30 Jan 2024 Photography Beach

Gulf Shores State Park Pier in a Storm

Last week, a storm swept through the Gulf Shores area, bringing rain and fog, ideal for low contrast photography.

Long Exposure of Gulf State Park Pier in a Storm (view full res)

A rather large storm system came in from the Gulf last week, which brought warmer temperatures and a lot of rain. I went down to the Gulf Shores / Orange Beach area to try to get some images of the storm and the Gulf State Park Pier, but by the time I got down there it had turned into a blanket of fog with high winds. The storm was a little late in forming, so my time was spent basically covered up in clouds wind and light-to-moderate rain. Conditions that make it pretty difficult to see anything, but great conditions for some low contrast photography. It was great not to have super harsh shadows and a very even light. This was just the lighting I was looking for to get a long misty exposure of Gulf State Park Pier, which is the image featured above.

Houses Under Construction on the Beach — Houses in Gulf Shores under construction on the beach (view full res)

Entering Beach Blvd Gulf Shores — Driving under the bridge on Beach Blvd in Gulf Shores (view full res)

Unfortunately for me and my timing, Gulf State Park Pier was completely closed to repair previous hurricane damage on the outer section of the Pier. According to the information posted, on November 13, 2023 Gulf State Park started the refurbishment of the Gulf State Park Pier. This was to address the damages inflicted by Hurricane Sally in 2020. As part of this renovation, they are reconstructing a 200-foot section that suffered collapse during the hurricane. They have stated they anticipate reopening of the pier for the summer of 2024.

Damaged Section of the Pier

You can see the disconnected sections in my images below. It had been a long time since I had been out on that end pavilion, but it will be nice to be able to get that far off shore when it opens back up this summer.

Gulf State Park Pier in a Storm — Part of the damaged section of Gulf Pier (view full res)

It's also hard to see scale in those shots. This end pavilion is way, way out there. On this day I spent the better part of 2-3 hours working on shots around the pier and the surf. It was a red flag warning, and for good reason. The onshore wind (not breeze) was blowing constantly making for a pretty angry sea state.

Surf Pounding the Pier Pillars in a storm. (view full res)

Waves Crashing in Gulf State Park — Waves crashing on the shore in Gulf State Park (view full res)

One of the most amazing things about the Alabama Gulf Coast is what a gem we have in the beaches and public access places, like the Gulf Pier. Even though it wasn't open right now, it's still quite photogenic if you want to walk to get there. The area does have several great parking lots just for public beach access. The pavilions are amazing, expansive, and clean. My only complaint is the cost to park (pretty much anywhere) and if you own a dog, forget about bringing him with you, there just aren't any places that will allow pets. Those two points aside, the beaches are huge vast beautiful open spaces. I love this shot below of the lady and her son walking on the beach. While it was during a storm, and on a January day, it's not unheard of to have the beach to yourself during certain times of the day and year. It also helps that it was 75° in January, as well.

Walking an Empty Beach in Gulf Shores (view full res)

Looking Out Over the Gulf Pier (view full res)

This isn't by accident of course. There are huge renovation projects going on everywhere on the Gulf Coast. This article, Beach Renourishment Project Update and Schedule, gives a good view of the projects and timelines crews are working with throughout the Alabama Gulf Coast. The City of Gulf Shores also provides several great updates to the ongoing beach projects.

Gulf State Park Pier Photos

It was the Gulf State Pier I came to see on this day, and I got several shots of the pier in an ongoing fog, rain, mist, storm-like day. The mist-fog was so thick at times you couldn't see any of the buildings in the background making the images have a more dreamy look of walking into the fog and disappearing into the afternoon.

Walking Under Gulf Pier — Walking along the beach under the Gulf Pier (view full res)

Rough Surf Pounding Against Gulf State Park Pier (view full res)

Gulf State Park Pier Section from the East Side (view full res)

The shot I drove down here to get was this one below. An empty pier, using a long exposure (30 seconds in this case) of the ocean churned up, becoming its own fog. For the shot below I was standing in almost hip-deep water at the time with the camera on a tripod trying to keep the breaking waves from vibrating the camera. It worked. This was the shot I wanted, although because of the storm there were almost no colors present, only greens and blues, which is fine, I like how it turned out.

Two Favorite Shots

Self Portrait at Gulf Shores Pier Beach — Self Portrait Looking at the storm at Gulf Shores Pier Beach (view full res)

There is just something amazing about standing in front of the ocean looking out over the vastness of time and space. I did have one curious visitor this day. This Great Blue Heron came to visit and took a look in my camera bag to see if I had brought any fish. He was disappointed. If you want to see the full high resolution version of these images they're uploaded on the Gulf State Park Pier Flickr gallery.