Indian Sands

The Southern Oregon coast has some amazing hikes, trails and views of the Pacific, dotted with natural rock arches, sea stacks, hidden beaches and secret coves. After multiple trips to the Samuel Boardman Scenic highway, and having hiked every mile of the coast trail I had planned a night shoot at Indian Sands for a long time.

In August 2023 after a hiking holiday, I spent a few nights in Brookings and was lucky to get 3 superb clear nights in a row. After hiking from the car park through the forests and over the Dunes for about 15 mins, I reached Indian Sands, an area known for an Archeological discovery of an early Native Americans dating back some Millennia. It was a short trek then to the Cove and Sea Arch. 

I had time to compose the scene, and take foreground shots during the Blue hour, as I waited for darkness and the Milky Way to line up with the Sea Arch. 

This is a 4 minute foreground shot at F/5.6 ISO 1600, blended with tracked sky shots of 10x 3 min exposures using a Canon Ra, and 24mm Samyang lens. I also took 30 mins of Ha filtered data to show the Emission Nebula of the Milky Way.

This was one of those memorable nights out working, where once the tracking shots were running, I was able to sit back and enjoy the night scene, with its dark clear skies and just the Ocean sounds as company.