Cape Disappointment is located at the extreme southwest corner of Washington state, just north of the mouth of the Columbia River. It was named by British fur trader Captain John Meares in 1788 while sailing south down the Pacific Coast. He mistook the mouth of Columbia River for a bay, which he could not enter due to shallow shoals, and named the cape and the river mouth as Cape Disappointment and Deception Bay, respectively. Today, the area is the site of the popular Cape Disappointment State Park.

Within the park is a small bay named Deadman's Cove after the bodies of drowned sailors that washed up there after an 1853 shipwreck. In the middle of the Cove is a small sea stack with a solitary tree at its apex. I planned this shot for a time of the year when I knew that the sun would be setting directly behind the opening of the Cove, which turned out to be during February and a day when the high tide would be close to sunset. The final element was a sunny day, which can be rare in these parts at that time of year.

I set up my camera and tripod, waited for the sun to touch the corner of one of the headlands at the edge of the Cove, and shot my first exposure. Then I shot another, longer exposure to blur out the waves coming into the Cove. The two frames were composited in Photoshop, and this was the result. I hope you like it!