Archives For Beach

Developing Creativity

Jay Patel —  April 15, 2013

How often to you hear photographers say that there is nothing to shoot because the light is really bad? When you hear yourself using that as an excuse – change your perspective. Instead of putting away your camera, see if you can get creative!

Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii (HI), USA

I took this shot late in the morning during our stay on the Big Island of Hawaii. The brilliant sunbeams appeared as mist from ocean spray blew through the trees. To capture sunbeams like these, you need bright sunlight… and mist or dust in the air. The particles in the air scatter the light, and create sunbeams.

Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii (HI), USA

I took this second shot to show you the conditions I was working with that morning. As you can see, the light was pretty harsh because the sun was up, and there were no clouds. Most photographers would classify this as “bad light” - but I see this as a great time to stretch your creativity.

Ok – so maybe this shot required certain conditions – the angle of the sun, the sea spray, the high trees near the beach. But this isn’t the only shot I took in bright sun while we were on the islands. I took each of the shots below when lighting conditions were less than optimal.

  • Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii (HI), USA

    Hilo, Hawaii

  • Lanai Kai, Oahu, Hawaii (HI), USA

    LaniKai, Oahu

  • Big Island, Hawaii (HI), USA

    Big Island, Hawaii

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Bean Hollow

Critique Your Own Work

Varina Patel —  January 17, 2013

This is a shot from Bean Hollow State Park in California. It’s not one of my favorite shots – and it won’t make it to my portfolio or my website. So why am I posting it here? Well – I believe that we can learn as much from images that don’t appeal to us as we can from those that do.

In this case, there are a few things that make this image unappealing to me. The first is that there is no clear point of interest. Where do I want your eye to go? Which element is the most important? Is it the sky? The foreground? Who knows!

The second problem is that the image feels very busy and cluttered. There’s a lot going on here. A variety of colors, tons of textures and details… too much, in my opinion.

And finally, do you see the leading line in the shot? The ridges in the rock seem to form a line – but where does it take you? It certainly doesn’t lead your eye toward any particularly interesting element. Nope. It points you directly towards a rather nondescript, smooth stone in the mid-ground. I just doesn’t work.

The next step is to think about what you might have done differently – and to compare the images you don’t like from a location to the ones that really appeal to you. In this case, I could have gotten down nice and low with my tripod. That simple adjustment would have helped this photo a lot. A lower perspective provides a “foreshortening” effect, which would help eliminate some of the uninteresting mid-ground. It would also help to hide that pointless leading line. Additionally, getting down low would bring my lens closer to the details in the foreground. They would appear larger in the frame, and that would help them stand out as a point of interest.

I believe that critiquing images you don’t like can have enormous benefits. Understanding what you don’t like can help you avoid it in the future, and thinking about how you could improve your own work is a great way to grow as a photographer.

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Lumahai Beach, Kauai, Hawaii (HI), USA

Lumahai Reflections

Jay Patel —  January 11, 2013

We spent a day shooting with our friend, Vincent Tylor, in Kaua. As the sun dropped low in the sky, we returned to Lumahai Beach. The sky was putting on a great show for us and I chose this shallow pool in the foreground to capture the reflections.

This is an moderately difficult blend of 3 separate bracketed images. I used our iHDR manual blending to retain the natural look of the image. If you look at the image closely, you will notice that the reflections are superimposed on the rocks below in part of the images… and details can be seen both above and below the surface of the water.

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St. Anne

Mine is bigger than yours!

Jay Patel —  November 28, 2012


Here’s a face that only a mother could love. :) A friend of ours pointed out these crabs a couple of years ago at Anne’s Beach in Florida. At the time, I did not have a lens long enough to capture these tiny critters.

This simple shot was all about catching the crabs in action. To do this, I had to lay down flat on my stomach in cold wet sand and position the camera on the ground. I remained as still as possible, and after a minute or two, the crabs started to come out of the sand all around me. Some were just two or three inches from my face! I moved very slowly to avoid scaring them away. By the time I was done, I was covered in sand and damp all over.

I used a Canon 70-200 F4 L lens with a 1.4x multiplier on a crop body to catch him. How sharp is this image? If you look at at the image at full size, you can see the hairs on his eyes. How cool is that!?

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Echoes of the Wave - Jay Patel

Echoes of the Wave

Jay Patel —  October 24, 2012


While I was photographing seals on a beach in Redwood Forest National Park, I noticed this glowing ridge about two miles away. I got in the car and drove closer to see if I could get a photo.

This shot was something of an accident. I was trying to capture leading lines formed by the waves pointing toward the brilliantly lit ridge. After several unsuccessful attempts, I gave up and started to focus on other shots. When I got home, I was instantly drawn to this photograph because of the repeating patterns. Notice that the shape of the ridge seems to be repeated in the foam on the beach.

Every once in a while, it is kind of nice when things don’t go according to plan.

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Ke’e Beach

Varina Patel —  August 21, 2012


This is a shot of the sunset at Ke’e Beach on the beautiful island of Kauai, Hawaii. The water was so incredibly smooth here, and the reflections made me feel as though I was standing in the sky. I used a reflected cloud as a “foreground object”, and framed my image so that everything pointed towards the sun. I wanted an extremely simple image, so I restricted my composition to avoid the other people on the beach. I used a GND filter to reduce the brightness of the sky and the water in the distance.

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On the Lonely Shore

Varina Patel —  June 12, 2012

Do you usually have a clear idea of what you are after when you are shooting – or do you shoot what’s in front of you, and look for something good in your collection later? Are you looking for something unique and different? Or trying to replicate a photo you’ve seen before?

I’m curious about what goes on in photographer’s minds as they are standing out there with their cameras.

I can only explain my own thought process. :) Most of the time, when I’m shooting, I have a pretty solid feeling for the finished image I want to present. This shot was no exception. I knew I would convert to black and white in Post-Processing, and I could see the image I wanted to create in my head. A high-key shot with some clean contrast in the foreground rocks. It took some time to get exactly what I wanted, though – because the sand was dry at low tide. I knew that as the tide came in, the waves would wash away the footprints and bicycles tracks. So I waited. Finally, a single wave came all the way to the base of my tripod – filling the depression around the rock with water, and smoothing the surface of the sand throughout my entire composition. As the wave pulled back, I snapped a single photograph. The next wave, was as high as my knees, and the rocks were underwater for the duration.

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I posted this question over on Google+ a while back, and I thought the responses were really interesting! Please feel free to join in the discussion over there - or comment here and add your input!

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San Gregorio State Park, California (CA), USA

Quick Tips: Targeted Adjustments in Photoshop

Jay Patel —  April 30, 2012

In many cases, a photograph will require small adjustments to specific areas to bring out the details and colors throughout the image. We refer to these area-specific changes as “targeted adjustments.”


Here’s a shot from San Gregorio Beach in California. In this finished image, each area of the image looks correctly exposed…but the camera didn’t capture it this way. Because the light over the entire scene was somewhat uneven, the camera underexposed some areas and overexposed others. This is a typical problem for nature photographers who can’t control the light over a large area. The image below shows what I mean.

To restore details, colors, and contrast in each part of the image, I used layers and masks in Photoshop. You can see all the layers and masks I used to make targeted adjustments below. I also used the clone tool to remove the distracting elements in the scene. Varina and I both use Wacom Intuos tablets to draw masks, for cloning, and to make adjustments. (Actually – neither of us uses a mouse anymore. A graphics tablet can do anything a mouse can do – and much more.) A stylus gives us far more control over minute details… which means we can work faster and more precisely.

Once I’m finished making changes, I flatten the layers and save the file. Targeted adjustments allow me to bring out rich details and colors in my photographs, and to produce a more appealing finished product.

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Google+ Photo Walk : San Gregorio Beach

Varina Patel —  March 2, 2012

This February, we hosted a Photo Walk at San Gregorio Beach in California. We met up with a group of fellow photographers from Google+, and spent the evening chatting, shooting, and shivering in chilly temps and high winds. No complaints, though. It was a ton of fun, and we met some really neat people! Thanks to all those who came out to shoot with us. What a great experience!

If you were there, feel free to post a link to some of the images you took at San Gregario! We’d love to see your photos. We can’t wait to do it again!

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Ahhh… Paradise!

Jay Patel —  February 17, 2012

Take a look at this photograph and ask yourself… Where do I want to go – and what do I need to do to get there? Now, go do it…Life is short!

This was an easy shot. I lowered my tripod down as low as I could so that my camera was close to the sand. I have the appropriate hyperfocal distance memorized for my wide-angle lens, so it was easy to ensure that everything was sharply in focus. And then, I waited for the wave to come towards me. I released the shutter – and that was it. All done. The shot needed very little processing. Doesn’t this workflow prove that the best things in life are simple. :)

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