Every year at the fair we have a drawing for a free portrait session. Thursday we had scheduled a shoot for the winning entrant and had planned to photograph her and her fiance at the beach flying a kite. Thursday morning broke nice and clear, which was a relief after the previous stormy weather we had. Arriving at work I was excited to notice that there was just a light breeze, perfect for kite flying. Around 11, I went down to the post office and noticed a few clouds rolling in. By noon the sky had turned a solid gray, and by 2pm it was getting dark, and the wind had picked up past kite flying weather. At 2:30 I tried calling the couple to cancel but they must have already been on their way. They arrived a few minutes before 3, and just as I was telling them it would be best to cancel, the rain started coming down. That’s Ferndale weather for you.

So this morning, after doing some quick painting in the parlour, I decided to go for a motorcycle ride. Expecting brisk fall weather, I put on my insulated pants and heavy jacket. I rode out to Guthrie Creek and then hiked down to the beach. It was still early due to the time change but I was amazed at how pleasant it was. After I got back I called our prize winning couple to see if they were available to shoot. They were, so in the afternoon we went out to Centerville. Beautiful warm day, only problem, there wasn’t even a hint of wind so kite flying was out. We decided instead to trek over to Loleta’s beach and on the way over I mentioned that the only thing preventing it from being a perfect day was that the sky was totally cloudless. Well by the time we arrive in Loleta there were light clouds, but the fog was still non-existent. We shot for a couple of hours up to sunset and were rewarded with one of the nicest sunsets I’ve seen at the beach. Usually on the north coast beaches you can expect the fog to roll in right before sunset. This was the first time I remember photographing a sunset where there was absolutely no fog on the horizon. So even though they didn’t get to fly their kite, we ended up with a beautiful set of pictures for them.