In Andrew's Own Words:

"We are spending a week at the beach and it is great fun and I certainly brought all of my photo gear with me - DSLR, various lenses, flash gun, etc but I am very hesitant to bring any of it to the beach because it is very easy for sand to get in the equipment.  So instead each time we hit the beach we bring our Canon S90 compact point and shoot.  It is a point and shoot and has most of the limitations that come with that.  However this is a very capable little camera with a fantastic lens that performs well even in low light with a maximum aperture of f2.0  One of the great things about using a point and shoot camera is being able to do just that - point and shoot.  With the DSLR I shoot RAW files and do a lot of post processing work to get the finished image I want - with the Canon S90 I know that most of the time if I use the right mode or preset the photo will be done in the camera the way I want and all I need to do is upload.  For the photo of Violet that you love I put the camera on the beach preset which makes sure the camera avoids over exposure (bright sand can often fool a camera's light meter) and brings out nice vibrant colors, especially the blue sky and ocean.  Shooting in bright sun especially during the middle of the day with the sun almost directly overhead can lead to a lot of harsh shadows and too much contrast this is the best time to use the on camera flash.  I love using the fill flash (setting the flash to on instead of automatic) and usually just dropping the flash exposure compensation down 1-2 stops.  This all allows for a fairly even exposure with natural looking light despite the use of flash.  Fill flash on bright days during the mid day hours and also with backlighting can create some great photos and I think this is one of them even if I didn't use my "professional" DSLR equipment.  Aside from all of the technical stuff waiting patiently for my daughter to make the right pose was partly because my wife was laying down in the sand and Violet decided to mimic her and I was there and the camera was set and ready to get the photo that was only available for a split second.  For the toddlers and babies it is always difficult to get great photos consistently you just have to allow the child to be themselves and not try to pose them or tell them what to do and then just keep shooting, be patient and not let the camera and settings get in the way."