With over 400 miles of coastline, it's not surprising that Rhode Island has a very active surfing community. With Surfline forecasts calling for 3-4 foot swells ahead of a storm system hitting later today, a couple of hundred surfers headed to Second Beach in Newport to catch some morning waves. The surf was excellent, with the predicted 4 foot swells coming in 5 wave sets. The only downside to Second Beach is the omnipresent seaweed that coats everyone and everything with slimy red leaves. I've never been to this area when the ocean didn't appear red.
I took several hundred shots of folks in the water, but for the Photo a Day, I really liked this scene of two surfers walking along the beach. The girl on the left is picking up some of the seaweed that washed up on shore. I also found it interesting that the three sandpipers behind them totally ignored all of the surfers. They've apparently gotten quite used to people on the beach.
Post processing was primarily in Topaz Adjust. I applied a simple pop filter to start, and then adjusted adaptive exposure, contrast, strength, detail boost, and sharpen. I didn't play too much with it since I really wanted to preserve the subtle tones of the board and the red leaves washed up on shore.
