I plan on visiting the Oregon Coast this Sept/Oct, for ten days, and would like to shoot the rugged coast and create seascapes. Not having been there before, I would appreciate some advice on where to stay and what to shoot. My thought was to find three different hotels/motels along the coast and use each for three days as a HQ.
Having been out there myself last September for a few days, I started off on the northern end at Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park. We stayed at a local motel (name escapes me now) and made that our base for a couple of days. From there we headed a couple of hours south to Cape Kiwanda. Again, we found a local place at the last minute. If you Google search lodging in these two areas, you'll find a number of places to choose from.
Just one warning - the length of the Oregon coast is LONG. It's tough to cover it all over the course of a week. Consideration needs to be made over where you want to visit and where you'll be flying in and out of. If you choose Portland for the flight in, you can head about 90 mins west to Cannon Beach. But many of the nicer and more feature-rich shore locations are along the southern coast at Bandon Beach and surrounding areas. The locals can chime in here and provide better details. But consider that Bandon Beach will leave you outside of Portland by about a 5-6 hour drive should your return flight also be from Portland. Consider booking your return flight from a different airport to cut down on the driving.
There are a lot of great choices, including Cannon/Ecola. My favorite is Bandon Beach. Stay at the Sunset Motel. The newer rooms are popular but I like the old cabins that overhang the beach. You can even try night shots right off your balcony, but it was too windy last time I tried.
Arrange your trip so you visit when the tide is low at sunset. You don't need dead low, but at least relatively close. Outgoing is better than incoming. Wear shoes that you can get wet and plan on hosing off the tripod. Carry a blower to remove sand and cleaning cloths to clear the salt spray off the lenses. Have fun.
The nice thing about not going in the summer is it should be easier to get reservations or even just show up and find a room. Most people prefer to drive from north to south since you are closer to ocean and can see better and most of the pull offs are on the right side and are easier to get. My personal opinion is that Bandon is the best area for photography and is also the least crowded area. I would maybe make that one of my bases but as said before it is a long way from PDX. There are few hotels in that area so I would probably have reservations in that part where as Newport or Cannnon Beach have a lot more options. Some of the other places to look at are Cannon, pacific city and Thors Well? has had some great images on here lately. There are also long stretches of coast that have fewer interesting features such as haystacks and rocky coasts so there will be lots of driving between photography sites. You may want to consider an option of driving inland also and shooting some waterfalls etc as sometimes the coast can have stretches of horrible weather for shooting and it is nice to have a plan b. Enjoy. Brian
The big hits along the coast in my opinion are
1. Cannon Beach/Ecola and a couple parks just south
2. Cape Kiwanda
3. The stretch between Newport and Florence is a fantastic rocky coastline. Yachats is my home turf. Seal Rock, Cape Perpetua
4. Bandon has amazing seastacks
Cape Perpetua is the Jewel, best after a pint of Guinness at the Drift Inn. Boiler bay is amazing, and I would also recommend the three capes scenic route which will put you out into Oceanside and Pac City, both great spots.
I'm just back from 4 days on the southern coast - I agree that Bandon is one place you should not miss. I spent 2 nights in room 218 at the Sunset - this puts you right in the middle of the action. Here's the view from the balcony...
I just did a trip to the central and southern coast of Oregon. There are a couple of places that I liked, photographically, that are missing from the above suggestions. Cape Arago, just south and west of Coos Bay, is spectacular, in my opinion. Cape Blanco, and it's lighthouse can be beautiful. The cape at Port Orford is spectacular in nice weather. And finally Harris Beach at the far south end has some nice options for sunset shots. I'll try to post some photos soon.
But I agree that you can't go wrong with the Oregon coast. I have heard that May and October are very nice times of the year for the coast. Have fun!
I just came back from a two day trip from the coast mostly in Bandon. I got caught in a rainy spell so the trip became more of scouting trip but Bandon and the OR coast in general is quite photogenic in right light.
Drove the entire coastline a few years ago and have gone back for seconds.
Might as well start it off right and begin at Brookings and go to Bandon. You can easily spend an entire week just in this area.
If you have more time = Bonus.
But I tried to see too much at one time IMO. I got some killer shots, but I's say you need a month.
Which is why I know I will be back yet again, and again, and again...
Between Oregon, Washington and even most of California, you might as well plan on spending your vacation time here for a while.
