If you stand by Juanita Bay for a few minutes, you will see fish leaping out of the water periodically. The carp are spawning and they leap out all the time. Getting a shot of a leaping fish seems like it would be almost impossible since you couldn’t know where they would be leaping next and getting lined up would not be possible in the tiny instant that they are out of the water even if you did see them immediately. However, there is some hope.
For some reason, the fish will often leap twice in roughly the same place. However, they only seem to do it when you are not training your camera on the spot where they last came out. I will watch with the camera down and see them jump again and again. Bring the camera up and they don’t play ball – normally. However, I did get lucky on one occasion. I got a second leap as I pointed the camera at the location of the previous ripples.
I had an even better chance on a later date. I was staring down into the water and could see the shape of a carp as it swam just below the surface. I didn’t know whether it would be possible to get a clear shot of it in the water but started tracking it anyway. Then it turned and came out of the water right below me. I couldn’t have been better placed to get the shot. I’ll take a good dose of luck any time.
The Pacific Northwest shorelines are strewn with tree trunk. Whether they have been washed in to the see or are strays from the logging business, doesn’t matter. There are tons of them everywhere. This one was on Cannon Beach. I have no idea where it originally came from but it had washed up here at some point and got quite established in the sand. The surface of the wood had become the home of a multitude of sea creatures. It was festooned with them. I wonder how much they depend on it staying there or, if it gets washed out again in the next storm, they would be in trouble.
