Spiaggia del Principe

The beach sits in a double bay with granite outcrops splitting it, and those rocks are the reason to shoot here rather than on a bigger, emptier beach: they give a foreground, a frame and somewhere to stand out of the wind. Work from the low rocks on either end towards the water, so the sand line runs behind rather than under your subjects.

Access is a ten-minute walk down a path from the road above Romazzino — there is no parking at the sand itself, and the last stretch is uneven. That walk is also what keeps it quieter than the beaches you can drive to, at least until mid-morning.

Sunrise is the session: the bay faces east, the water is glass, and the granite is at its pinkest in the first half hour. By eleven in August the beach is busy and the light is flat white.