Cape Kiwanda is a photographer’s heaven. Which made it twice as annoying that the first time we went there, it was covered in an impermeable, pea souper of a fog.

Here’s an example of how bad the fog was; there is an iconic rock formation on this beach called the haystack. It’s no tin-of-biscuits either; it’s 330 feet tall. I walked around like a tourist inquiring of people where I could find the haystack rock, only to have them look out to sea and offer me a friendly, noncommittal shrug.

We still tried to shoot. We climbed the sand dune and endured pretty severe (for the cameras) wind gusts filled with stinging sand grains. The conditions were difficult and dangerous, and we gave up after about an hour.

The next morning we came back again and were astounded to see the rock, exactly where folks said it was! That really drove home for me how bad the fog had been.

Same photo as the one above! If you look closely you can see the base of the rock in the first shot.

We spent about 2, really amazing hours, shooting here. My only regret was that we didn’t spend longer. I have learned not to rush a shoot–when the light is right and the place is intriguing, you need to just stick it out.

Parts of Cape Kiwanda look like Mars.

So of course I had to indulge in a little bit of quick Photoshoppery =D

Tito said Curiosity was a pretty nice guy, but not very chatty. Also, there may be a scale issue here.

See that little lip of ground in the lower left? yeah, I almost stood there to get my shot.

I really hope to go back some day, possibly in the fall when that accursed fog is not as frequent an occurrence (so folks tell me). We could have easily shot for 3 days in that one location!