The Beach

No, I am not referencing the Leonardo DeCaprio film, or the bestselling book it was based on - I am talking about the trip my family and I took this weekend to Newport, Oregon for my daughters 2nd birthday. Why, you may ask, would someone who lives on the coast in Astoria go 150 miles down the shore for a vacation? Obviously for the Oregon coast Aquarium and Hatfield Marine Science Center - both based in Newport. Seaside's Aquarium is nice, but ti doesn't really cut it for my little oceanologists. We had a great time, and I had a lot of fun taking pictures.


My son loves the ocean - and after being trapped in the car for 3+ hours, he needed a silly release. This was it.


The two girls in my life are gorgeous. I love them to pieces.


I took this on the beach, and it took a lot of shots to get it just right. When I got home, it was still lacking some pizazz, so I used an infrared film filter on the computer and got this image. The texture of the ocean waves popped out and the bird itself was suddenly defined as a silhouette - no longer a bird, but the idea of a bird. Weird.


This one is from the aquarium, and I subjected it to the joy of infrared as well. I like that he is mostly hidden from view, and that all we see is a hint of a smile behind his otherwise stark and unfeeling avian eye. I have pictures of him with his beak totally exposed, but they lack the mischievous mystery that this shot possesses. Well, I like it, anyway.


I took this picture on a very low shutter speed and had to hold the camera very still. As a result, the lobster appeared to glow beneath the fluorescent lights of his tank. I enjoyed the effect of infrared film so much that I tried it on him, and the effect was eerie and humorous at the same time, so you can't beat that! Also, his eyes are just two black knobs on the end of some protuberances, which was really weird to look at.