It was a dark and stormy day on Cannon Beach on the Northern Oregon Coast. It was raining very hard as I hiked the beach, hoping to get some light to break through. The rain let up, but the wind picked up. Then the clouds started to break up a bit. I was now hopeful that there might be a sunset.
I could see a thunderstorm heading my way. It dropped a couple of lightning bolts, and everyone cleared the beach. I was not in the right position, so I started speed hiking south, hoping to line the thunderstorm up with Haystack Rock and the Needles.
These are the Rock formations on Cannon Beach. The thunderstorm was moving fast across the sky, so I was moving faster. Finally, I got ahead of it right as I crossed a creek flowing across the beach. I thought it had a perfect flow for the foreground, so I decided this would be the spot.
I set up my Canon 5DSR. I had the 24-105mm II lens on but worried it would not be wide enough. I set the composition and was very happy with f/22 and ISO 50. I could achieve a 3-second exposure to get the right water movement. The lens was just wide enough to get the entire thunderstorm in the scene.
Now I was getting very excited as thunderstorms are rare on Cannon Beach, and this giant one was starting to light up at sunset. I had to move a couple of times as the color got stronger, so I could keep it over Haystack Rock. I could see rain and hoped I would get the picture before it got to me.
Suddenly the light was full on, and I captured a series of frames. It all came together just before the rain hit me hard, and I had to pack it up and run for cover.
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Dimitri Vasileiou • Editor