A Morning Shoot at the Beach

 Today was a morning just like any other morning could be, the only difference is, I woke up early for some reason. It was around 4:30 when my eyes sprung open, and I was awake (dang it), oh well, I thought I'd check the weather look outside and see if it would be worth going out for a sunrise shoot. Well, I did and it was, (of course nothing is guaranteed). I made myself a coffee to go, grabbed my camera bag and headed out the door. The beach is only a 10-15 minute drive from the house and with sunrise at 6:30 I knew I had plenty of time to scout out a location. Now, you would think, heck that's easy, just hit the beach and start shooting.....well, not quite. You see, the beach changes every day, the way the waves break, where they break, the tides, locations of tides pools and how the water flows onto the beach. So you need to actually hit the beach and start walking the shoreline until you come across that special area that may make a good shot. You get out the camera, take a couple of test shots, naw, not as good as I thought, so you press on, doing this several times until......ahhh, there it is, the composition I was after. Now, it's just a matter of timing the waves to get the look you are after, mind you, this can take one shot or several (10-20) and it's usually the later, but that's ok, it's about being in the moment and enjoying the process. Finally you check the back of your camera and think, oh yea, that's the one. That's what it took to just get the above image. Of course, remember the sun is rising and the light is constantly changing.

After capturing that first shot, I could relax and just see what else may develop. Like I said, the light during sunrise/sunset in constantly changing. One change it made this morning, was to light up and give some beautiful color to some small clouds almost due south. The light on the clouds was fleeting, so I grabbed the above shot handheld. I wanted to capture some wave motion as well as a little of the color reflecting off the wet sand in the foreground. Just after I got this shot, the light was gone, just that fast. The sun was beginning to come up, but not looking promising for any other shots down on the beach, I packed everything away and headed back towards the car.

One thing I remembered on my walk back, were a couple of large puddles left over from the hurricane flooding, just on the other side of the dunes by the parking lot. As I walked past them I noticed how the morning sunlight was giving off a beautiful reflection of the sky. I took some test shots of the first puddle, but wasn't to happy with the way they looked, oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes. I continued on to the second one and really liked how it was looking on camera. I found the composition I liked and was able to capture the above image before the sun rose too far in the sky. After that, the light just became to harsh, I packed it in and started the long, 50 foot trek to the car.......see, sometime you don't have to go very far for a beautiful shot, they can be right there in front of you.

I hope you enjoyed this read, I thought it would be interesting to show how you can go out on almost any day and what it takes to get some beautiful shots of the beach or where ever you may be.

As always, any image you see here can be made into a beautiful print. Just drop me a line via facebook or email.

Take Care and we'll see you back here next time......................