Posts Tagged beach
May 4, 2011 – Oahu’s North Shore
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on May 4, 2011
North Shore, Oahu
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
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Another one from Hawaii today, again from the North Shore of Oahu. I’m not sure what the name of this beach is (or if it even has a name), but it was along the road a little ways northeast of Sunset Beach. I stopped there to snap a couple pictures when I was on the way to pick up some breakfast. The clouds were rolling through all morning, so this particular shot doesn’t have quite the sunlight I was hoping for (and I had already spent more time than I had intended to here – so I didn’t want to wait another 5-10 minutes for the current cloud to pass me by). Also, it was a bit too early in the morning for the sun to be in quite the right spot.
Wait, back up a second, I should explain myself there. Most of the time, see, you get the best light for pictures either in the early morning or late afternoon. (Heard the phrase “golden hour”?) That’s because around noon and in the early afternoon, the sun just washes everything out, and you get flat colors and uninteresting shadows. Plus you can get a lot of haze and such which further drown out all the color. But, in my experience, that rule doesn’t apply when you’re taking pictures of tropical beaches. In fact, the opposite is often true. See, one of the things that’s so awesome about these places is the beautiful sand and the turquoise water. And, the best way (that I’ve found) to get that turquoise to really glow in your pictures is to have the sun shining right down on it, so that the light bounces off the sandy bottom and diffuses throughout. That, plus a polarizer filter, is how you get this kind of glow. So, the glow was kind of starting to come out here, but it was a bit too early yet for it to really shine (and, as I mentioned, the cloud that was halfway blocking the sun also didn’t help.)
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. 1/250s, f/8.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 16mm.
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April 1, 2011 – Makapu’u Beach, O’ahu
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on April 1, 2011
Makapu'u Beach, Hawaii
Friday, April 1, 2011
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Hey look, I’m back! And this is where I went! That’s right, I was in Hawaii, and it was awesome. Specifically, I was on the island of O’ahu for a week. I spent a few nights in Waikiki, then a few nights on the north shore. This picture though is from neither of those. You’re looking at Makapu’u Beach and the Kalanianaole Highway, at the southeastern tip of the island. Most of the beaches around there are just absurdly beautiful, which in some ways I found pretty surprising after spending the first couple days in Honolulu. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Honolulu’s not bad, it’s a fine place to spend some beach time, but it doesn’t have this gorgeous white sand and turquoise water that a lot of other spots on the island do. (Not to mention the cliffs and mountains and all that.) Great stuff.
So anyway, I’m back now, and it’s April, a brand new month. So hopefully I’ll start posting again with at least some sort of regularity. Time will tell if that actually happens though.
In other news, if you were hoping to get your hands on a print or two, this is your chance! I’ll sell you a print of any picture you see on the blog, and 100% of the proceeds will go to a good cause: to help offset the medical expenses incurred by the sister of a friend of mine who was recently diagnosed with stage IV stomach cancer. I haven’t thought too much about what price to charge, but let’s say somewhere around $20 for a 12 x 18 inch print, or $35 for 20 x 30 inches. (That’s approximately 30 x 46 cm, and 51 x 76 cm, for you metric types.) I’ll even ship it for free! (Well, I’ll ship to the US for free. If you’re international, I’ll have to check what it’ll cost me before I commit to that. 
) If you’re interested, leave a comment here or shoot me an email! ( dave (at) davefry.net ) (Alternatively, I could send your proceeds to the Red Cross for Earthquake relief – your choice.)
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. 1/320s, f/7.1, ISO 200. Focal length: 11mm.
UPDATE: In response to the first comment below, here is the original, unedited image straight off the camera (well, shrunk down to web-size, but you know what I mean):
As you can see, I did some tweaking to the brightness/contrast, and I added a bit of sharpening too. I used the editing functionality from Picasa to make those changes (which is what I use for 99% of my photo editing – the other 1% is when I use Picnik to straighten something, because Picasa’s straighten feature results in a lower-quality image.) If you wanted to know more specifics about what I did (or how), please ask!
Popularity: 24%
February 14, 2011 – St. Martin, seen from Pinel Island
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on February 14, 2011
St. Martin, seen from Pinel Island
Monday, February 14, 2011
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So I guess I should start off by saying “Happy Valentine’s Day”! So, umm, Happy Valentine’s Day!
Right, so, that’s done. Here’s a picture from the Caribbean. No, this wasn’t recent, I didn’t just get back from another secret trip to some exotic location or anything. This one was actually taken on my honeymoon oh-so-long-ago. The land across the water is St. Martin / St. Maarten (it’s half French and half Dutch, you know), and I was standing on Yellow Beach (on Pinel Island) when I took the picture. We were there on a cruise, and we took an island tour that included a snorkeling expedition to Pinel Island. That’s… really the most interesting part of the story.
I usually avoid having people in my pictures. Because people tend to be ugly. And even if they’re not ugly, I think it’s really cheeseball when you see some amazingly awesome landscape photo with some person wearing horribly outdated clothes right there in the mix. It totally distracts from the scene you’re trying to portray, if you ask me. I suppose to get around that you could just have all of the people be naked, but then you have a different kind of picture entirely. So, I apologize for the folks who may or may not be ugly in today’s picture (hey man, I’m not here to judge – that’s your job.) But it was sort of unavoidable given the circumstances. Have a great day!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 18-55mm kit lens. 1/400s, f/8.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 28mm.
Popularity: 16%
September 3, 2010 – Negril Craft Market
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on September 3, 2010
Negril Craft Market, Jamaica
Friday, September 3, 2010
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Apparently I’ve adopted a 3-days-a-week routine for posting to this blog. That wasn’t really the intention, I swear. It just sort of ended up that way for the past couple weeks. As a result, I set a new record in August for the fewest posts in a month (13 – that’s not counting May, 2009, which was the month I started, because I started it in the middle of the month). A dubious achievement, for sure. Especially since it was a 31 day month. Sigh. Maybe this month I’ll do better.
Today’s picture takes us back to Jamaica, which is where I went for my big happy vacation earlier this year. This picture is actually pretty similar to one I already posted awhile ago. But it’s different enough that I have no qualms about posting it. (I’m still pretending that there’s actually some kind of rule that says I can’t post the same picture twice.) This was taken at the Negril Craft Market, which is on the 7-mile beach in Negril, at the very western point of the island. The beach and the water are stunningly gorgeous, but it’s not the place to go if you’re looking for solitude and relaxation. It’s a very developed beach, meaning there are hotels along the entire stretch, and tons of people walking around. I’m not trying to say that’s a bad thing, but if you’re looking for a place where you have the whole beach to yourself, this ain’t it. When we were there, we split our time, half of it staying right on the beach, and the other half staying up on “the cliffs”, which is a stretch of rocky shoreline further along the highway. All of the hotels there still have access to the water and such, but the shoreline is all rocky cliffs (thus, the name) that are generally 10-20 feet high. So the hotels usually have some stairs built into the rocks, or little ladders to let you in the water. Those are actually fantastic choices if you’re looking for solitude. As an added bonus, you can find really great snorkeling and diving right outside of your hotel room. If you don’t actually require a sandy entrance to the water, I think I prefer it. Good times.
I’m rambling. Sorry. Back to this picture. As I mentioned, this was taken at the craft market. The craft market consists of a lot of little huts like these. At the time we were there, about a third of them were open for business, with people selling all the artsy and craftsy stuff that you’d expect (little figurines, cheap t-shirts, wooden carvings of Bob Marley, sunset paintings, etc). The backside of the market butts up against the beach, although it was a stretch of beach that nobody seemed to be using for anything (it was separated a bit from the stretch of hotels). The water was still awfully nice though. As with most of the pictures I got while down there, I used a polarizing filter for this shot, which is an absolute REQUIREMENT for taking pictures of the beach and the water. If you’re going somewhere beachy with pretty water like this, don’t hesitate, just go buy one, and thank me later.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/250s, f/7.1, ISO 100. Focal length: 26mm.
Popularity: 44%
June 25, 2010 – Negril Beach
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on June 25, 2010
Negril Beach, Jamaica
Friday, June 25, 2010
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So I realized yesterday that seeing an image taken in the middle of the winter may not be the most appropriate thing to post at the beginning of the summer, so I decided to send you all off to your weekend with a nice beach shot. That’s actually a totally garbage anecdote, I just needed a way to start off today’s post, other than just saying “Hello, everyone!” Hope you enjoyed it.
Yes, this is another shot from my Jamaican vacation a little while ago. I’ve still got a ton of pics left from that trip, but I’ve basically covered all the major themes. (I’ve got a beach shot, a beach shot with a boat, a sunset shot, a sunset shot with a boat.. you get the idea.) But, as long as I space them out a bit, I figure it’s ok.
Now, for the meaty part of the post. I believe I’ve mentioned at least once or twice before how useful a polarizing filter can be. (In fact, I think I said something along the lines of “If you go to the beach without one I’ll hunt you down and say derogatory things to you until your self-esteem is significantly worse than it was before.”) So it turns out that, while I was in Jamaica, I was playing around a bit with the video feature on my current SLR (Canon T1i), and I took a couple movies with the polarizer on there, so you can see what it actually does for you. It’s one thing to talk about it, but it’s another thing entirely to actually SEE it. In case you’ve never seen or used one before, a circular polarizer is a filter that you screw on to the front of your lens like any other filter. However, unlike most filters, it’s actually comprised of two pieces, such that the actual glass part of the filter can freely rotate on your lens, because the polarizer does different things depending on the angle of the light. In practice, this changes the effect of the filter from being almost negligible (well, it basically changes it just into a neutral density filter, which has the effect of just dimming the light, like sunglasses, without affecting the color at all) to being full-on polarized. Thus, when using one, you rotate the filter to get the effect you want, then you take the picture. So, in the video below, that’s what I was doing, just rotating the filter while recording the video. This doesn’t really require explanation if you actually watch the video, but watch what it does to the water, and you’ll understand why you should never go to the Caribbean without one.
Right, on that note.. Have a great weekend!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens with circular polarizer. 1/200s, f/9.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 50mm, cropped.
Popularity: 22%
May 28, 2010 – Sunset Cruise in Negril
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on May 28, 2010
Sunset Cruise, Negril, Jamaica
Friday, May 28, 2010
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It seems like every other day I’m posting a sunset pic from my Jamaica trip. But I’ve got a lot of good ones, so I don’t know what else to do! This was taken from Negril Beach, which is at the very western end of the island. I.. umm.. don’t really know what else to say here.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Quantaray 70-300mm lens. 1/200s, f/8.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 300mm.
Popularity: 29%
May 11, 2010 – Negril Beach, Jamaica
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on May 11, 2010
7 Mile Beach, Negril, Jamaica
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
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Here’s yet another Jamaica picture. As promised, I’m dribbling them out to you guys one at a time. The last part of that sentence is actually not very interesting, as ALL of the pictures I toss out to you guys are “one at a time”. In fact, unless your eyes are ambidextrous, you would probably have difficultly digesting them more than one at a time, even if I put two of them right next to each other. So… umm. Right. Here’s another Jamaica picture.
I’m not gonna lie – you will probably see other pictures that are REALLY REALLY similar to the ones you’ve already seen at some point. I still haven’t had a chance to actually go through all the pictures I took on the trip (it’s a lack of motivation thing, not a lack of time thing), so I don’t actually know with any confidence that this is the “best” glass-bottom-boat-and-water picture got. All I know is that it’s “a” glass-bottom-boat-and-water picture. So, don’t be surprised. That’s all.
As you’ve probably been able to surmise by reading the, I don’t know, title of the page, this was taken on the 7 mile beach in Negril, Jamaica. As I’ve mentioned, it’s as beautiful as you would expect a Caribbean white-sand beach to be. Yes, the water really is that color. There’s also a reef a ways off shore, and a lot of folks have these little glass bottom boats that they use to take you out to the reef on a snorkel tour. I actually went on a couple of them, although neither one was done by this guy. (I went with “Famous Vincent” both times – if you’re in the area, ask around for him, he’s cool.) But, this guy’s got a cool looking boat, so… he wins. The snorkeling itself is great. It’s a nice shallow reef, lots of fish, all that goodness. I’m hardly a snorkeling connoisseur, so as far as I know it may really suck compared to other places, whatever. My guess is that it’s probably not “world class”, as in someplace you have to see before you die if you’re a hardcore snorkeler, but it’s probably right up there with lots of other “great” spots that you’ll find throughout the Caribbean. For what it’s worth, the BEST snorkeling I’ve ever done was on a boat tour of the British Virgin Islands on my honeymoon. We stopped at these weird finger-shaped rocks poking out of the water off some island, and there was just a huge wall of coral that we swam around. I have never seen such vivid colors before or since. It was helped by the fact that the water had an unreal clarity around then. I don’t know if that’s just due to the time of year (it was late June) or what, but it was truly fantastic. (In Jamaica, the water was definitely clear enough, but not as clear as on our honeymoon. As mentioned, that was June, whereas Jamaica was late March.)
Another note of interest: when I was walking along the beach on the day I took this shot (I had just finished my 2nd snorkel tour, and I asked Vincent to drop me off up the beach a ways from our hotel) I was walking at about the same pace as this lady. I kept passing her, but then she’d pass me when I stopped to take some pics. We struck up conversations a couple times, and she mentioned that she was a travel-planner type person, based in Kingston. (She said she herself was just out in Negril for a weekend holiday.) I felt that this was mildly interesting, and told her so. But then she decided to share her opinion that the best time to get pictures was either just after sunrise or just before sunset, that at the time that I was currently taking pictures (about 11am), I would most likely not get good pictures. I thought this was a very subtly rude thing to say. Basically “I see you trying really hard, it’s kind of sad that your pictures will all suck.” I explained to her that, under normal circumstances, yes, she was right. Normally noon-time light drains all the color out of stuff, and makes super harsh shadows. However, I explained to her, I had found from my own personal experience that at sunset, with the sun behind the water, all you could see was the orange from the sun, you couldn’t see the white sand or the turquoise water, which is sort of the whole point of being in Negril. In the early morning it’s also not ideal, and not just because I’d still be sleeping. In this particular case, the sun being directly overhead led to the best results, because that really lit up the sand underneath the water, which is exactly where the turquoise color comes from. That, combined with a polarizer filter to remove glare from the surface, I had found to be the best combination to get the picture that *I was going for*. I tried to illustrate for her exactly what I was talking about, showing her both the images that I was currently taking, as well as pictures that I had taken the previous day just before sunset. She shrugged me off as CLEARLY an amateur, and reiterated that, no, the best pictures cannot be taken at noon. And that was that. So I said thanks for the tip, and we resumed our similar pace down the beach. That wasn’t awkward at all.
What am I trying to say here? Not sure. Maybe this is just yet another example of the fact that there are no hard and fast rules in photography. Every rule is meant to be broken. Really, it’s all just guidelines. To get the most out of anything you learn about photography, you need to actually *understand* the rule, not just follow it. You have to know *why* it tends to be helpful, so that you can break it most effectively. That’s right everybody, listen to me, because I am awesome. Wooo!
Oh, one more thing, just to reiterate: don’t go NEAR a beach without a circular polarizer! I’m serious!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens w/ circular polarizer. 1/200s, f/10.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 50mm.
Popularity: 44%
April 7, 2010 – Negril Craft Market
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on April 7, 2010
Negril Craft Market, Jamaica
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
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Aaaaaaaand we’re back. Sucks, right? For me, definitely. Sigh. I had a great trip though, it’s always nice to get away. And man, I got away, let me tell you. Key West, Fort Lauderdale, and two different spots around Negril, Jamaica. I learned, among other things, that if some dude comes up to you on the beach and tells you he’s a farmer, he’s not just making small talk about his vocation.
Since I just got back late last night, I obviously haven’t had a chance to go through all my pictures yet. (I got about 16 gigs worth to trudge through!) So, I just grabbed one that looked good enough to use for today’s post, just because it wouldn’t be right to come home from Jamaica and not use a Jamaican picture, right? So, here you go.
This was taken at the Negril Craft Market, which is a place where all the taxis dump tourists so they can “interact with” the locals. It’s a bunch of charmingly dilapidated shacks, each containing the same dubious merchandise as the next, where Jamaican natives take serious advantage of the fact that Americans have no clue how to barter. If you’re looking for a cheaply-made t-shirt, an “original painting”, or a “unique” wood carving, and you’ve got a pile of US dollars burning a hole in your pocket, this is the place for you. While we were there, most of the shops were closed (we asked why, and the answer we kept getting was “uhh, because it’s Monday?”, in the same tone that you would get if you asked why most of the mall was closed on christmas here in the states), but there were still plenty of them open for us to see the basic selection of trinkets available and have a perfectly mediocre time. But there were a few bright spots. For one, we did eventually leave the craft market (although our cab fare mysteriously jumped from 10 bucks to 35 because we asked to stop at the atm on the way home). And also, at the end of one of the rows was a nice little entrance to the famous Negril beach. (Albeit a section that had enough garbage to rival the best efforts of apathy and neglect that you’ll find anywhere.) As you can tell, the beach is absolutely gorgeous, even the parts where nobody cares enough to keep it nice.
Anyway, I’m sure you’ll be seeing plenty of pics from the area over the next several months, so get comfortable!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens w/circular polarizer. 1/160s, f/7.1, ISO 100. Focal length, 20mm.
Popularity: 24%
May 28, 2009 – Yellow Beach, Pinel Island
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on May 28, 2009
Yellow Beach, Pinel Island, St. Maarten
Thursday, May 28, 2009.
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This is Yellow Beach. It’s on Pinel Island, which is a tiny little dot of land just off the coast of St. Martin/St. Maarten. (I mean, it’s literally a few hundred yards off the coast.) St. Martin is an island in the Caribbean that’s owned half by the French (who call it St. Martin), and half by the Dutch (who call it St. Maarten). For the most part, this doesn’t really affect the lives of the locals too much, but according to our tour guide, there is an occasional inconvenience. For example: from the French half of the island, it’s cheaper to call mainland France than it is to call the Dutch half of the island. Huh, weird.
Julie and I were here on our honeymoon. We spent the first week or so on a Caribbean cruise, then we got off the boat in St. Thomas (U.S. owned), which was the last port call before the boat returned to Puerto Rico, and we spent several more nights there. We ended up on Yellow Beach as part of a snorkeling tour / bus trip around the island. The snorkeling from here was no better than “decent”, but any day spent on the beach is fantastic, so all in all it was a great time.
Map for this one: http://tinyurl.com/l52hrc
I was able to get pretty exact with the location on this one, google had some great satellite images.
I found some guy who also made it out to Pinel island. Here’s his blog. But he doesn’t like Bud Light, at least not as much as I do.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 18-55 mm kit lens. 1/250s, f/10.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 21 mm.
Popularity: 15%