Port of Grays Harbor, Hoquiam, Wash.
Yesterday morning we had perfect weather for an early morning photoshoot, with temps near 50 degrees and no rain.
Fifty degrees is somewhat normal for us at this time of year, but the no rain part can be a rarity. I took advantage and walked across town to Dog Marsh on the bay of Grays Harbor, curious to see what wildlife I might run across at daybreak. I found plenty (the ducks in this photo, a flock of Western grebes, seagulls, and even a sea lion blowing far out in the bay), but I simply had to start the shoot with the port terminals all lit up beneath that dramatic cloud cover.
There are three Port of Grays Harbor terminals adjacent to one another here, across the water on the Hoquiam-Aberdeen city line. The prominent structure in the center is a group of nine silos and an elevator at Terminal 2, where they ship agricultural products. According to the port website linked above, they can store 64,000 metric tons of product at Terminal 2 – I'm not sure if they mean the silos can store that much, but we're looking at them from at least a mile away in this photo ... they're pretty massive.
Another feature of this photo that demonstrates the scope of this space is the set of white lights on the right. Those are lights on an ocean vessel (one of the big cargo ships, like this one) docked at Terminal 4, a general cargo terminal.
On the far left we can see steam rising from the Sierra Pacific sawmill, located over five miles away on the far side of Aberdeen. The plume of steam closer in, which seems to be reflecting the lights of the port, was a bit of a mystery to me. I couldn't think what would be producing steam that close, but through a brief internet search I discovered that the small company Paneltech, located near the city line in Hoquiam, is a papermill with curing ovens, so that's probably their steam.
The waters here are the confluence of the Hoquiam and Chehalis rivers at the east end of the bay of Grays Harbor. The mouth of the Hoquiam River is just around the bend on the left, and the mouth of the Chehalis, which could be considered the very start of the bay, is right about where the ocean vessel is docked at Terminal 4.
Those photobombing ducks were almost definitely checking me out while I was photographing the terminals. They kept zigzagging back and forth, right in the reflections on the water, before momentarily disappearing in the direction of the Hoquiam River. They soon reappeared, following the shore and approaching to within a few yards of me before veering off into the bay. I snapped a few photos of them, but because of the low light conditions I was using a slow shutter speed (1/4 for this photo, f/5.6, ISO 1000), and they came out as a blur.
They did deflect my attention away from the port terminals and to the west, where I discovered a dozen or so Western grebes scattered on the water. The grebes will be the photographic subject of another post, coming out within the next week, I hope.
Stay tuned and Happy Thanksgiving!
