Kantiang Bay Beach, Koh Lanta

I stayed at the Pimalai Resort and Spa at Koh Lanta in Krabi, Thailand. The resort is right next to Kantiang Bay Beach. Koh is Thai means island. The first evening at I had free time, so I walked down the beach with my camera and tripod in hand. Unfortunately the clouds once again managed to overwhelm the sun to a very watery retreat.

This is the best the sunset had to offer on that day. Usually when the colors start fading in the sky I too head back to my room. Already the beach was giving an almost deserted look. There was another person with a tripod around sunset but he retreated before.

This time I decided to stay even when the reds, pinks and the purples in the sky were fading. There are so many who rave about ‘the blue hour’ and I wanted to give it a try to. I could still see some people running on the beach. There were a father and daughter too, laughing and running around. I think the daughter did most of the running, but you get the idea, father was running behind her!

I tried F22 and 30 seconds but for the scene above but it came out too dark. So I went with f2.8 and 2.5 seconds. As these are initial attempts, even though I know they should have been better, I still like them.

However, this is my favorite picture from the evening. This one came out well with f22 and 30 seconds setting. Of course the water becomes so smooth because the shutter was open for 30 seconds. With real eyes I still saw it as normal water!

While I was fiddling with my camera, I asked the father to click a picture for me with my cell phone. It had not got so dark then. He clicked at least 10 pictures of me in quick succession. And then he ran after his small daughter who managed to climb a small rock by then!

Do you click pictures at the blue hour? What has been your experience? I liked the first pictures, though I need to remember that if it feels too isolated, I should head back without another thought. This time at Kantiang Beach I walked off with a lot of reluctance as I had a dinner waiting for me after a short while!