Harris Beach State Park was one of the most beautiful and unexpected spots during my recent trip in Oregon. If you are ever traveling to Northern California and the South Oregon Coast, make sure to stay in Brookings. They often enjoy temperatures 20 Fahrenheit higher than Crescent City, which is only 20 miles south, due to the highly localized Brookings Effect (similar to our Santa Ana winds in winter). It was close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit while I was there, even though the high in Crescent City was just 60 °F.
The S-shape of the small stream coming into the ocean in front of the numerous sea stacks at Harris Beach was a welcome foreground element. I saw most photographers present on that night taking pictures from the entry point of the stream at the beach level (and I cloned them out on this image). I believe that the higher vantage point was a plus for giving a structural element to this image. I had to combine two different exposures to adjust for the brighter sky, and also optimized the saturation and local contrast of the image with Topaz Adjust 5.
The smiling gecko 