background, I composed the rocks with the large seastack in the background, and the faning waves look great (to me at least).

Shutter speed = 3/10 of a second

The above image feels a little different due to the way the faning waves are pointing, and because it is cropped into a portrait orientation.

Shutter speed = 3/5 of a second

Finally, this last image has been cropped into a slimmer landscape, with the larger background completely removed. I’m not sure the cropping is quite right, but the effect is there - to focus in on the rocks and the waves specifically.

Again, I note the sharpness of the rocks. This is aided by the direction the sun is coming from, and the fact that the rocks are covered in rough and sharp barnacles which catch the light excellently.

I liked how the gentle waves in the above shot formed little circles around the rocks.

I could not have achieved the above slower shutter speed images with my crop censor Canon camera without the use of the ND filter. It was a really good experience to see how it made things so much darker, thus allowing me to slow the shutter speed while also getting a decent light exposure. In the future I will be trying out the graduated ND filters specifically at the beach - especially on other days like this when the sun is setting in a virtually cloudless sky.

Overall Impressions

I’m pleased with the two different types of photos I took at Second Beach on this trip. One type is abstract and minimal, and one is sharp and more “epic” with the smooth waves and the beautiful background imagery.

I am definitely intent upon coming back to this location during winter, when the waves are even more dramatic and hopefully there are a bunch of clouds lining the sky. Shooting sunsets on a clear day may sound like a nice experience, but in reality it leaves images looking a little incomplete.

But overall I am happy with my efforts and my rewards trying to take sunsets here.

Coming up…

In Part Two of this post I’ll share my intentions with and results from Rialto Beach. The scenery, while literally just a couple miles away, could not have been more different.