It's just before 5:00 AM on an early January morning in Bandon, Oregon, and for some reason, I haven't woken up yet, which is unusual for me since I'm normally an early riser. Even more surprising, my wife is up before me, claiming it is too quiet. She comes in to announce that it is snowing outside. I lay there for a moment until the reality of her news sinks in, and suddenly I'm up and out of bed in an instant. Do you know how often it snows along the Oregon Coast, particularly in Bandon? Virtually never. We get almost no annual snowfall—really, it's nearly zero.

I quickly throw on my clothes, grab my camera gear, bundle up, and rush out the door to the beach. On these rare occasions, the snow doesn’t last long, so I feel a sense of urgency to capture whatever precious moments I can.

At the bottom of the trail leading to the beach, I swiftly set up my tripod and take several images of the path that extends to Haystack Rock and the Pacific Ocean, all framed by the freshly fallen snow on the sand, beach grass, and the beach itself. With the heavy snow and gusting wind, I had to struggle to keep the snow off the front of my lens while I continued shooting.

Instead of staying in that spot, I decided to move closer to town to photograph some of the more iconic rock sea stacks in Bandon. I hurried back to the house, jumped into the car, and drove north. Unfortunately, as I approached town, I noticed there was less snow on the ground. Eventually, I reached the Coquille River Lighthouse at Bullard’s Beach State Park, where I wrapped up a very rare and exciting morning.