Sea Stars

I couldn’t wait to see my old friends, the sea stars. Four years ago, almost to the day, we visited Bandon Beach on the Oregon coast, mainly looking for these creatures. We even wrote about it in: Reaching for the Stars. Our hotel is right on the beach fording us many opportunities to shoot during nice light, predominantly sunrise and sunset. The only way to photograph these stars is to do so at low tide. Luck was with us as we were fortunate to hit a period of reasonably low tides. Unfortunately, the low tides were during the harsh light of day. But luck was with us as a layer of coastal clouds moved in and transformed what should have been some of the worst light of the day into some of the best shooting conditions for our good friends.

Our friends are called Ochre Sea Stars (Pisaster ochraceus), a keystone species of the Pacific Northwest’s rocky intertidal ecosystem. Their colors ranged from bright orange to deep purple, often side by side in the same tide pool. I kept being drawn to the bright orange ones making be believe those would also be good for my images.

With the tide very low, the receding water exposed vast areas of rocky shoreline that are normally underwater.  This allowed us to have a closeup look at how these stars live, and who are their neighbors. We walked from tide pool to tide pool, sea stack to sea stack, often forgetting there were waves with heights that often crested our boots. It mattered not, we were with our friends, taking many a photo.

There is a nice characteristic of sea stars that aid our photography – they barely move – with a maximum racing speed of one foot per minute. Their predators include crabs, sea otters, seabirds, and predatory snails. I suppose if a snail is your predator, you don’t have to move fast at all. With a star at racing speed, I don’t see how they evade sea otters and seabirds. Regardless, I don’t think I ever saw one in motion. After 90 minutes of us meandering about, it was time to call it a wrap. 

Where land and sea meet, life thrives in the brief hours between the tides. You can see a sea stack in the distance.

The tide had barely stepped aside before the sea stars started stealing the show.

What looked like a colorful rock face turned out to be a crowded seaside apartment complex.

Personal space is not a concept that seems to have caught on.

Whether this was a friendly greeting, a territorial dispute, or an awkward first date remains unclear.

A moment of stillness transforms a tide pool into a perfect reflection of life above and below. This one is my favorite as it crosses from nature photography to fine art.

I hope I don’t have to wait another four years for our next visit. Stay wet, my friends.