Siesta Key Sand Art for 2010

Sun, sand, the beach, that time of the year!! I know it's November, but in Florida, it is outdoor time for the real natives. We Floridians live for it and understand when you arrive at the beach and aren't turning to a french fry ten minutes later. The humidity is half of what it is in July and temperatures are in the mid 70's. Yes it's fun to be at the beach, surfing, swimming, sunning, sand castle building. You read it right, Sarasota's Siesta Key has an annual sand castle festival, it is actually called the Siesta Key Sand Sculpture Competition, but the people who do these extreme works of sand come from all over the world.  I am told that the state of Washington is the number two place for sand castle building. Who would know?  Anyway, this photograph, one of many of the sand sculptures is one of my favorites and as you can tell it has an incredible amount of detail.  Yes, you have to get to the beach early, the festival didn't open till 9:00am. Once in you have a few minutes to get some extreme photos without having to jockey for position, trying to get by everyone else who is also trying to take photos too. After all, it is only a four day event and you have to get the photos as quick as you can, crowds permitting. As for shooting this photo, you can tell the sun was coming from my left, I wanted it to be back lit, yet I wanted the detail in front. I shot this at 200th of second, my f-stop was 14 and I fired my flash which just filled in enough to light up the front of the sand sculpture. The detail in this photo is amazing and it has a very relaxed looking dragon as the subject. The artists were working on this as I began to photograph it and were real nice about stepping away to allow me to get this awesome photo. I have enjoyed the sand art over the years and it gets better and better. The art is sometimes so real looking that you do a double take. Yes I shot quite a few from different angles and you can see more of this and other sand art on my website. Go ahead, stick your eyes on the sand and be amazed at the extreme art made of good old beach sand!! Don't forget the sun tan lotion!!