Rugged landscapes on the Oregon Coast (album)

Now here's a place.

A beautiful place. I place I found on google earth. A place where we watched the sun go down with nobody around us but the birds and the wind.

We were sitting in a coffee shop earlier in the day, editing photos and sipping on caffeinated drinks. It was our harsh-light-siesta of sorts. A break that some photographers take in the middle of the day when the light is bad... when it isn't golden hour, sunrise or sunset. I was doing location research trying to figure out an exciting place for sunset because we didn't plan ahead. I found one- so off we went.

It wasn't too long of a hike. Maybe half an hour? Can't really remember.. it may have been closer to forty-five minutes. We hiked through the dunes for a while and caught glimpses of the sea stacks in the distance. Our destination.

We started to walk a bit faster at that point. The light was getting good and the landscape was getting better. Once we arrived I ran up on a bluff for a better viewpoint. I'm a fan of downward perspectives, after all..

My burning legs and my desire to be born again as a bird quickly subsided as the light flooded the beaches and rocks around us. It was the kind of hectic-but-peaceful moment that makes you forget about everything else. If you're thinking "why hectic" it's because my photographer brain was freaking out because I didn't have any compositions in mind and the light was amazing and the landscape wa.. you get the point. Here's my friend and fellow steemian @natebillings taking it all in.

The sun sank lower in the sky. There wasn't too much time left before it was below the horizon. I ran around for a while, taking photos and enjoying the whipping winds and the sounds of the ocean.

Once the sun did finally set, the sky turned a beautiful pastel shade of blue, pink and purple. Everything slowed down a little. The rock formations in this area are really incredible. I haven't seen anything like it in my travels so far. They were huge, though I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo.

We started heading back to the truck by headlamp once most of the light was gone. Here's a blurry shot of Nate beginning the return trek.

Overall, I couldn't have really asked for a better place to spend a sunset down south. It was beautiful, new and exciting. And the best part is... nobody knows about it.

-Nathaniel