Off the coast of Belize.

For all the times we’ve sailed the Caribbean on Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), we made our first stop in this popular destination almost a year ago. We didn’t stay on the island too long, but we did enjoy a nice lunch and a relaxing time without spending a small fortune by renting a cabana. Though the weather in our image didn’t look good from our balcony as we docked, the weather soon moved away from us. Indeed, the beach below us was already showing signs of what would become a warm and sunny day.

Harvest Caye was originally a tiny, uninhabited island off the coast of Belize. In 2013, Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) purchased it to develop it into a private destination for its cruise passengers. The island officially opened in 2016 and has become a popular destination for NCL passengers.

NCL embarked on a significant construction project to transform the island into a luxurious resort. They added a beach, an adventure park with zip lines and ropes courses, a wildlife sanctuary, swimming pools, and various dining and shopping options.

About the photo: I photographed what I thought was a lighthouse from our balcony. When we got on shore, we discovered that it was the zipline terminal masquerading as a lighthouse. Given the challenging bright beach and darker skies, I put my Samsung S23U into pro mode and captured a RAW (DNG) file to get the most dynamic range from my phone’s 200 MP sensor.

Processing in Adobe Lightroom Classic involved leveling the horizon and reducing the exposure slightly to reign in the bright sand on the beach. Sometimes, I choose to reduce the exposure in Lightroom, but often, my first stop in Luminar Neo is the Develop module for exposure adjustments. That left only three other adjustments for this photo. Accent AI helped to bring out the most dynamic range, but then the clouds were excessively blue. In the Color module, I advanced the Remove Color Cast slider to bring back a more natural gray sky. Finally, I tweaked the Relight module to make the transition from sunlit to cloudy more apparent. To view the final image in 2K HD, click on the image above to view it from my Flickr site.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s also acceptable. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner