New on 500px : The Money Pit by blurrr001 by blurrr001

“The Money Pit”
Thor’s Well, Oregon Coast

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I was invited on a Pacific Northwest trip & one of the stops was Thor’s Well. I had known of this spot but had never shot there. I asked my buddy Majeed Badizadegan since he has shot here & come away with some great results. He said go at high tide for best results and watch the ocean you can get rocked pretty good if you don’t measure conditions. Well he was right & then some. I was shooting with a group of 5; plus a couple others. It was definitely high tide and swells were on the border of “ your going to get wet no matter what” & “ your going to get hammered” <— pun intended.

I didn’t call this image the Money Pit for nothing. I felt like we were on a battlefield, camera bodies, lenses, and people were going down to the left & right of me. thousands of $$ of equipment were being consumed by this hole in the earth. You could see when a large swell was coming in and all you could do was turn 180 degrees plant your feet, raise your tripod by the legs as high as you could and brace yourself. the swells would hit you in the back of the legs and travel up your back before retreating. I was one of the fortunate ones to come out unscathed, and with a decent shot to boot, but I didn’t take my eyes off the swells coming in and had enough time to react. Should I have just admitted defeat and shot from a safe distance? The smart play would be yes, but then again whats the fun in that.

I have shot a lot of places with sketchy hikes, shooting on cliff ledges, and standing in chest deep water, but I have never seen a location consume electronics like a fat kid with candy. We were there for 2 hours and I witnessed at least 13k worth of damage to equipment, I can only imagine the devastation of this place over the course of a year.

Don’t let me scare you though, its a beautiful place and worth the visit even if you don’t take your camera out of the bag.

Prints & post processing instruction available. See my website for more details Ryan Engstrom Photography

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New on 500px : Torrents of Thor by MajeedBadizadegan by MajeedBadizadegan

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When you’re out on these rocks, and it’s just you, the ocean, and winter swells coming at you during high tide, it’s becomes a game of chance. You’re just one statistical anomaly (a larger than normal wave) away from being slammed into the jagged coastal rocks. I’ve been hit by this wave in the past (see Thor’s Majesty.) I try to play it pretty safe when I’m at this location, but this day was a serious risk each wave.

This one has been sitting on my hard drive since mid-winter.

Many advanced techniques were used in the creation of this image, I’m offering Skype photoshop tutorials! Visit my website for information.

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