Despite the beautiful views, the beach can be a challenge place to find good compositions. Often there’s just too much sea and sand without any detail to focus on, which is why a telephoto lens can come in really handy. This is a very simple shot, just a gull perched on a post looking towards the sun.
The telephoto let me cut out all the extraneous detail and let the sentry on his post dominate the image. A little tweaking in Lightroom brought out the pinks in the sky and the blue in the water, and bingo!