Just spent a week up the road at Clearwater Beach with my family and Rebel XSi. My previous camera was an S3, and I think my experience will translate fairly well between the two cameras. Yes, in St Pete you will see sunsets when looking out over the water from the beach. Sunrise will be behind your hotel if you're standing on the beach.
The sun sets quickly once it gets right down onto the horizon so preparation is key. Scout your locations in advance and know what scene pose you want before you get there.
This one should be obvious, but there is a LOT of sand on the beach. In the late afternoon and evening the wind can blow clouds of very fine particles at a high rate of speed. Not a good place for switching lenses (which you won't have to worry about
) but can also get into the retractable lens and keep it from going in/out like it should. Had to do some tapping on my daughter's point-n-shoot to get the lens unstuck. The sand/dust tends to stay below waist level so if you're standing up you are less at risk. Just something to be mindful of.
If you want a picture of your daughter with the sunset as a backdrop, you might try this: Compose a picture of just the sunset, metering off the sky to the left or right of the sun (Definitely not right on the sun!). Use those settings for your aperture and shutter speed but raise the flash. Your daughter will be illuminated by the flash, but the camera will still take a long enough exposure to capture a warm glow from the sunset. If you squat just slightly when taking the picture, then you can avoid having a distracting shadow on the sand behind her. Learned this by experience.
Another nice pose is a late afternoon shot leaning on the rail of a boat, if you are inclined to take a boat tour while there. Can be with either the coastline or the gulf in the background.
Since I'm still in overprotective dad mode, I don't have pictures online to show you. Good luck!
