Discovery Landscape Photography Assignment Winner Jim Oker

“I was camped at Harris Beach State Park over the holidays two years ago in order to explore the Samuel Boardman Corridor just to the north,” explains Oker. One evening, though, I decided to check out Harris Beach as the tide approached low near sunset. I waded with my gear out into the ebbing and flowing water well back from the crashing surf, with one eye always on the surges that flowed in from wave ‘sets.’ I gravitated to this area where the water wrapped around this rock as it flowed outwards and took a few trials to land on a 2 second exposure for the surf with full polarization in order to get good contrast between the foam and the clear water and nice blur lines in the foreground. But with the wide angle, I first took an exposure for the sky and distance with the polarization dialed out to avoid getting a weird gradient in the sky. I found the process of seeking and capturing this scene to be quite meditative, with a bit of a loss of sense of time during the event. I combined the exposures in Photoshop where I also did some dodging and burning to emphasize the blur lines.”

Nikon D800, 17mm, ISO 200, f/16, two exposures with one at 2 sec. and one at 1/2 sec.