Belleair Beach is one of those places that people work for. They work their entire lives to be able to afford a home on the edge of these sands, and everyday thereafter is a pleasant reminder of how beautiful life can be here. For anyone that hasn’t made that purchase yet there exists the issue of how to physically get from the street you drove in on, past these dream homes, to the beach itself. Normally the city provides some sort of paved gash in the pillars and palisades for people to traverse, but Belleair really did it right. You walk a path pleasantly shaded by overhanging sea oates and palm trees which opens to a boardwalk over the dunes expanding out onto the seashore.
I found this cut-through while riding my bike around searching for a classic beach location to photograph. The approach here struck me as so pretty that I decided to setup a shoot around someone’s trek to the beach rather than the ever popular “girl on the beach” shot we see so much of where I live. When it came to casting someone for the shoot I immediately thought of Liz. She is a local girl working in the Surf / Swimwear retail industry so there was nothing far fetched about shooting her on a skateboard in a bikini on her way to the beach. Now the light quality from the Westcott 50″ Apollo I was using is beautiful regardless, but it was simply breathtaking the way her skin shone under it. She’s the kind of girl with a sun-kissed golden tan in the dead of winter (although winter doesn’t really get too serious here in paradise).
At this point all that was left was to style the shoot. I couldn’t think of anyone better to help out on this than Larry, over at The Island “Surf” Shop on Indian Rocks Beach. It doesn’t hurt that he and his dog, Mojo, are my surf-side neighbors and have a long history of outfitting this stretch of beach with everything from flip flops to paddle boards. We quickly put together a collection of hats, beach bags, sunglasses, and lastly a long board for transportation. Then off we went to make the photographs, with the skate board doubling as a handy way to haul the gear.
One major challenge when building up a shot in a location like this is the sun. At midday it doesn’t always cast the most flattering light, and if you position your subject in the shade to combat this, everything else will probably be quite over exposed. There is an upside though, if you know how to get there. The sun makes for one heck of an accent light in a number of capacities and when properly balanced with other lighting, the sky reveals that deep blue we love it for. After framing up a couple spots I took a reading for the ambient light needed to pull out that beautiful blue I just mentioned. With this set, we began the process of building in the light needed to make Liz pop. This was accomplished with a strobe light controlled through a Westcott 50″ Apollo softbox with some fill light kicked back in using a Westcott 72″ Scrim Jim. Another light was used to bring out the green in the foliage behind Liz, as it fell into some pretty heavy shadow from the sunlight. Make sure to check out the Lighting Diagram for a better look at the setup. After working through a few different looks under this lighting we migrated down towards the beach shedding modifiers as we went.
In the end there’s nothing quite like that soft glow left lingering on the horizon just as the sun sets into the Gulf of Mexico. The last few images below were taken after successfully chasing the fading daylight and enjoying another unadulterated sunset here in paradise. Enjoy!
Liz Beachwear Shoot – BTS – Belleair Beach, FL from Erik Valind on Vimeo.
