Strand Oostende
Strand Oostende is a long, wide stretch of soft sandy beach. The draw here is space. The beach runs wide and flat for about two kilometres, and at low tide the water pulls back far enough to leave a huge sheet of wet sand. That smooth surface mirrors the sky and is your best friend near sunset, when low light skims across the ripples and footprints for clean texture and long shadows. The coast faces roughly northwest, so in the summer months the sun drops straight into the North Sea, giving you colour over open water with nothing in the way. Line up the rows of white wooden beach cabins for a strong repeating element, or use the curving Albert I promenade and the grand seafront buildings behind it to anchor a wider frame that holds both the city and the sea. Patches of marram grass on the low dunes give you foreground when you want something closer. Access is easy straight off the promenade, with plenty of open sand to spread out and work. (Ostend, West Flanders, Belgium)
