The flags are a nice touch: they look like an add-on. There's a weird 3-dimensional effect to this photograph in consequence. It's a surreal effect: everything in the picture seems much more 'present' and much more detailed than it would look in the real world. Magic realism?
'Orange Beach, Sandcastles' by Kevin 'Elvis' King | Website | To see his other photographs, click here | To see the full-sized version of this photograph at Flickr, click here
Here's an iconic Florida scene for you....I think what really sold it for me was the cool, slate-tinted sky and water contrasted against the very white breakers, the blue-green umbrellas, and just two bright splotches of bright vermilion. 
'St. Pete Beach' by Porkfork 6 | To see his other photos, click here | To see the full-sized version of this photograph at Flickr, click here
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What I love about Judy Baxter's photo stream is that in the midst of many charming family photographs and travel vignettes, you will suddenly find yourself looking at a piece of pure landscape with that powerful numinous quality that says 'iconic.' Suddenly, you're seeing a whole branch of the Florida experience encapsulated in one image. Here's a place I've never been and have seen many times, principally in dreams. It could be any beach anywhere....but it's not. I always think of the Gulf as so still and so transparently green or silvery blue, because my experience of it is limited to peninsular towns such as Clearwater or the islands off Cedar Key. I've never been here, so why the powerful sense of deja vu that makes it so hard for me to stop staring into this photograph?
" The sun creates an eerie scene on the St. Vincent Island on the Gulf of Mexico, " she says. I like the use of the present tense here because it's so true: this is happening right now. If you look at the full-sized image, it's like an impressionist painting, with the shining white foam translated into cream-colored dots and flecks.
'Eerie Beach' by Judy Baxter (Old Shoe Woman) | See other photographs here | See full-sized image at Flickr, here
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Here's an amazing scene from Ponte Vedra, one of the beaches near St. Augustine.
'Life Guard Chair at Sunrise' by Craig O'Neal | Craig O'Neal does photography for Jacksonville.com. To see more fabulous photographs, click here or take a look at his albums at Jacksonville.com! | To see the full-sized version of this photograph, click here |
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"Sunset ---January 13,2007" by Judy Baxter (Old Shoe Woman) | See other photographs here | See larger image here
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Moonrise at sunset....
"Looking East at Sunset/Moonrise" by Esther Dyson |Esther Dyson blogs at The Huffington Post!! See also: Edventure.com | To see her other photographs, click here | To see the full-sized version of this image, click here
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Next to, or even right up there for me with Cedar Key (on the Nature Coast) is Amelia Island on the Atlantic side . It depends on my mood, really.
As these photographs show, Space Coast Sunsets can be just as enthralling as Nature Coast ones. Amelia Island sunsets and sunrises are equally astonishing. Here are some which photographers have generously recorded.
"Amelia Island -- Sunset" by Dixie Traveler | | To see his other photographs, click here | To see full-sized version of this photograph at Flickr, click here
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This photo beautifully conveys the pure, transparent quality of the Florida winter light and the varied tints of the winter sky.
"Winter Beach" by Fortune Cookie | To see more of Fortune Cookie's photographs, click here | To see the full-sized version of this photograph at Flickr, click here |
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Amelia Island is one of my favorite places on earth and Fernandina Beach is my favorite part of it. This photograph---a Christmas photograph---conveys more clearly than any I've ever seen what a North Florida beach is like. It's perfect and every other gorgeous Florida photo I saw paled by comparison.
This photographer completely captured it. Look at the color of the sky: that blue tinged with green, the platinum colored clouds with the ethos of pink, the teal color of the sea oats.
It's like a Christmas present---it reminds me why I love Florida so. I looked at a lot of other beautiful photographs, but this one seemed sufficient unto itself and to need no supplementation. It's a nice contrast to the previous photograph (Disney castle). Beautiful as Cinderella's Castle may and does look in photographs, this is where the real magic of Florida remains.
"The View from Our Christmas Dinner Table" by Daniel | click here to see his other photographs | click here to see the full-sized version of this photo at Flickr
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This photograph captures the lightness and clarity of this blue and platinum day. The colors are neutrals: greys, blue-greys, tans, white, khaki, and beige---all the colors of sand, sea and wood---against the sky (that clear blue that is soft rather than brilliant). I love the way it shades into that silvery violet near the horizon. This is an effect I always wanted to capture and never succeeded in doing.
'Jacksonville Beach, Florida' by Kevin Trotman/The Rocketeer | See his other photographs here | See the larger version of this image at Flickr here
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