ORIGINAL  Scene

The final version of this beach photo totally changed from my original vision.  The brilliant orange sunset lit up the beach in a way no photographer could pass by.  The sky was bright orange as was the reflection in the wet sand.  However, in working with the photograph, the contrast appeared to be tooooo great.  Also, one might wonder what was making the sand so bright and simply think it was an over-saturated photo.  The entire reason for me capturing this photo now seemed to be a problem, so the bright sand was cropped out below.

While layers in a photo can be a very good visual, the dark line at the bottom now seemed to be a distraction.  Cropping out this dark line left a much softer image, one I would have likely never taken at the beach that evening.

Second version of the beach photo

I have always like photos described as having soft edges, or on the edge of darkness.  I am happy with this final version despite it being so different from my original vision.  With the dark line at the bottom removed, one can more easily see the remaining soft gradations of color in the water.  This photograph can be seen in my Abstract Gallery.

Final Beach Version