Costa Rica Beach

I took a vacation in Costa Rica. I thought that my favorite picture

would be some exotic bird or monkey, but I found that I liked this

one best.

I moved to Hawaii from Texas a few years ago and I'm still trying to figure out taking nice beach pictures that really represent the serenity and beauty of what you are seeing and feeling. I think this photo does as well as most, though I think it is a little busy with too many things to take your attention. A polarizer may have helped the person and the palms in the foreground pop out a bit more, but adding another peice of glass with the lens and the teleconverter may have ended up hurting the contrast and colors too much.

This may sound strange, but one of the funnest beach cameras I've ever used was a $30 stereoscopic camera from the Nature Company. The picures are completely unusable for a forum like this, but can really capture that sense of the ocean going on forever behind something interesting in front. My kids like looking at the stereoscopic pictures more as well.

I read some of your comments regarding B&W photos. I took a photo class in college years ago and most entry level classes (at least then)teach black and white so you can learn composition easier and it's cheaper to process and print yourself. I enjoy it and think that there are certain instances where color can distract when the desire is to capture a texture or pattern. Sometimes it can be sterile and I don't believe in taking B&W just for the sake of it being B&W, certainly there are better color moments.

Nice photo

As I stroll through your folders the word 'snapshot' most often comes to mind.

Sorry....1/1