Floridiana Gloriana

A Walk Across the Water | Keaton Beach

Of the photographs I've taken in various parts of Florida, this photograph of the rocks at Keaton Beach is one of my favorites. The sun was getting low in the sky, which really brought out the yellow tint of the rocks. When Don and I used to visit, there was no walkway, and people used to climb all over the rocks to fish (someday I'll post a photo that I have in my files somewhere showing how it looked). This is picturesque in a different way. I love it that yuo can see the houses in the distance  You can see these rocks in  the background of the first "panoramic" photograph (below); here,  you can see much more of the Gulf.

A View Along the Canal |Keaton Beach

Nick took this photograph of one of the canals in Keaton Beach when we visited in September 2002. The sky on that day was unbelievably bright and clear. You can see that color plainly reflected in the water. The red roof in the background is what really sells the picture as far as I am concerned.

This photograph shows how gorgeous Keaton Beach is.

I am sure that there are places other than Florida where you find this wonderful clear light, but until I came here I never noticed it.

Panorama | Keaton Beach

As I've said before, while the Nature Coast is beautiful, it doesn't have the glamorous beaches that most people expect to find in Florida. For a Floridian, the smaller beaches are well worth a look, particularly if you live in North Florida. I am astonished at how many of my fellow North Floridians have never explored the less populous areas of the state. People who moan about overdevelopment and the proliferation of chain restaurants really need to check out some of the unspoiled areas of the nature coast.

This is a photograph (almost 10 years old) of Keaton Beach, another small beach on the west coast of Florida. We really stumbled on it completely by accident. This photograph was taken the first time Don and I went there, which must have been around 1997, when Don and I were there. The light wasn't great and doesn't really do justice to the yellow tint of the rocks and sand and the blueness of the water, but I think that the photograph is well-composed and I like the beach umbrella in the foreground and the sense it gives you of the scope of the beach.