This is a spotters guide for those heading down to SXM Princess Juliana Airport located on St Maarten.
First up lets start with the south side of the beach. You can either shoot from the beach or grab a drink and some food from the Sunset Bar and Grill. For best light you want to shoot here during the late fall and winter months. A 70-200 is good but for some of the larger jets I would recommend going with a wider lens. The images below were taken between 30mm-85mm
For those wide angle shots and more of a head-on shot your going to want to move up the beach just bit. Stay to the south of the runway in Winter Month for best lighting conditions. Also depending what time of year you go a lot of the beach(sand) toward the south end may not be there. In its place you will find some uneven rocks. be careful when navigating when rushing for a shot. Images below taken between 10 and 18mm on a Full Frame sensor
Next location lets move further up the beach to the North. Lighting wise this location is best in the summer months. Here again a 70-200 is good, depending where you are on the beach you might want to go a bit wider. Images below taken between 17-85mm
Now that we covered the beach lets move onto some of the non public areas. First stop is the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and Sonesta Ocean Point which is one and the same place. Lots of great locations here. From the pool deck to your room on a high floor. 70-200mm is great from these locations and you can even go up to 100-400mm
