I bet you come back with hundreds of Koh Samui photos of sunsets on the beach. Nothing wrong with that because there’s not a lot else you can photograph in Koh Samui.  You need a tripod to take any decent sunset or sunrise shots, and a couple of ND Filters, at least one with 10 stops, which will help smooth out the water and make your Koh Samui photos a bit more professional.

A lot of the best Koh Samui photos I’ve seen are around Bophut and the fisherman’s village, so take a visit around there, early morning or late evening and see what you can come up with.  I’d take a wide, 24mm or something like that, and a 35mm for candids and family shots.  Then a telephoto, something like a 70-200mm or if you shot Fuji X Series, the 56mm or 55-200mm for some nice portraits. You need to be shooting in raw to be able to get the most out of the images when shooting sunsets and sunrises.

When I go to a beach destination like this I usually only shoot film, I’ve got hundreds of sunset shots and don’t particularly need any more, especially since there’s nothing of note to shoot in the background to make it a bit different.  Take some Velvia 50 for the sunsets and some HP5, shooting black and white on the beaches can produce some nice results if you have the right light.

You’ll no doubt come back with some good Koh Samui photos, but have a think before you go, about what you are going to do in order to come back a photo that nobody will have seen, and that still conveys you’re in Koh Samui, or at least, a nice beach destination.

Lastly, the view from the Santiburi Samui Country Club is nice, even if you’re a hack, you’ll appreciate it and get some nice shots from above Samui (be prepared to lose at least a dozen golf balls)

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