Sunrise over the Atlantic

The reason to return to this spot had to do with the choice of lens I like to use. The beach is a harsh environment, with all the wind driven sand and salt spray, so I only take with me what I truly need and leave everything else behind. I also prefer to capture close up portraits of a subject than capturing full landscape images. The day before I captured this image, I was only outfitted with my favorite 70-300mm zoom lens and was not able to widen out the view enough to capture the image I wanted. That is why I went back the next morning to that spot with my 17-70mm macro wide angle lens with the sole purpose of capturing this image. I am glad that I did not call it off due to the weather and made the journey back outfitted with that lens. It all came together for those few magical minutes and I was able to capture the image I wanted.

This image has been added to all of the PRINTS galleries.

The day before I captured this image I had been to the ocean for the sunrise and I spotted an area that I would like to come back and try taking more shots from. So I got up with excitement and purpose and prepared for the shoot. But on this particular morning I did not have high hopes for a sunrise over the ocean. On the beginning of the trek from Chincoteague Island to the federal beach access on Assateague Island a drizzle was falling from the dark, cloudy sky. Luckily the drizzle had just ended as I was parking the car. After a ten minute walk up the beach to this little spot and with a couple of minutes to spare until sunrise, the sky gave up enough cloudiness to give me the view I captured in this image. Five minutes later the clouds came back in full. And by the time I got back to the car the drizzle had begun again. I left the beach that morning with a feeling that I had just been given a gift.