Aerial Beach Photography has been a trend taking over living room walls for years now.
Source: Decor Pad
Source: Design Love Fest
Source: Design Love Fest
Small beach prints are cute and add a pop of fun to a bathroom or a bedroom.
But a big, oversized, aerial beach photograph taking center stage? Looking at some of the world’s most beautiful beaches from a bird’s eye view – that is just injecting pure happiness into a home. White sands, dots of colorful umbrellas, aqua waters give life and energy to a space.
Source: Amber Interiors
But just because you don’t live at the beach doesn’t mean you have to watch from the sidelines. These aerial beach photos are not just for a vacation house! Coastal photos just makes everyone feel relaxed and happy. I think a good loose rule when decorating is to stay away from “themes” (i.e. a beach themed room) and you are fine. Prints of mountains aren’t just for your cabin on a cliff, right?
What you may not guess is that a giant, oversized print can cost you hundreds, even thousands at times.
There are lots of these styles of photos if you know where to look, some better than others! Here is how I found a great aerial beach shot, printed and framed my own!
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DIY Oversized Aerial Beach Photography
After my oldest daughter was born, I wanted a piece of beach photography for her nursery. I was envisioning a giant statement piece of coastal art for her nursery.
With the bulk of my budget saved for framing, that meant my print would have to be something I could download and have printed off for me, for pretty much… peanuts.
This is my creation! It still sits in my daughters’ room (she is 8 now). At 40”x30”, it’s an attention grabbing piece, in a substantial heavy frame with clean lines. Here is how you can do it, too!
At the bottom of this post I give you three great options of places to find really fantastic aerial beach photography at low prices. Here is how I created my own.
Stock Images
This is how I found my print. Stock images are professional photographs that are royalty free (meaning you can pay to own them, but then you can use them however you want, within reason). Most are pretty bland (because they are supposed to be), but some photos are really quite good. You just have to sort through them to find that one.
Personally, I like Shutter Stock the best. They have a massive collection, and you are able to search specific terms. But most importantly, it allows for high quality downloads suited for printing images. Search their database with terms like “aerial beach scene”, “view from above beach”, or “tropical beach umbrellas”.
These are some of the search results that ShutterStock will offer up:
You will need to join ShutterStock. If you don’t have plans to print off any more photos from ShutterStock in the future, only buy the “PrePaid Image Pack”. At the time I created this print, I paid $29, and they gave me permission to download any 2 images (out of their 262 million options) within a year’s time. So my one photo download cost me $14.50. Not bad!
This is the image I chose. You will see it blurry and with a watermark on it until you buy it- although they do allow you to preview it un-watermarked. After you purchase the photo they send you the high quality version and take off the watermark.
I chose a print of a Portugal beach at Nazere, and maybe one day I can actually leave my house and go there. Until then, it will preside in our home teasing us. If you also like this particular print that I have, it is photo ID 15103951. You can look that number up on the ShutterStock website to find it.
Printing Your Aerial Beach Photography
You want to find a printer who can print it off LARGE while keeping the quality.
I printed it off at Poster Print Factory. Poster Print Factory prints any custom size prints, at “photo lab quality”. They are also super quick! I bought a 40” x 30” for $28. So my grand total for the print itself was $42. Not bad!
Poster Print Factory sent me the print just a few days later and I was jumping up and down with excitement when it arrived. It came nicely packaged in a large tube, the sides shut off so that nothing could damage the print. All the details of the beach and the people were clear- it was a beautiful print job.
Framing
It is up to you what kind of budget you want to spend on your frame.
Affordable Framing Sources For Your Aerial Beach Prints
- Frame It Easy is how I framed my Kathline Freeman print. The nice thing about Frame It Easy is you can enter the exact measurements, no matter how odd. They are straight forward that their frames are not museum quality but are still very nice.
- Ikea Ribba goes up to 24 x 35 3/4″. Very affordable but take note – once you get to the big size it is cheap plexiglass instead of actual glass.
- Find big framed art at Home Goods or Target in a frame you like, and take out the art it comes with. I’ve done this before and it was a bit of a chore, but turned out nicely.
- American Frame where you can upload your art online and have them frame it for you! Skip the printer!
I went the most expensive route of having it custom framed because I wanted the frame to be heavy and substantial looking, but you don’t have to do that at all anymore. There are so many more options than back when I completed this project!
I personally don’t like using Michaels to custom frame my pieces. Find a good local custom frame shop in your town that isn’t a chain. (I use Bull City Art and Framing all the time here in Durham. Highly recommend for local peeps!) I paid about $400. It was in that range and I remember it felt like a lot at the time, but here we are years and years later and my tastes have changed and trends have changed and I still LOVE this art just like the day I went to pick it up from the frame shop.
I turned down many of the upsells like UV free glass, etc to keep the cost of the frame as low as possible. I did not want a mat, I preferred to keep it clean and modern. I regret not paying the upcharge for the anti-glare glass- it doesn’t photograph too well.
Where To Find Affordable Aerial Beach Photography
1. ShutterStock or stock photography websites
2. Etsy. Lots of affordable options!
3. Although Minted is not as affordable as other places, they will frame it for you if you like as well! I have been very happy with the quality of their prints and frames (see my dining room oversized art from Minted).
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