Gulf Light

Early morning light on the Gulf.  

I found myself getting up early to watch the sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico.  I would try to be up and on the beach by 5:00am to be sure to be there for the best light.  I would have the entire beach to myself.  Quite a change to what we would a crush of people and umbrellas later in the day, I had the predawn light all to myself.

The morning had started clear but as it slowly got light clouds began to drift in off the Gulf.  I wanted to get a longer exposure to smooth out the waves and capture the soft colors of the morning.

I set up my tripod firmly in the sand and composed different images to capture the sand, waves, clouds, and soft morning light.  I was working with images in the 20-30 second range.  That was long enough to smooth out the water but the clouds were moving slow enough it only slightly blurred them.

I liked the effect.  I also liked the soft pastels of the sky and the wonderful green of the ocean found along the Florida panhandle.

Here are a couple of my favorites from the morning capturing

the morning light.