Feb 2009: Bali, Indonesia
You know those tropical island mornings where a band of sand washed clean by the receding tide stretches down to the dark blue water, which stretches out to a cloudless pale blue sky? And the blazing sun comes right up out of the water?
Those really suck for photography. :-)
Not that you can't compose a good shot. But maybe you have to have other elements in there to catch the eye.
Much better to have a crab scuttling over the sand, the tracks of an unseen bird, or somebody in a bikini.
Or, if you are lucky, maybe you get some scudding clouds, and patterns on the beach left by the water running away at low tide to frame the sea.
The island of Bali
Bali lies east of Java, about eight degrees south of the equator, and is the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It is one of Indonesia's thirty-three provinces.
The island spans about 153 km (95 mi) east-to-west and 112 km (69 mi) north-to-south - although the slow traffic makes it seem larger! The highest point is Mount Agung at 3,142 m (10,308 feet) high, an active volcano that last erupted in March 1963. Mount Batur (1,717 m/5,633 ft high) is also still active, last erupting in 1999-2000.