Many photographers pack up and leave when the sun sets. I have found that I often get my best shots after the sun has gone to bed. The sky is regularly at its nicest just before sunrise or just after sunset. As long as your subject matter can deal with longer shutter speeds, stay out and shoot longer. To your eyes things may look dark and unattractive. But the camera does not know it is dark once you use a long shutter speed. This is why we have tripods. They allow us to shoor prior to sunrise and after sunset.

As you can see, this image was taken well after sunset. It is actually the longer shutter speed that makes this image. That longer shutter speed is what makes the streaks of water pulling back. Those lines just beg your eyes to follow them and thereby to go into the image. They create depth. It is this time of day when the sky turns warm. The sky has nice color but it is not that bright to claim all the attention thereby pulling the viewer away from what we are trying to create on the beach too quickly. The movement of the water on the beach makes this image dynamic.

     I like the way the rocks on the left is balanced by the foreground foilage on the right. Together they balance with the shoreline. The rock stacks are separated just a bit which strengthen their compositional value. What do you think, was this image worth waiting another twenty minutes for? Stay a bit longer and shoot after sunset. Arrive a little earlier in the morning and shoot just prior to sunrise.