Playing with Landscapes of The Georgia Coast.

I love southern beaches. I love the slow, peaceful and lazy atmosphere.

I had a dream a few years back to go on a Photography adventure to St. Simons Island, Jekyll Island, St. Mary’s, and Cumberland Island. I took way too many photos to share them all with you here today. So, I thought I would share a few of my favorite landscape shots that I got. I also played around with the original images just to see what could be done with them.

Let me show you what I mean.

St. Mary’s Pier.

We got to St. Mary’s the night before our boat ride to Cumberland Island. It was nice to just stroll around and see what was there to photograph. I took this shot on one of the piers there. This is how it looked late in the day. Nice, soft, golden sunlight, and interesting clouds.

This is the same shot, but I played around with the sky by turning it to black and white and replacing the clouds with storm clouds. I like both images actually. Do you have a preference?

Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island is an interesting place. You can only get there by boat and only the rangers had access to vehicles. So, that meant we had to walk 3 miles around the edge of the beach. My mom went with me, at that time she was in her 70’s. She walked the whole 3 miles with me!

I went there originally to get shots of the wild horses that live there, but, the horses really weren’t doing anything all that exciting, so I focused on the landscapes. Here is another shot that I took during the day, but I was able to play around with it by replacing this sky too. I think a nice starry night makes it look more dramatic.

On the right is the original. It’s nice but not as interesting to me. What do you think?

Jekyll Island

Then there was the Jekyll Island beach. I got up early in the morning to try to get the sunrise over the water in the dunes. It was super hazy that day. The sun came up but it was hidden behind the haze.

I’d like to say that the shot with the lightning was all mine, but, I replaced the sky once again with a little editing magic, made it darker, and turned it into a dramatic stormy scene. The bottom pic is the original.

Quite dull eh?

Well, there you have it. I’ve revealed my secrets.

I think part of being a photographer is getting the shot. Then the job before you is in the editing. If you get a great shot, then, by all means, stay as close to the original as you can. But, If you have a kind of so so shot, why not turn it into something spectacular if you can?!

If you like my photos, go check out my Fine Art America shop. I have all kinds of wildlife and I’m adding more landscapes as we speak.

Thanks for looking 😉 ..