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The story behind this image

Of course, you can't be on holiday in the Carribean without photographing the beach!

I wasn't quite sure about this shot while I was processing it, as I significantly manipulated the colours from what was on the original RAW file to give an effect that was much warmer in tone than the original. Herein lies the dilemma faced by all photographers sooner or later - just how far do you go in changing an image?

For me as an amateur landscape photographer, producing an image goes beyond just having a record of a nice scene that I happened to be looking at when the photo was taken. I want to produce something that conveys the mood and feel of a place, and the effect it had on me at the time. Basically I want to put something of myself in the final image, and so I manipulate, enhance, improve, and so on.

For this particular photo I wanted most of all to convey a feeling of warmth and relaxation. Did I go too far?