Thor's Well

ZBlack

This was my first time shooting this place at sunset. I had only been here once before, right after I just got my first dslr a couple years back (in the middle of the day), so i don't really count that as a real photographic visit haha.

This place is known as Thor's Well on the Oregon Coast and it's not uncommon to hear stories of people being knocked down or tripods knocked over and losing their gear. Luckily for me, the tide surges weren't very high tonight and only a couple came up over my feet. One decent sized surge/wave came up to about mid-shins and almost knocked my tripod over, but it didn't thank goodness. High tide is really the only time to get good pictures here so this was a new experience/adventure for me and definitely can see why it's a dangerous place. Lots of ocean spray and constant wiping of filters/lenses. Overall though, I'm pretty happy with how this came out.

I was having a difficult time trying to keep the sky toned down enough but a long enough exposure to get the water movement I wanted. So I kept trying different shutter speeds and such, and finally landed one I somewhat liked. Of course as the sun sets, the light changes fast, so this one ended up being 2 seconds. Next time the sky, sunset and high tide align, I'll have a better game plan to get some better shots, assuming the angles I want aren't occupied by other photographers. It's only about a half hour from home too.

Definitely a place everyone should visit when they come to the Oregon Coast!

C&C more than welcome. The horizon is not tilted, the cloud bank on the horizon was not even haha.

Travel

Nice! Were you in the ocean?

David_S85

I've seen pictures of this, but never saw a name or other info associated with it. How long does it take for the waves and tide to fill the thing? Or does the water all go somewhere (to Thor, I presume)?

ZBlack

This is located at Cape Perpetua, or close by and you can easily walk down to it from the highway. The whole shoreline at this spot is all rock. There's also some spouting horns of sort that get some awesome spray shooting up like a geyser. You're basically sitting at sea level and as the waves come rushing in, the hole fills up with water, overflows with water, and it comes from 3 sides of you. If you get a surge, you will be surrounded by water, and often times knee height which can be very dangerous since the rocks are uneven and sharp. Some are slick but there's pretty good traction if you're planted, but water moving that fast is hard to deal with lol. Then the water just moves on out and drains back into the hole providing some great movement to capture.

On this night, the waves didn't get to big, but as I said, about mid-shin height or so. Just to my left, there's a rock you can stand on that is about 2-3 feet higher than where I was, but there were about 9 other photographers there at this time. When the water drains, you can see the rocks and such. Here's a picture taken a bit later the same night just to show what the terrain looks like. Just on the other side of the hole is the ocean itself.

kdog

Awesome report and shots, Zach. I love seeing pictures of Thor's Well. It doesn't look like an easy place to shoot, but you got a great shot of it. Congrats!

Stumblebum

I loved Oregon few times I have been there.....near Portland area. I love the Columbia river gorge and Mtnomah falls and everything else. Will have to find where this is and do it. You are lucky it is close to your home.

As for picture, it is awesome! Next time get the sun as full disc and half disc etc.....try zooom to make sun look big and put the well in foreground.....I am sure lots of opportunities to be creative here....

You already mentioned the horizon....I would straighten it out anyway...and lose a hair from the top as well...

Beautiful job considering the difficulty and challenge!

joshhuntnm

Unbelievable. Great work. love it!

ZBlack

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'm going to be back there shooting again tomorrow evening and will try out some of the suggestions given here and hope for some better results!