Taking photos at the beach is a heavenly experience for me. I absolutely love how the waves are constantly reshaping the beach. You never know from day to day either, what great sea life that you are going to catch a glimpse of that day.
Over years of taking pictures at the beach, I have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t for beach photography. Here are some tips to help you get great beach photos without having to go through all the trial and error.
Before going outdoors to take photos at the beach, wrap the lenses that is on your camera with a zip lock bag secured by a rubber band to avoid fogging. Leave the zip lock bag covering the lenses for about 10 to 15 minutes after outside to allow your equipment to acclimate to the humidity difference from indoors to outdoors.
Take advantage of the hour after sunrise and hour before sunset for the best beach photography light. That hour before sunset is when you see many professional photographers out on the beach taking family portraits.
Get closeup when possible on your sea life, shells, driftwood, sand formations, etc. If I can stand or squat very near the subject, I use a 100mm macro lens. For birds flying about or perched on a post, I use my longest lens, because I know that they will not let me get too close to them.
Take advantage of the motion of the waves. To fully do the motion justice in the photo, you will need to take your camera off of auto setting and work in manual. Lots of tutorials are available on the Net to show you how to use your camera’s manual settings.
Look for unique situations to capture on camera. For example, this heron was standing guard at the beach complex pool. He seemed to be the self-appointed lifeguard. And how about the contrast of advertised live bait with a pile of dead oyster shell remnants below it.
Thanks for sharing these great photography tips. Every time we vacation at the beach we try to take a family picture but it always ends up looking blah. I’m looking forward to my next trip to try out these tips. Happy Blogging!
Thanks so much. Sending some Pinterest love your way.
Great information in this post. Thanks so much for stopping by and linking at Wonderful Wed. Blog Hop. I am going now to feature this post on my Facebook and Google+. Stop by and share!
Blessings,
Diane Roark
http://www.recipesforourdailybread.com
Ahh! I love that tip about the ziploc bag to avoid fogging. I just struggled with this last week and was so annoyed! I am so happy to have stopped by this post. Pinned! Thank you for linking up at the Let’s Get Real link-party this week!
Yes, the ziploc bag tip has been a lifesaver many times. Especially, when I am trying to catch a sunrise and time is a ticking.
Thank you so much for sharing your tips, Sarah! I will be keeping these in mind for our next visit to the beach.
Featuring your post at this Monday’s Project Inspire{d}! Thanks for sharing and hope you’ll stop by again!
Thanks so much. Appreciate the feature greatly.
Wow these are great photos. I can see your tips work wonderfully for you. The time frames that are best to photograph make sense. That’s like the most beautiful lighting in the sky ever. Thanks so much for sharing your expertise with us at the Creative Style Linkup!
Appreciate the kind words very much!