I have been wanting to shoot long exposures in relatively bright light

Lately, I had been wanting to shoot long exposures in relatively bright light, so I bought a couple of 9-stop ND filters (Hoya ND 400). Recently, I spent part of a late afternoon ankle to thigh deep in the Pacific, snapping photos of the wreck of the Peter Iredale at Fort Stevens State Park. Besides the cold water, it was a nice day at the beach: hardly any wind and nice blue skies. The most difficult part of the shoot was trying to keep the tripod steady during the long exposures. Here is my favorite shot from the shoot.

I was also having a hard time keeping my son, Bobby, out of the frame. He wanted to climb the rusty wreckage in his bare feet!


After shooting the shipwreck, I sauntered up the beach to the dunes, where my kids, Bobby and Maggie, as well as our German exchange student, Hanna, were jumping off the dunes. Here's a few of Bobby and Maggie . . .


And here's Hanna flying high:


Who says you can't have fun in the cold on the Oregon Coast?

The Long Walk to Forever

I took the title for this photograph from a short story by Kurt Vonnegut. Many people don't realize what a terrific short story writer Vonnegut was. His collection of stories, Welcome to the Monkey House, is one of the best collections of stories written in the 20th century.

I shot this with my Canon 10D converted black and white infrared camera. The camera was converted by Lifepixel. The shot has a certain sense of timelessness to it: a woman and child walking off towards an empty horizon. . . .

Lately, I have been feeling like I have been on this walk, and forever is a long ways away.