Fascinating Waves at Cocoa Beach, Florida

Water can be fascinating to watch, under the right circumstances, of course. Waves gently rolling in to the shore at Cocoa Beach, Florida, such as these waves seen from our visit there last summer, are exactly the right circumstances for me.

I could sit and watch the waves at Cocoa Beach all day. Or stand and watch the waves. Or be in the waves and watch them break over me. You get the picture. I also like capturing them in photos right as the waves are breaking, such as in this view above. Beautiful, calming, relaxing. These are definitely the right circumstances for water.

Here is another view of the waves at Cocoa Beach, this time looking down along the waves instead of straight at them as they approach. Again, a beautiful scene. An ideal situation for watching the water.

When is not the ideal situation for watching the water? Oh maybe something like when it is pouring out your washing machine onto the floor of your laundry room. Those aren’t the kind of waves of water that you would want to see. Definitely not calm and relaxing. Take it from me. I know. But don’t worry, because everything is fine now. It is all good and back to normal. So let’s go back to the relaxing photos and not think about the bad stuff, okay?

Back to the relaxing views we go. Here, a few surfers try to catch the perfect wave off in the distance, and some of them are having some pretty good success. Just a little farther down the way, there was even a surfing competition going on during this particular day. Big waves, but not too big.

I used to wonder, once upon a time, if when the waves were rolling in where I was they were rolling out somewhere else. As if the ocean were like a big solid sheet that would slide back and forth. But I have never been anywhere that I have seen the waves rolling out like that, so that must not be the case, even though it may have seemed logical to a young mind.

How do the waves work? Where does the water go at low tide? I don’t know, and I don’t spend too much time thinking about it, either.

How can the same thing be relaxing at some times and devastating at other times? Such is the truth found in most everything throughout nature - balance. Not too much, not too little, just right.

They came and woke Him up, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to die!” Then He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves. So they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were fearful and amazed, asking one another, “Who can this be? He commands even the winds and the waves, and they obey Him!” - Matthew 8:24-25

About the photos:

As you can see from the photos, I did not venture out too deep in the water, because I did not want to get my camera wet. For the first two, I was just at the edge of the water with the fisheye lens on the camera, and actually for the first photo the water was closer to the camera lens than it looks here. You have to keep one eye on the viewfinder and the other eye on the actual water in situations such as this. And for the third photo, I switched to the zoom lens to get a slightly closer look at some of the surfers. With the fisheye lens, they would have just looked like little specks out on the horizon, even more so than they do here.

I know I continually preach about the importance of photo processing here, but here is another before-and-after look to show just how much improved the first photo is after a bit of processing.

Photos: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Olympus 14-42mm IIR and Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: June 4, 2016
Location: Cocoa Beach, Florida