There's the old adage of "get close to your subject". Some say if you think you are close, go ahead and take another step forward. In many instances the subject is in the photo with loads of dead space surrounding him/her/it.
Look first at your subject and decide what is most important. Is it the person, or the beach? If it is the person, then step in. Merely a suggestion of the background is all that is required when taking portraits. However, if you want to photograph the beach itself as the subject and you want to include the person somewhere in the photo, then get down to the beach level and let the person be secondary to the subject of the beach. Maybe the person has his feet in the water, and that's all you choose to photograph because the water is more important in this photo. In my beach photo, I chose the beach as my subject - the children running ahead are suggesting the story but they are not the subject.
Enjoy Summer and happy snapping!
