Reference
While browsing references for another project I found this nice photo on website of Amanruya. I found it suitable for simple afternoon vizualization.
I started with modeling the base of the scene - the pier on which I then put some loungers to get the sense of scale. Then I adjusted the camera according to the reference image.
Just very simple.
Then I made the sea surface - very simple Corona water material witch Phoenix FD ocean map in displacement.
The island in the background was made as a plane with displacement modifier. No need for any sort of detail.
As you can see, material is again very simple - just diffuse map.
I scattered some trees on the island using the Forest Pack.
This is how it looks now: we're not quite there yet.
Then I added some foreground trees and set volumetric in Corona Sky. The scene is lit with just a basic Corona Sun.
Decided to change the format to height as I liked the composition better.
I found some trees better suitable for the image. Also replaced the loungers.
I rendered the scene including two mask for postproduction (sea, trees).
Postproduction phase was quite simple: adjusted color of the sea and used some LUTs and finalized with Dehancer plugin.
Final image
Bonus
I decided to make a short video from the scene. For that purpose I had to convert all materials to V-Ray and then I rendered the scene in Chaos Vantage.