The Cocoa Beach Lifeguard Hut

A Fine Beach Day

During our June 2018 Florida trip, we took a day to visit one of our favorite places, Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach, Florida. It was just over an hour’s drive from where we were staying, so we got up relatively early one morning and headed over to the beach.

Yes, I would prefer not to get up early when we are on vacation, but sometimes it is worth the extra effort. See the previous post on our visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom for the other day on our vacation where we got up early. Besides the days that we went to church and went home. Hmm, it sounds like we got up early more than I realized on our vacation. Oh well, I just try to remember the positives.

Anyway, as you can see from the photo, we camped out on the beach right next to the lifeguard hut. I figured if anything happened to us, they would not have to run all that far to come to save us. Fortunately, we did not need their assistance all day. Maybe camping out by them was sort of like insurance - you probably won’t need it, you hope you won’t need it, but you will be in big trouble if you don’t have it.

Also, as you can see, there were no lifeguards at the lifeguard hut when I took this photo. But don’t go blaming them for being off doing something else and not doing their jobs or anything. We had just arrived there early enough that the lifeguards were not out yet. They don’t start their day until 10:00 AM, and we arrived about 30 minutes before they started. We were extra-careful to be safe before they showed up.

I like that the lifeguard hut at Cocoa Beach is painted red, white, and blue. I don’t know if they were going for a patriotic theme, or if those were the paint colors that they could get at the time, or why else they might have chosen that color scheme. But it does match just about all of the clothes that I own, so maybe that is why I like the look of the hut.

While we were there, the weather cooperated wonderfully, because it did not rain until we were on our way back to the condo in the evening. Nothing like a full day at the beach!

As you might imagine, I took lots of photos during our one day at the beach, knowing it was our only day to be there. Watch for more beach photos in the future in the June 2018 Florida Trip category.

Thank You!

In all seriousness, I am quite thankful for the lifeguards when we are there at Cocoa Beach. We have only seen them have to do a major rescue once or twice in all of our visits, but it is good to know that they are available if needed.

It is good to have someone watching your back, but it is also easy to take them for granted. Police, fire, EMT - just like lifeguards, you hope you don’t need them but they are very helpful if you do have a need.

We also have a God who watches over us. Sometimes people take Him for granted, too. But He is always there, ready to help if we just take the time to ask. 

Don’t take Him for granted, or wait until it is too late and you are beyond the point of rescue. Use what you have been offered any chance you get.

He is the real lifeguard and lifesaver.

Bible Verse

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand. - Isaiah 41:10

About the Photo

This photo looks quite simple on the surface. But I actually probably put a bit more work into it than was really necessary.

For starters, I had once again used the 25mm prime lens for this one. I started with the fisheye lens, but it picked up too many of the other people around us. There weren’t that many people there, but I liked the view of just the lifeguard hut, so I switched lenses.

I had the aperture open wide at f/1.8 to focus on the hut. This made the photo fairly bright, which was the look I was going for, to capture the feel of a nice, sunny day at the beach. But I did want to tone down the sky just a bit and get that nice blue color. For that, I used a separate, darker exposure from the same Raw file and masked in that sky into the brighter original exposure.

I also used Photoshop to bring out the color saturation a bit, especially on the hut. And I used some color curves to make everything just a little more bright and bold.

I really liked how this one turned out. It is worth it to take a little extra time to make it look right.

Photo: 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 M.Zukio 25mm f1.8
Date: June 12, 2018
Location:  Lori Wilson Park, Cocoa Beach, Florida