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Coast Roadtrip: Part 1

Victor and I left Thursday night at around 11pm and shot straight up the 5 all night. Like most of the rest of the trip we took turns driving while the other caught a bit of shut eye. By morning we had hit Eureka, which is just a bit below the border of Oregon. We stopped by a far-too-hipster breakfast spot and each got some very wonderful french toast made with chocolate chip banana bread. So bomb!

It tasted a bit more like dessert than breakfast, but I was satisfied. We kept going up the coast to hit our goal, which was the Redwood National Forest that’s seated right in the corner of California, Oregon and the Pacific. The park itself was a bit underwhelming honestly. Nothing like Sequoia, but still pretty awesome. The experience itself was worth the drive though. Luckily we had rented a 4WD SUV because the drive to the coast through the forest was intense. Victor was at the wheel and had WAY too much fun crashing the car through every muddy puddle he could find. Lol. This is what our car looked like by the end of it.

We did some hiking with cameras in tote in the Redwoods. Here are a couple of the highlights…

Knowing that we needed to get down to at least where the Highway 1 breaks away to the coast by sunset, we didn’t stay all that long. We were back on the road, retracing our steps back down the 101. We took a quick ride through the Humboldt National Forest and the Avenue of the Giants. The redwood trees that grow there are truly GIGANTIC!! It was amazing just standing there amongst them. Very humbling. It was already too late and very dark because the canopy loomed so high above so we didn’t get to take many pictures. I did manage to get a quick snapshot of Victor climbing one of the biggest trees in the park though…

We made our way back to a small city called Legget where we broke away 101 and started our long trek down the 1 all the way home. The first portion was an eerie drive through some very dense forest. It was a race against the clock to get back to the coast before we lost the light. We emerged just after the sun had set and pulled off onto the first vista point we could find. The turnout fence had graffiti written all over it, one bit of which was familiar to me from a previous road trip I took several years ago. The note some stranger wrote always stuck with and inspired me…

We found a place to crash about 2 miles south of there at a small camp right on the beach meant for campers and RVs. It was amazing being there hearing the ocean crash and the wind howl around the car. We made ourselves some dinner and watched X-Men Origins: The Wolverine on my laptop until it got a bit darker. The sky was SUPER clear that night and being about 50 miles in every direction from any real civilization, the stars were bright and beautiful. The shot on top is what I managed to take of the scene. It was one of the best pictures I took of the whole trip. To be concluded.. :)

Nerd Corner:

The starry night shot was taken at 11mm with my Tokina Ultrawide. My plan was to take a 45 minute exposure. I framed up what I thought was Polaris (the North Star) in the top left corner, dialed in my aperture and ISO, set the shutter to bulb and let the magic happen. I used my off camera flash to illuminate our SUV with a couple of well placed bursts at 1/4 power. I spent the next 30 minutes hiding out in the car to avoid the intense cold.

Then, out of nowhere, some jerk showed up with his GIANT RV and started driving all around the lot shining his brights everywhere. My heart sank. I thought my shot was ruined for sure. Turns out the lights from his headlights, brake lights and blinkers illuminated the entire area and left some super cool streaks across the image! This is why I love cameras so much. You really just never know what can happen! :)

• f/4

• 1736.1 Sec (About 28 minutes)

• ISO 100

• 11mm

• AWB

Fun fact: as the Earth rotates, it makes the stars appear to move across the sky. They all seem to circle around Polaris, our North Star as the Earth’s axis points almost directly at it. So if you point your lens at Polaris (the end of the handle of the Little Dipper) and take a super long exposure (At least 10 minutes or longer), you will end up with circular streaks across the sky just like I got here. Find some epic stars and give it a try!

This is Happening...

I’ve been meaning to start this blog for….gosh…2 or 3 years now. Somehow I just got the motivation. So here it goes!

I’m in the middle of probably the best vacation I’ve ever taken. I can’t go into too much detail as I never know when my crappy T-Mobile service will fail me again. My photographer buddy Victor and I left Thursday night and charged straight up the coast. With Red Bulls and Chicken in a Biscuit in hand we drove  all night and got to Lake Mendocino by sunrise. Thats where this photo was taken. It was freezing and we just BARELY caught the morning light, but I am pretty pleased with the results. Enjoy.  :)

We just left San Francisco this morning. I’ll post a full recap of my vacation when I get back. Stay classy!

Nerd Corner:

This photo was taken with my new Tokina 11-16mm on my Nikon D7000 body. Its a 3 exposure manual HDR blend combined in Photoshop CS6. I took one shot for the sky, one for the water reflection, and one for the mountains and darker water patches toward the bottom.

• 11mm
• f/8
• 1/15th sec
• ISO 100

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