Devil's Churn

About 2 or 3 miles south of my little town, there is a magnificent natural feature called the Devil's Churn. It's a fissure that runs into the flank of one of the highest points along the Oregon Coast, Cape Perpetua. Because the walls are so narrow, the water gains tremendous speed and force as the energy is channeled into a tighter and tighter squeeze, resulting in huge sprays and sea foam accretions that look just like churned butter.

Here are some more photos I took today of this magnificent phenomenon:

Devil's Churn seen from above, at the summit of Cape Perpetua.

Approach to Devil's Churn along the windy (it winds, and there's a lot of wind, too!) trail.

 The water rushes into this narrow fissure in the flank of Cape Perpetua and slams into the end of it, creating huge sprays.

 As the water gains speed, its energy compressed by the narrow walls, it rises and starts to froth.

 The sea foam which accumulates in the trench takes on the consistency of churned butter.

 The foam creates amazing patterns as it's pushed about by the ceaselessly rebounding wave energy.

 More wonderfully thick patterns.

 And finally, it crashes over--the amazing power of water.

Hope you're having a powerful weekend too!

High Surf Advisory

23-28 foot swells around high tide today. That means: do not stand on the rocks! 2 young people died in our town last year--college students throwing a ball around on the rocks. A wave larger than most--called a "sneaker wave," because it sneaks up on you--hit them mid-thigh. Though the water was not high, the strength of it made them lose their footing, fall in the deeper water, and be smashed against the rocks. Please, please--be a fuddy-duddy, and don't allow your kids so close to the ocean along the Oregon Coast! This morning--3.5 hrs away from high tide--I snapped this picture. Didn't mean to have someone in it, but that's who stirred my despair: a 14 or so year old boy, tossing logs into the surf, while his father or grandfather stood by, filming...

The ocean is beautiful, and wild, and exhilarating, and fills your soul with passion. But it will swallow you up as quickly as you can draw your last breath...

Some Weekend Photos

We got some lucky weather, and some huge seas! Everything shot with my 70-300 mm lens.

ISO 100, 1/4000s, f/4.5

ISO 100, 1/800s, f/11.0

ISO 100, 1/800s, f/9

These are Stellar Sea Lions, and this was in a big, unlit cave btw. ISO 3200, 1/15s, f5

Wordy Shapes!

Once again, the lettering bug has hit, and I've come up with these Wordy Shapes for you. They consist each of three elements: the letters, the reverse of the letters, and the entire shape. Total fun! Use 'em big (they're about 10x10"), use 'em small, use them as photomasks, clipping elements, brushes, overlays... they're really flexible!

And my lonesome sample, by Romy (I only put these out at the last minute, so the crew hasn't had a chance to play yet!):

*giggles* Isn't that fun? Anyway, it's 20% off @ MScraps and Digiridoo, through the weekend!

Clickin' Moms Project 52: Week 7 - Red

50mm, ISO 100, 1/160s, f/1.8

Designer of the Week = Bonanza for You!

That's right, I'm the Designer of the Week @ MScraps, and in honor of that I have a special for you:

And that also means that my two newest products, WaterMarked 3 (splatters) & WaterMarked 4 (brushstrokes) are also 50% off!

I hope you've already signed up for the MScraps Newsletter, so you can get my Freebie, too!

 Some awesome creations with the WaterMarked brushes:

By Sandrine:

 By Julie:

By Vera:

By Jenny:

By Petra:

 By Romy:

And most of all, I hope you have a lovely, lovely weekend!

Night Photography: Creepsy!

ISO 6400, 1/6s, f/32, 300mm

Daisy & Fruit

Ok, most of you are going to think this is no big deal. BUT, I discovered last night how to change my f/stops and shutter speed manually last night! I think all the lurking around the Clickin' Moms' forum paid off! And today there is more sun, so I actually changed lenses to my kit lens (18-55mm) and took lots and lots and lots of photos of some flowers I'd bought the other day. Here's a Gerbera daisy laid across our fruit bowl.

ISO 100, 1/200s, f/8.0, 55mm

Split Toning: Ocean Haze

Played around with split toning in Lightroom: one color cast for the lights (actually, the lights were that color SOOC, so I left those alone), and one for the shadows (made bluer):

Random Photos from Today

It was beautiful out today--so different from stormy days...

Allen walking the dog:

And I found this amazing bokeh completely by surprise:

What a festival of lights, eh? Those orange and white spots in the background are from a climbing hydrangea behind this bush, that had little, dried, orange leaves that were catching the afternoon sun just right... I tried it in black and white, too:

Hope you had some spots of beauty in your day as well! =)

New @ MScraps today: BRUSHES!

That's right, I hauled out the paintbrushes recently and had fun getting ink all over my shirt (I swear, I don't have a paint-free shirt in my chest of drawers!). Which means I made 1 series of cup rings and 1 series of brush marks--all called WaterMarked (1 & 2). Soooooo much fun for giving extra texture to your backgrounds! In addition, the rings turned out nicely enough that you can use them as frames, too!

I have some fun layouts for you, too:

By Jen (with Boy oh Boy):

By Lisa (with A Year of Hope bundle):

By Julie (also with A Year of Hope):

And by Romy (with Boy Oh Boy):

 

Hope you're getting ready for a wonderful weekend!

February Guest @ DigiridooScraps.com !

I'm really pleased to be hosted by the lovely online shop Digiridoo Scraps this month! I've created a new kit which is available exclusively over there, called Treasured. It's an elegant kit full of all kinds of lovely elements & papers, and even an alpha!

One of their designers, Feli Designs, even made a page with it that is just spectacular:

Here's one from Vera:

By Romy:

By Jenny:

By Petra:

I'd love it if you went over to Digiridoo to check it out!! Everything of mine over there is off 20% until next Monday.