The rolling waves. The white sea wall. The swaying palm trees.
Leticia Rassy found a perfect photo opp to capture her Fort Lauderdale vacation. She clamped an extendable rod onto her smartphone, held it up and snapped a selfie with the beach as a backdrop.
"When you take the selfie with your hand, it's too close to you. But with the stick, you can get more of the background of the beach," said the visitor from Brazil. "You take better pictures."
The cultural phenomenon of taking mini-digital portraits, known as selfies, has developed another trend: that of the so-called selfie stick.
It's hard not to run into visitors pointing and shooting with these monopods in South Florida. Like dorsal fins popping up out of the ocean, these extendable rods with handles are surfacing in tourist hot spots, where visitors photograph themselves and their surroundings from up high, down low, even underwater.
At the end of Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, visitors one recent weeknight propped up their photo rods to get themselves and the Intracoastal into the frame.
People stepping off tourist buses and onto Miami's Calle Ocho can typically be seen using selfie sticks for photos with the colorful giant rooster figurines that dot the strip.
Others take pictures with Santa at the beach.
"Everyone wants a selfie,'' said the Sunrise resident dressed up as Old Saint Nick on Fort Lauderdale beach. Although he wouldn't give his real name, he said he's been fielding photo requests from beachgoers wielding selfie sticks. He's more than happy to oblige.
Selfie sticks are available in different sizes and from brands including GoPro and Minisuit. There's even one called the Selfie On A Stick. With prices starting at $10, they're becoming popular gifts this holiday season.
"I like it because they are wider, and you don't have to ask anyone to take your picture," said Juliana Barros, 24, as she used her GoPro camera and rod to capture herself and her parents on Fort Lauderdale beach on Monday afternoon.
"And it's waterproof," added mom Joseli Barros of the monopod.
The family, visiting from Rio de Janeiro, said they saw fellow passengers on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas cruise ship using similar selfie sticks for group shots.
Boca Raton exchange student Guilherme Moraes bought himself a GoPro stick on Amazon.com on Sunday to shoot panoramic photos on Fort Lauderdale beach with friends visiting from his native Brazil.
Midday Monday, he waded into the calm cool waters to take underwater selfies. When the trio surfaced, they moved on to shots of themselves with State Road A1A in the background.
"It's a better way to show what is behind you," said Moraes, 23, who is studying at Florida Atlantic University. "You can use it to show more people in the picture. Everyone likes to take a picture with their friends."
johnnydiaz@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4939
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