Day 04 – Sunrise, but No Dunes

We actually got to plan for a sunrise this morning. The pier at which we usually go was damaged in the storm, so we could neither park there nor have our traditional breakfast there after the shoot. However, the beach access just down the road was open, so we high-tailed it back along the beach to the pier for some photography.

Normally, the lights on the pier are on, but again, because of the storm, they were out. Understandable, for sure.

As one twilight drifted into the next, the light came up, and our group got some wonderful shots. They weren’t so sure until they saw them later in the imaging room, but Arnie and I saw potential in a lot of their camera displays.

Meanwhile, Arnie and I managed to get a few of our own. We love photographing here. Realistically, we never take our participants to places that we don’t love. There are so many possibilities here. The light is always changing, the tides, the phases of the moon, and this year, Hurricane Sandy.

There is something about the way the water swirls around the bases of the pilings that always fascinate me. In this image, I was intrigued by the fan shape I had never seen before.

We sent to a second location, the scene of our earlier photographs this week, to get some more wave shots. Offshore, I could see the blowing and cavorting of the dolphins that frequent this area. We could observe by the action of the birds that there were schools of fish heading toward us. The dolphins followed, eager for their next meal, and they came really close to the shore.

Our participants loved watching them, until these beautiful creatures headed back out to see, following the schools.

Meanwhile, there were some great waves that came in, backlit by the early-morning light.

We returned to the inn for breakfast followed by downloading of our images. Arnie did some scouting to see what the dunes looked like for the afternoon. They were gone, and the bridge heading south was not going to be repaired until Thanksgiving, he was told. No matter, we have plenty of options. After all, as we always say, Mother Nature has a mind of her own, and we are the ones who have to be flexible.

Downloads and selections were done, and Arnie and I were impressed by the work our group did. We think they surprised themselves. They learned more about post-processing and watched their images go from capture to WOW. As we told them, one has to start with good composition, and they had.

The critiques went well, and Arnie and I were interested by the types of comments we heard. Very insightful and a different approach than we had heard before.

We headed north after lunch to a boardwalk where there are marsh grasses, gnarly trees, and always, a great sunset. Arnie and worked with our group, helping them with approaches, technical aspects of photography, and made suggestions here and there to help then strengthen their vision.

It was getting dark, and there were not going to be any stars. Besides, it was half past wine o’clock, so it was time to head back for dinner. We would have an early morning tomorrow, and we all needed to get some sleep.

Many of these images appear in a slightly larger size on our Facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/cxnevdg

Next: Our favorite North Carolina Fishing Village

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