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Dancing on the Beach in the Late Afternoon
Sunset at Matsubara Beach, Awaji Island, Japan
photo by Fumie Friedl

On the first day of our mini late-April trip to Awaji Island a few hours' drive south of Kyoto, we saw the sunset from a beach on the south-west part of the island, as I posted the following day.

I had my recently-acquired Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm superzoom, and had fun playing with its long reach.

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Throwing Rocks
is something little boys tend to do around bodies of water

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 340 mm — ¹/3200 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
With Mommy

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 170 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/5.6, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mommy Photo Op
she's snapping a picture with her flip-top cell phone

Photo She Took
photo by Fumie Friedl

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/6.3, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shoe
I was paying attention to his right shoe while manually-focusing the lens, and did okay, I think

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 380 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Matsubara Beach
Cleaner than many Japanese beaches, which doesn't say much 🙁
( there's nothing in focus in this picture; I hope it's because I had the VR off, or something! )

Most beaches I've seen in Japan are full of trash, either left behind by a throng of uncaring visitors, or blown in from the ocean over the years and left to collect. This one was much better than most — perhaps a local association cleans it every so often? — though still a far cry from the best (Kotobikihama) or the secluded, protected beach we visited in Ishigaki last year.

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 750 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/13, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Impatient at 750mm

I don't know what he's doing in the photo above, but it sort of looks like he's waiting impatiently for the sea to fulfill some command he's just issued....