BEACH PHOTOGRAPHY

By: Nicholas Paoni

Some folks travel the world in search of exotic locations to take fabulous beach photos. That is not only really expensive, but now in the time of Covid-19, virtually impossible. Have no fear. If that is your passion and Encinitas is your home, then amazing beach photo ops are right here for the taking. So sit back and relax while I take you on a beach photo session in the extraordinary place we call home. First stop in the journey is Moonlight Beach. What I like about this location is that you can shoot from a variety of different elevations extending from the parking lot overlook to the water’s edge. Most important though is that the location has iconic elements that uniquely identify the location. My favorite is the Moonlight Beach Palm Tree. I have photographed the area numerous times and under different conditions, but most of the time for me the magic happens around sunset. It is a lot of fun to try to line up the Palm with the reflection of the setting sun in the water. If you use a wide angle lens then you can set this as the main focal point of the image while giving a wide view of the location to add context.

SUNSET AT MOONLIGHT BEACH Traveling south you will come to Cardiff Reef, Cardiff State Beach. What I like most about this location is that the water is shallow for quite a long way from the beach. That means that at extra low tides you can have long stretches of wet sand to reflect the brilliant colors of the sunset. Although sunsets are among the most spectacular of natural displays, because they occur every night I like to include one or more elements in the frame to add interest and hold the viewer’s attention. On this particular night there was an amazing display of color in the sky that was amplified by its reflection in the wet sand. The line of shore birds then provided just the finishing touch that I was looking for to set the mood for this shot I titled “A Walk on the Beach”

A WALK ON THE BEACH Continuing South we come to a stretch of Beach called George’s. If Lifeguard towers are your thing then there is a great one here to shoot- good old Tower 13. There is something about an unoccupied Lifeguard tower with the number 13 on the side that says to me that it is OK to swim and surf there IF YOU’RE FEELING LUCKY. To help to amplify the mood I like to shoot there on foggy mornings and convert the image to black and white. This helps to convey the message that not only are there no Guards there to save you, but it is unlikely that anyone else will see you in the water as well- get the picture. Photography is all about conveying a mood to the viewer and this location abounds with possibilities.

TOWER 13 The last stop on our journey is Seaside, Cardiff State Beach, which by the way is the home surf break to some of the best surfers in the area. You will often find me there shooting the action when the surf is up- but that’s another story. What I like about this location for general beach photography is that the beach has a long north/south exposure. That makes it ideal for a photographic technique termed intentional camera movement that I like to use to create semi- abstract images. In this technique you move the camera horizontally while snapping away using a slow shutter speed (typically 1/30 seconds) to smooth out the water and colors in the sky. It often takes me A LOT of tries to get something that I am really happy with, but the effort is worth it. For the image below I waited until there were some interesting rollers coming onto shore to take the shot, which I titled “Sunset Sets”.

SUNSET SETS In the tradition of saving the best for last, if you walk a little further south at Seaside you will come to the tide pools. Typically the pools are only exposed in the winter months when we have a combination of significant beach erosion due to the massive King Tides combined with the extreme negative tides. To say that they are a magical place is an understatement. The combination of wonderful sunset reflections in the pools while visitors are exploring makes the pools one of my favorite winter sunset destinations. I think the image below entitled “Childhood Exploration” will give you a sense of what I mean.

CHILDHOOD EXPLORATION OK, so if you are a fan of beach photography and live nearby I hope I’ve given you some inspiration to check things out along our gorgeous coast here in Encinitas. If you are as excited by what you see as I am, then take some of that money you just saved from not traveling to all those expensive, exotic places and put it towards a decent camera and go out and have some fun.

About the author: Nicholas Paoni is a local photographer. His images have been published by National Geographic, Outdoor Photographer Magazine and Encinitas Magazine.

To see more of his work follow him on Instagram ( https://www.instagram.com/npaoni/ ) or visit his website ( https://npaoniphotos.wixsite.com/npaoni ).