First Day at the Beach July 7, 2009

This next series of posts is from a recent family vacation to Oregon. The purpose was not to take photographs but to have fun as a family. I still did made time to take a few photo sessions and I think I got a few good ones.

Before I show you all my photos I do want to briefly digress and discuss equipment. As I often do, I took more than I used. I guess it is better to have it and not need it than to need it and NOT have it, but I am not convinced.

What I am convinced of is this: My Sigma 17-70 is a GREAT all around zoom, I doubt I will ever get rid of it unless something comes along that is A) Weather Sealed B) Better zoom range & C) is faster and has better Image Quality. Those three things are going to be tough to find. The other thing I am convinced of is that a lightweight/reasonable sized telephoto zoom is a must have for traveling. I was given a Cosmicar 70-200 f4 manual focus zoom by a friend shortly before leaving. It is actually a fairly stellar performer for being a 20+ year old budget zoom without the modern Pentax multicoating (SMC) that seems to really do a good job. My only difficulty with the zoom is that it has a greenish cast, meaning everything is slightly green especially in more dimly lit/underexposed settings. It can be fixed but it is another step to slow down processing of photos. All of which has convinced me that saving for the Pentax DA 55-300 f4-5.8 lens is my best option for my budget. I think that would have been a killer lens for my zoo trip. Not being sealed it would have been less helpful at the beach and probably would have sucked in a lot of dust and sand, but still useful. Anyway, on with the show.

As soon as we reached the Oregon coast we went north to Gearhart, OR checked in and unpacked the van. Then we headed for the beach, which was literally 2-300 yards away from our front door, and visible from our porch. It was a glorious afternoon with beautiful sky. Here are a couple of quick shots taken at that point.

Looking southwest past Seaside, get used to looking at that headland I tried hard to capture it in all it's different phases.

Abandoned crab shells littered the beach, I thought it made an interesting foreground, this was the first time I felt that live view with a tilting screen would be a nice addition to my camera. Not sure that I will ever feel that again though. (Sigma 17-70)

This is/was our view while eating dinner at MO's in Canon Beach, definitely worth the time to stop and eat the clam chowder if you are passing through... or anywhere close for that matter. (Cosmicar 70-200)

Beachwalkers just down from our parking area at MO's. (Cosmicar 70-200)