Photographing beaches and coast lines with sea stacks is one of the most fun adventures a landscape photographer can have. A relatively unknown gem that I think rivals even the Twelve Apostles of Australia is La Push, Second Beach in Olympic National Park. Today, we are featuring some great images of La Push, Second Beach from Raymond Marlow.
The above image is a view From Second beach at low Tide looking slightly South out to sea. The Sea Stack is called the Quillayute Needles. Another smaller rock outcrop of sorts is blocking the mainly larger Sea Stack with the Needle trees on it presenting a different angle for the image then typically seen from looking at the Sea Stack head on.
I love the interest that permeates from the foreground through the mid ground to the background. I think the trees coming out of the sea stacks are what makes this particular location so intriguing.
According to Raymond, the image was shot as a 2 image Panorama on a Canon 2Ti and 18-55mm Canon Lens (current model is the T7i). A Cokin Polarizer from their newer series was used along with a 3 stop Grad ND from their newer series.
La Push, Second beach
Raymond describes this location as follows:
“The area in question is the Olympic National Park area out on the Washington coast. This particular spot is LaPush, Second Beach. There are 3 beaches in this area First Beach, Second Beach and Third Beach. First Beach requires little if any walk in to view what islands can be seen from land. Second beach is about a 3/4 mile walk in from the parking area. From there you can enjoy the view of a couple of different Sea Stack formations mainly the Crying Lady Rock and Quillayute Needles. Third Beach requires a 1 1/4 mile walk in then after a 1/4 mile walk down the beach it continues on through the forest for another 3 miles or so before coming out to the beach again where some seastacks can be found to enjoy.”
This second image looking at the Quillayute Needles was taken by Raymond three years ago. It was taken with a Hasselblad 503CW and 40mm CFT*. Cokin Z Pro filters with a Polarizer and 2 stop Grad ND were used for this image. Raymond initially shot on Velvia 100, but later converted it to black and white in Photoshop.
The above image from La Push, Second Beach shows an island called Crying Lady Rock. Raymond says this island is great at low tide becauseit is home to a lot of starfish that become visible. This image was also taken with a Hasselblad 503CW and 40mm CFT*. Cokin Series filters were used with just a 2 stop ND and no polarizer as it was early morning with not much light and a lot of storm clouds.
Raymond Marlow
More of Raymond’s work, including additional images of La Push, Second Beach can be found at his website under galleries and exhibition prints. He can also be followed on Instagramalso located at Raymond.marlow on Instagram, Pbase.com, and as Raymond Marlow under Fstoppers.com.
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