Trick Photography

December 2022

I recently went hiking on the Bayocean Peninsula. It’s a place I live around the corner from now. And like a number of beaches within Tillamook County, it’s a place where I took one of my favorite photos of Kara. However, unlike the sneak attack memory scenario that transpired at Cape Lookout a few weeks prior, I went to Bayocean fully aware that I would be walking with an extra shadow beside me.

I didn’t necessarily go there with the intention of reliving a memory or working shit out. Mostly, I went because it’s a nice piece of nature that I haven’t been to in years, and now reside only 10 minutes away from. Of course, there were some rough moments. In particular, along the stretch of beach where I took this photo. It was windy when I visited, just as it had been on that day years ago. And on that day, we started getting pelted with sand the moment we emerged from the forest and onto the beach, and she was none too pleased about it. But remembering that also made me chuckle.

She was along with me on a work trip, once again gathering intel for a writing project about hikes in the area. One of the very few negatives about being an outdoor writer is that you don’t always get to pick the time of day or year that you’ll be able to experience the place you’ve been tasked with writing about. Sometimes you get one shot at it, and you need to get out there and reconnoiter the rim regardless of conditions. You have to be okay with that. But it doesn’t mean that your partner is always going to be.

Getting a metric shit ton of sand grains out of hair as long and as thick as hers was a chore she wasn’t looking forward to. So she put her hair up and ardently strode down the beach, cursing the elements beneath her breath with East Coast zeal and execution.

Then I took a photo that luckily belied any of that trauma. Rather, it portrayed my goth gal gracefully strolling down an empty beach. Is she thinking of the future? Her love-filled life and adventures yet to come? Nope. She’s thinking of how she’s going to get even with me for this.