NEW portfolio images of Cabana Beach

Over the last week I spent some time at Cabana Beach and out of hundreds of images captured, I've added two to my portfolio. I share them with you today. 

Cabana Beach

Cabana Beach is located between the villages of Marigot and Wesley in Dominica, just after the Douglas-Charles Airport. It is easily missed if you're not paying attention, and at first glance, its beauty may be lost on you.

However, when the weather is favorable, the rich greens and blues make it impossible to not love this tropical oasis.

A grove of coconut trees along the coastline often dances in the sun's light to create shade on the soft grass. This interplay of light and shadow was instrumental for the two images shown here. 

Bonus: Get access to my exclusive Insiders' Newsletter to receive free monthly wallpapers straight to your email, just like the photos in this blog post!

Enchanted Cabana Beach

On the day I captured "Enchanted Cabana Beach", I was out shooting timelapses at Pagua Bay and the weather took a quick turn for the worst. The sky darkened and rain clouds descended from the nearby mountain as if out of nowhere. It rained nonstop for 30 minutes and for a while I was sure that the day was lost.

However, like a friend reminded me: "Dominica's weather is kinda bipolar." Within a few minutes after the last raindrop fell, the skies cleared again and it was as if nothing had happened!

I quickly made my way to Cabana Beach and started looking around for good compositions to create more timelapse sequences, like this one (low quality version):

After doing this for more than an hour, the clouds shifted and I changed locations on the property.

The most important part of my creative process involves visualizing the final image before even touching the camera. This allows me to see different forms and shapes within a scene. For example, I may see converging lines on a beach, or eyes in a cloud.

For this photograph, I imagined the trees along the shore as a guide for the imaginary beach-goer, steering her into the distant coconut jungle. I knew it would make for an interesting image.

I waited for the light and shadows to be just right, and I captured a series of 24 images with my camera in a vertical orientation. My intention was to capture all the intricate details of the scene before the light changed again. 

At home, after a few hours of creative post-processing, I was about to come away with this 3:1 panoramic image:

Enchanted Cabana Beach is available as a canvas print in three sizesup to 20x60 inches

Lovely Cabana Beach

After that first visit to Cabana Beach, I came away happy with my day's work. I had four or five good time-lapse sequences and a beautiful panoramic image, worthy of being added to my portfolio.

However, I was not satisfied that I had done all that I could at the location. I returned a few days later when the weather was even better and put in a solid two hours of time-lapse work.

Halfway through, I captured this sequence (see below), and I knew that I wanted to use this scene to create another high resolution photograph.

I was drawn to this scene for a few reasons.

1. First off, I loved how the colors transitioned from green into yellowish-green, and then jumped to a rich blue.
2. I also loved how the wind made sure that the branches of the coconut trees all pointed in the same direction.
3. Finally, I loved the elevated perspective which now showed a real path through the trees.

The sun and clouds made creating this image a bit trickier than the first. Every few seconds, the sun would slip behind a cloud which creates a much different lighting scenario that I wanted. 

With a bit of patience, I captured 18 images in quick succession and later stitched them together in order to create "Lovely Cabana Beach".

Lovely Cabana Beach is available as a canvas print in standard sizes up to 4 feet wide

Thank you for reading! Which of these two images is your favorite? Leave a comment below to let me know. Also, using the buttons below, share this post with someone you know will appreciate it!