Sunrise, Cape Hatteras

Shooting at sunrise isn't a lot of fun but, on the other hand, it can be very satisfying. If you're inexperienced, as I am, you fiddle with dials and buttons in the dark and eventually you see that the camera is, indeed, recording something like what you're seeing. Some study and preparation would help, of course, but I'm an old dog and such new tricks don't come easily.

This is the first shot that actually registered that morning, and the shutter speed was slow enough that the wave action was blurred. It was also a lot darker than this would suggest, but that's okay. My first shots in 2010 surprised me with lots of sea birds wading in the shallows - this year, it's fuzzy water. It's all good.

I chose these three simply because I like them. The first was taken at 5:23 and the last one (which actually was the last one) was taken 31 minutes later and the image numbers indicate I took 54 shots. Oddly enough, the middle one was taken 15 min after the first and 16 min before the last. The ocean was changing constantly, the light was changing progressively, and I was mindlessly changing camera settings occasionally (just to mix things up).

I spent a couple days working with them in PhotoShop and I'm pleased to report that I can now "fix" most of the things I screw up with my constant fiddling. Like a lot of things, you don't necessarily need to study something if you're willing to spend the time playing with it afterward. My biggest problem in this case was the internal fight between my engineering nature and my artistic nature. Having watched the sunrise steadily progress, my engineering side wants to see a series of pictures showing how the changing light evolved this particular morning. My artistic side, which won out, looks at each image as a discreet example of "a sunrise". I like 'em; I hope you do.