You all might have noticed by now that I live in Australia. Now, once a year Australia is celebrating “Australia Day”, and this happened to be today! True to Aussie culture, most Aussies who live close to the ocean will spend the day in one of the parks by the beach or on the beach, having a “real Aussie BBQ” with friends and family.

Here in Perth people will go to either the beach or to the so-called “foreshore” along the Swan River. There are some absolutely stunning spots along the river to sit and enjoy a day out.

This is possible because -of course – in January we are in the middle of summer here (“Down Under” – everything is the other way around…), and usually January is one of the hotter months, too. So today it was 34 degrees and sunshine all the way. Glorious day! We happened to go out to the beach with a couple of friends, close to a sailing club, and the colors of the ocean combined with the sails of the sailing boats were just stunning! Unfortunately you can’t really see the gorgeous colors like they were in real life on the photos I took.

I made a point of collecting some nice seashells, too, of course, to use someday in a craft project. Never miss out on collecting seashells when you are at the beach – you never know when they will come in handy.

At night time we went to see the fireworks – of course Perth has to have some fireworks to celebrate the day! This part of the day we spent at the banks of the Swan River, the atmosphere was just wonderful. I tried to take a picture of the city skyline lit up at dusk, but I think my hand wasn’t too steady. The black and white spots on the water are actually black swans and white pelicans, would you believe it!!! It was amazing.

If you love the beach, I am sure you love sand castles, too! Today I want to spoil you with a few sand castle pictures I took whilst on a short holiday a few weekends ago.

My family and some of my friends went down south to Preston Beach, which is a small little community about 45 km south of Mandurah, south-western West Australia. As there is not much to do but to either play golf (duh! ) on a huge golf course littered with real-life Kangaroos and lots of … Kangaroo Poo, or to go to the beach, we decided to spend most of our 2 days lazing around the big wide open spaces on the beach!

The husband of one of my friends happens to build sand castles, and he always takes his “tools” with him when he goes to the beach, from a shovel to a trowel (hey, that rhymes!), and then gets right into building the most beautiful sand castles, much to the delight of all the children and quite a few onlookers, too. Of course they are encouraged to help (the children, not the spectators! ), and so are the mums!

So here are the results of the 2 days down by the beach:

Sand Castle Pictures – Day One

Sand Castle Detail

Sand Castle nearing completion

Finished Sand Castle

Well, what do you think? Is this a beautiful Sand Castle or what? I think everybody was really proud of the combined effort and result! Unfortunately, when we came back the next day it was all but gone, but that’s the way of sand castles by the beach….

So we came all armed and ready again the next day, to build Sand Castle Number 2 and make it even bigger and better! Have a look and judge for yourself….

Sand Castle Pictures – Day Two

Sand Castle No 2 - Building Phase

Our Sand Castle

I hope you’ve enjoyed these sand castle pictures and I also hope that this post has inspired you to get creative next time you are on the beach – it can be so much fun, and it is definitely very rewarding!

You might have read that I live in Perth, Western Australia, with my family. Perth is a beautiful city on the west coast of Australia, right by the Indian Ocean. The city itself has been built around the Swan River. There are so many stunning spots to visit that it can be very hard to choose on the weekends where to go to relax and have some time out!

A few weekends ago we went to “Heathcote” which is a spot on the Swan River, a little up on a hill, overlooking Perth. I was fortunate enough to take some really nice shots of the city skyline with a few sailboats going across – and I just wanted to share one of the best pictures with you. Enjoy!

Do you love to take photos of the beach, on the beach and around the beach? I try to take my camera with me every time I go to the beach, because almost every time I am there there are moments and moods I want to capture. Whether it is of the people I love strolling along the beach, or playing, or of a seagull sitting in the sand, or just of the sun setting over the ocean, beach photography holds something magical for me. I can feel a yearning inside every time I look at these photos I have taken at the beach.

If you feel the same, and you are an “amateur” photographer like me, why not start to decorate your home with the best photos you have taken on the beach? Whether it is a standalone photo of something amazing you have seen – shell? – or maybe photos taken in succession to make up a little story, you can be sure that if you add these photos as full blown pictures to your wall decor it will look stunning.

Make sure you take your photos at a fairly high resolution (high megapixel) as you might want to blow them up, and to do that and have the photo still sharp and clear you need a high megapixel resolution. Have the photos enlarged to the size you want, and then pick some really nice frames that go with them – I highly suggest white or whitewashed frames, or possibly some light blue, kind of rustic looking frames, because then even the frames tie in with the beach theme. You could even decorate the frames with a couple of shells from the beach – but don’t overdo it, because you don’t want to draw the attention away from the photo.

If you are going for more than one photo, make sure it is a “trilogy” – 3 photos, because this will look the most balanced. You can hang them either in a straight line, or a little cluster, or even a diagonale. See what works best in the spot where you want to hang your photos. If you have one single photo you could blow it up quite big and make a real statement with it on a single wall.

Now, I have to admit that I haven’t done any of my own pictures like that yet, but I am certainly planning to! So unfortunately I cannot show you any completed projects, but I can certainly show you some of my favorite beach photography I plan to turn into wall art some time in the future (note: you might see that not all of them are “just” beach; it can be very interesting to have the beach just as a distant background…)

Beach Photography - Wine By The Beach

These two wineglasses would make a great centerpiece on a wall, don’t you think?

And the following pelican pictures would make a great trilogy of pelican pictures.

Beach Photography - Sitting With Pelicans

Beach Photography - Fight Of 2 Pelicans

Beach Photography - 2 Pelicans

Or what do you think about this one? I think it has an eerie quality (could be just me, though). It is my daughter standing on the beach, close to sunset, with a pretty big dead fish by her feet.

Beach Photography - Sunset at the beach

Ok, here we go, this is my last one (for today!): SEAGULLS.

Beach Photography - Seagulls

I hope you have enjoyed my little display of beach themed photos – as I said, just go out there and start taking photos, you will be surprised what you can come up with! These days, with digital photography, you can snap away as much as you want, and then just pick the ones that really stand out.
I wish you Good Luck!