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Pre-dawn at the Heceta Head Lighthouse, Oregon

Compare this twilight photo with the evening photo I posted yesterday, and you can see why many consider Heceta Head to be the most beautiful lighthouse on the western U.S. coast.

 

Heceta’s 8-sided Fresnel lens rotates around the lamp (electric today—kerosene 100 years ago). Until 1934, this rotation was done with a manually operated clockworks. Today, the rotation is powered by an electric motor. One of the eight bull’s-eyes of the lens has just rotated to my camera position. This flash of light happens every 10 seconds—producing a “signature” that mariners recognize as Heceta Head (every lighthouse has it’s own signature). Heceta’s light is the brightest light on the Oregon coast, and it’s British-made lens is the largest of its type in the U.S. The height of the lighthouse (56-feet), which is also midway up a 205-foot-tall headland, helps to insure that the beam will clear the fog that often hovers around the shoreline.

 

POST PROCESSING: What happens when the camera image does meet your vision or expectations? The previous photo shows the before and after post processing.

 

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Uploaded on September 4, 2015
Taken on July 4, 2015