In general, I love being outdoors and I especially love being at the beach. I have an intense connection to the Pacific Northwest and am particularly fond of nearly all of Western Washington – but there are a few places specifically, that are very, very sacred to me. One of those places in Indianola.
A tiny community (and when I say tiny, I mean minute – there’s a post office a church and a general store that appears to be circa 1935) that is essentially centered around one very important geographic feature: a gorgeous, rocky quintessential Puget Sound beach.
Second only to the shore itself in nostalgic beauty and local affection is the dock – a spindly, tall structure that has been rebuilt and redesigned several times since its original creation as dock for one of the mosquito fleet ferries of the 1920’s.
I had the incredible luck of living in this tiny zip code, in a lovely, 3 bedroom modern craftsman-style home, a mere 4 minute walk from the beach for a matter of months in 2006. Complete with a pond in the backyard, a large open kitchen, a few stained glass windows, a Jacuzzi tub in the master bath and a home office with the most gorgeous light in the morning… this house was perfect.
When we lived in Indianola, Olivia and I would take twice-daily walks from our front porch to the beach, sans-leash. We would sit on the pier and stare out at the changing weather over Bainbridge Island and Seattle and smell the salty air, soak in the noon sun, the morning rain or whatever else mother nature may have been in store for us. Those were the days.
The purpose of my vast detailing of this location is to set the tone for just how profound this place is to me – and how excited I was when one of my clients agreed to travel there for their long-desired “labs on the beach” shoot.
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The first time I photographed Ollie and Cocoa was at their lovely home in Seattle – we had hoped to make it to the Arboretum that same day, but as often happens in the Northwest – the weather had conspired against us. So, Joslyn and Jen opted to schedule a second shoot, for later in the summer when the weather was sure to be much improved. The Friday before Father’s Day we made our journey to Indianola – this time the weather was miraculous, but unforeseen circumstances almost dashed our hopes of the perfect beach shoot in the perfect place: teenagers.
Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a teen that long ago – and I’ve got nothing against them personally, but what I didn’t know when we slyly scheduled our morning shoot on this popular beach for a weekday (to avoid crowds), was that it was the last day of school in Kitsap County.
So, instead of a shoreline vacant save for shore birds, pebbles and a few neighbors out walking – we arrived to a beach FULL of fresh-faced teens in their finest beach apparel, BBQ’ing, throwing frisbee, and clogging the narrow pier. Did I mention BBQ’ing? Does anyone else see the impending disaster of two young labs off leash at a beach BBQ? Yeah. We did too. Immediately.
We turned away from the party before the pups could get a sniff of the hot dogs or they’d for-sure find their way back.
After a not-so-short walk down the beach via a super-secret-squirrel path, we arrived at a mostly deserted section of the shore and got down to business, the business of throwing two balls at the perfect rhythm so as to achieve the desired “both dogs running towards the beach with a ball in their mouth” shot. Wow, was it hard to time!
After nearly two hours of attempts, humans and hounds were all tired and gleefully covered in sand, saltwater and the rosy-blush of almost-sunburn. Happy with the results of our mid-day adventure, we returned to cars, parted ways, and I turned back to my favorite beach for some quality quiet time.
Here are some “fetching” shots from Indianola with Ollie and Coca. {Photography note – this was the WORST time of day to take action shots of two dark dogs – bright mid-day sun – eesh! Sometimes, you just have to work with whatcha got. In this case, I am very pleased with the results!!}
**Apparently this is Rayne’s “spot” – she loves to lounge between the hedge and the fence, I was lucky I was able to capture this shot when her parents explained it was important – she was only there for a moment**
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