Manuel Antonio BeachScenic Sunset View and Dramatic Landscape of Playa Espadilla Beach in Manuel Antonio National Park

Manuel Antonio National Park is world famous.  Sandy beaches, lush rainforest, hiking paths, capuchin monkeys and sloths... just some of things this tropical paradise on west coast of Costa Rica is known for.  I spent 2 days here in 2nd part of January '19.   From landscape photographer perspective unfortunate thing is that park closes early and you have to be out by 5:30pm!  This effectively curtails "golden hour" and sunset shots.   Not to be denied,  after exiting the park I scrambled some rock bluffs at south end of public Espadilla beach, just outside the park then settled in.   Image above was taken ~15min before sunset as golden rays lit deserted south Playa Espadilla inside the park.   It sold many times on micro-stock, but yesterday it sold BIG on Alamy - $292 USD gross and my by far largest single sale ever!  

What makes things even more interesting is that, although I made several shots with my main camera -- Canon 6D Full Frame --- , image above was taken with little Sony Rx 100, pocket camera I swear by.   I used in-camera HDR mode and totally expected it to be a throwaway but it turned out really good (after CS6 enhancement and noise clean-up).  

Image was purchased by west USA based magazine (don't know which) and intended for print run up to 5 million!   In addition I found the image online at Fodors Travel Guide (with proper credit to Autumn Sky)  and several others.  Such things are extremely motivating, the least because of financial reward, and keeps me pushing even harder to captivate beauty of natural world around us.