Island in The Sun

Langkawi, officially known as Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah (Malay: Langkawi Permata Kedah) is an archipelago of 104 islands in theAndaman Sea, some 30 km off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia. The islands are a part of the state of Kedah, which is adjacent to the Thai border. On July 15, 2008, Sultan Abdul Halim of Kedah had consented to the change of name to Langkawi Permata Kedah in conjunction with his Golden Jubilee Celebration. By far the largest of the islands is the eponymous Pulau Langkawi with a population of some 64,792, the only other inhabited island being nearby Pulau Tuba. Langkawi is also an administrative district with the town of Kuah as largest town. Langkawi is a duty-free island.

Azure Andaman

iPhone Friday this week comes from the beautiful island of Langkawi in Malaysia and an image shot from the Westin Resort & Spa at the south side of the island overlooking the Andaman Sea. This 5 star resort has a beautiful setting with its own private beach, spa, swimming pools and a range of restaurants in a quiet location close to the main town of Kuah.

Rusty Cycle

Walking along the beach you never know what you are going to come across with a multitude of discarded objects being washed ashore. This old bicycle was seriously eroded and rusted so I thought this would be a good candidate for a little black and white post-processing with SilverEfex Pro then bringing back some selected colors to the rusty frame.

"Giant Squid" Washed Up in Sri Lanka

Walking along the seafront in Colombo I spotted what looked exactly like a giant squid washed up on the beach. However as it turned out the "squid" was in fact a large tree with roots as you can see.

Kinghorn in the Kingdom of Fife

A view of Kinghorn on the Firth of Forth taken from the Fife Coastal Path with rain falling in the distance over Edinburgh. Kinghorn  is a town in Fife, Scotland. A seaside resort with two beaches, Kinghorn Beach and Pettycur Bay, plus a fishing port, it stands on the north shore of the Firth of Forth opposite Edinburgh. According to the 2008 population estimate, the town has a population of 2,930.
Known as the place where King Alexander III of Scotland died, it lies on the A921 road and the Fife Coastal Path. Kinghorn railway station is on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Fife Circle railway lines. Kinghorn only has a primary school so high school pupils must travel by bus to Balwearie High School in Kirkcaldy.

The town's lifeboat station is one of Scotland's busiest - regularly getting called out to all sorts of emergencies in the Firth. The meaning of the name Kinghorn derives from the Gaelic ceann gronn, 'head of the bog'. 
The historic Royal Burgh of Kinghorn lies on the golden coastline of the Kingdom of Fife. The former castle in Kinghorn was frequently visited by the Scottish Court in the period of the House of Dunkeld. The King's castle, controlling the sea way, stood on the headland above Pettycur. A later structure, Glamis Tower, stood just behind the High Street. Both buildings have totally disappeared and the sites built over in modern times. It was because of King Alexander III wanting to return to Kinghorn to see his new wife that he fell on the horseride from Burntisland and was found dead on the beach of Pettycur bay.
The castle remained an important possession of the Scottish crown, and this was recognised by the creation of the Earldom of Kinghorne in 1606. A burn fed from the freshwater Kinghorn Loch above the town once provided the town with its water and subsequently provided the source of power to drive the machinery of flax mills. 
The old town was dramatically transformed in 1846 by the construction of the railway viaduct across the valley of the burn and the opening of Kinghorn Station by the Edinburgh and Northern Railway which had its terminus at Burntisland for ferries across the Forth to Granton. Much of the former horse ferry traffic from Pettycur bay was lost to Burntisland. 
Following the opening of the Forth Railway Bridge in 1890,the North British Railway started to promote Kinghorn's picturesque sheltered bay and beach as a resort which led to considerable development of the town.

Sri Lankan Life Guard

Along the beachfront on Galle Face Drive in Colombo these lifeguards were on duty to ensure the safety of those people venturing into the waves of the Indian Ocean. Their bright red uniforms stood out as they took their position on the watch tower.
In the background of this photo you can see the Galle Face Hotel which sits on a prime spot overlooking the beach and ocean.

Jolly Green Giant Drink Stand

Along the beachfront of Galle Face Drive in Colombo, Sri Lanka you will find many food and drink stalls as well as other vendors selling brightly coloured kites and balloons. It's a great spot for a late afternoon walk in the fresh sea air as the sun is setting over the Indian Ocean.
This green drink and snack stand really stood out from the crowd and I half expected the Jolly Green Giant to appear from behind the counter. This was an ideal image to take multiple brackets for some HDR post-processing which was post-processed using the latest Nik software HDR Efex Pro.

Shipwreck

This shipwreck was lying on the beach on the north Musandam coast of Oman. The Musandam peninsula juts into the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entry into the Persian Gulf, from the Arabian Peninsula. The Musandam peninsula is an exclave of Oman, separated from the rest of the country by the United Arab Emirates. Its location gives Oman partial control, shared with Iran, of the strategic strait. In the northern section of Musandam, around Kumzar, the current language isKumzari, which is one of the south-western Iranian languages and a sub-branch of Persian. The Musandam Peninsula has an area of 1,800 square kilometers (695 sq mi) and a population of 28,727 people. 

Burj Al Arab Luxury Hotel

The Burj Al Arab (Arabic "Arab Tower", also known as "Arab Sail") is a five-star hotel located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. At 321 m (1,053 ft), it is the fourth tallest hotel in the world. The Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island 280 m (920 ft) out fromJumeirah beach, and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge. It is an iconic structure whose shape mimics the sail of a ship.

The beachfront area where the Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Beach Hotel are located was previously called Chicago Beach. The hotel is located on an island of reclaimed land offshore of the beach of the former Chicago Beach Hotel. The locale's name had its origins in the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company which at one time welded giant floating oil storage tankers on the site.

The old name persisted after the old Hotel was demolished in 1997. Dubai Chicago Beach Hotel remained as the Public Project Name for the construction phase of the Burj Al Arab Hotel until Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced the new name.

Driftwood

Walking along a beach with the fresh air and the sound of the waves is always invigorating and there is also the chance you will come across something of interest washed up on the beach. This old tree washed and worn down by the wave action provided a great foreground for this photograph taken at the same beach where the Moeraki Boulders are in New Zealand.

Moeraki Boulders

The Moeraki Boulders are unusually large and spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach on the wave cut Otago coast of New Zealand between Moeraki and Hampden. They occur scattered either as isolated or clusters of boulders within a stretch of beach where they have been protected in a scientific reserve. The erosion by wave action of mudstone, comprising local bedrock and landslides, frequently exposes embedded isolated boulders. These boulders are grey-colored septarian concretions, which have been exhumed from the mudstone enclosing them and concentrated on the beach by coastal erosion.

Local Māori legends explained the boulders as the remains of eel baskets, calabashes, and kumara washed ashore from the wreck of an Arai-te-uru, a large sailing canoe. This legend tells of the rocky shoals that extend seaward from Shag Point as being the petrified hull of this wreck and a nearby rocky promontory as being the body of the canoe's captain. In 1848 W.B.D. Mantell sketched the beach and its boulders, more numerous than now. The picture is now in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.The boulders were described in 1850 colonial reports and numerous popular articles since that time. In more recent times they have become a popular tourist attraction, often described and pictured in numerous web pages and tourist guides.