The tide was low, and Stengel Beach was beautiful, but then it always is. I got into the water with no problems in the calm behind a bunch of rocks and headed north. The last trip here, I noticed a lot of big cracks or little coves in the cliff. This time I went into a few of them, and was occasionally followed in by a seal. The deck I was here to photograph was first visible apparently sticking out of the side of a group of trees. When I got close to it, I found that it was shadowed by those trees, and I could not find a good angle to photograph it from. The bright morning sunshine would over expose the picture without illuminating the deck. I could not get close enough to shore in the water to get into the shadow myself to take the picture. So I continued on to Shell Beach, hoping conditions would be better in a half an hour.
Shell Beach is another mild beach behind a collection of rocks. At really low tides, not like today, you can walk around some of the rocks on the sandy beach. Today I got to paddle into the calm water along the beach behind these rocks. But I could not wait all morning for the light, so I headed back to try my pictures again, even though the deck was still in shadow. This time, I paddled into the cove and got out of the kayak. I parked it in a pool behind some rocks and walked around looking for some angles that would make this picture work. I was unlikely to come back here for long time. It was interesting being able to stand in the water up to my waist and not worry about getting wet or cold.
