Sand and Stream

I have just returned from the North American Nature Photographer's Association convention in Florida. I had a great time. To get this shot, I used Google Earth to locate one of a few interesting spots along a 100 mile long stretch of featureless beach along the Gulf of Mexico. It is just mile after mile of beautiful white sand, but rather boring and the water was like a lake. So one of the meetings I attended ended at 5:30 and the sunset was 5:45, so I sat in back and got out a few minutes early and raced over to my spot and saw this scene. It is strange to have never been to a place, yet know exactly where to go. The dark layer is from a fire which was later washed out to the beach and covered with more sand.

I was chosen to gave a short presentation in front of about 700 people on the topic of "Luck in Photography." People seemed to enjoy it.

On the last night during the awards banquet with about 1,000 people in the auditorium, they had a Powerpoint slideshow cycling around of the best showcase images on a 30 feet movie screen. 6 of them were mine. So after all the presentations, I walked up to the table with 3 of the biggest National Geographic photographers (Robert Glenn Ketchum, Michael "Nick" Nichols, and James Balog.) They had each done unbelievable slideshows during the convention. They asked me what sort of photography I did, and just then one of my shots was on the screen. I pointed up and said "stuff like that", and one said, Oh, you're the guy that did those seascapes. We were talking about those, you have a great new way of looking at things! And another one said, I liked the one where.... and so on. That was a lot of fun!

The head photo buyer for Barnes and Noble saw my self-published book I made at Blurb.com and he gave me his card and told me that these photos would be perfect for his calendars. And I received lots of advice on how to proceed in business with my photography.

If it were not for all of the critiques I've had here on EPZ, there is NO WAY that anything like this would have happened. You guys have given me the confidence to walk right up to anybody and put the book in front of them and know they will like (at least some of) the work. So thank you very much!

20 second exposure @F16 with ND grad 0.9 + 0.75
I had to desaturate the reds to get back the detail in the reddest areas! 

Date Added:	10 Mar 2008 - 14:34
Camera:	Canon 5D
Lens:	Canon 17-40L @17
Film:
Categories:	Landscape / Travel General
Geo Data:	Show Map Position
Tags:	florida, gulf of mexico, sunset
Readers' Votes:	202