Old Photo: Umbrella in the Sun at Cocoa Beach
Memory from Yesteryear at Cocoa Beach
Our beach umbrella blocks the sun from view in this old photo from our 2011 visit to Cocoa Beach in Florida.
If you were to search for “beach umbrella” here at the Burnsland website, you would get somewhere around eight pages of results. So as you can see, beach umbrellas have often been a favorite subject of mine. This particular photo was from one of our relatively early Cocoa Beach visits, actually.
In 2011, Laura and I got to take an “adults only” trip to Cocoa Beach in July. Don’t worry about Jaylin, though. He had gotten to do our annual Disney/Orlando area trip in June, and he got to spend a fun week with his grandparents while we were gone, too. We had discovered our love for Cocoa Beach when we spent a few days there after a Disney Cruise in 2007, so we started looking for opportunities to go back, and this was one of those opportunities.
A Necessity
For those of us who burn easily (you know who you are), beach umbrellas are a must. We decided early on just to buy our own umbrella instead of trying to rent one. That is one of the advantages of having your own car and being able to bring whatever you want with you. This umbrella pictured here was our first one, and we enjoyed its use for several trips before the wind finally got the best of it.
As you can see, we were not the only ones there with a beach umbrella, even in the early morning hours when I took this photo. Others see the value in umbrellas, too. If you have ever gotten a sunburn at the beach, you know how helpful umbrellas can be. Others bring tents of different kinds, and those are nice for larger groups, too.
As someone who has had a skin-cancer removal procedure in the past, let me encourage you to use precautions in the sun. A sunny day at the beach is great, but it can also be a little dangerous, even if you never get out in the waves.
Not only is a beach umbrella practical, but it also creates some good photo opportunities, too. Like this one.
Bible Verse
And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. - Genesis 1:16
About the Photo
As with the Polynesian Resort old photo, I had originally shot three exposures of this scene to merge together into an HDR image. But for this edit, I only used the main exposure. Modern software tools help a good bit these days and take out some of the steps that were a little more necessary 10 years ago.
Believe it or not, I did dial down the color saturation slightly here. No, I don’t often do that. Yes, I’m feeling okay. I just thought this one worked better with the colors slightly muted. I did, however, slightly increase the saturation of the blue sky. But not too much. Just enough to make it a little more blue.
This makes me want to go back to the beach with our current umbrellas and try some new photos. Maybe this will be the year for that, since last year was not.
P.S. If you would like to see the original edit of this photo, you can find it here.
Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Luminar AI. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Date: July 29, 2011
Location: Lori Wilson Park, Cocoa Beach, Florida
