Blurry Beach

   Okay, let’s just jump right into this one.  What’s the most important part of this image?  I really can’t decide, so let's break it down to it’s elements and figure it out.  So, what are the elements?  Water, sand, rock.   Black, white.   Stationary, motion.  Sharpness, blur.  Hard, soft.  Did I get them all?  Feel free to add a few more.
   Movement here isn’t just about the water shot at a slow shutter speed to show it’s motion and direction.  It’s also about the line of rock that brings your eye into the photo at the bottom left and moves it up and in along a diagonal.  Diagonals lines, after the “C” and “S” curves, are one of the most dynamic lines you can incorporate into a photo.  On a side note, the rocks are also in groups of three.  We tend to visually like groups of odd numbers.  Admittedly, that’s just a happy accident, but it’s probably something that attracted me to this shot in the first place.
   Next, we have the contrast between the hard and soft and the black and white.  We can consider each of these as supporting actors in the photo, with the soft/white set contrasting the hard/black set.  An interesting thing here is that even though the water is moving from right to left as the wave recedes, the line this motion creates moves the eye in the opposite direction bringing you into the image. 
   The black sand here acts as the canvas upon which the rest of the elements can layer.  Sometimes working as a background to soften the brightness of the water, sometimes working as an element on its’ own. 
   Oh, and remember when I mentioned the “S” curve?  There’s one here too.  Starting from the set of rocks at the bottom and moving along the white/black line as it undulates from lower left to upper right.  And don’t even get me started on the Fibonacci Ratio and the Golden Mean.