There are only a couple of locations along the east coast of Florida that you can find rocks along the beach. I know, what fun is it playing on a beach with rocks? If you don’t watch out, you could stub your toe! Well, for a killer composition in a photograph, you need something besides bare sand to provide an anchor in your composition and add some sort of scale. So while travelling up the coast I stopped at two locations that have rocks. This image is from the beach in Washington Oaks Gardens State Park outside of Palm Coast.

I was blessed with clouds this morning, but in the dim light of dawn it looked like there might just be a few too many. We all know there isn’t much you can do about that so I hiked in anyway and waited to see what would happen. I found some rocks that made for a nice composition and got my gear ready. The seas were a little crazy since it was just a couple of days past a full moon. I found myself having to keep an eye out for the occasional sneaky wave that would cause me to scurry for higher ground. Pretty soon my bag was about fifty yards away just to be safe side!

I was excited to see that as it got closer to sunrise the clouds were beginning to break up a bit. It looked like there might be just enough of a break to let a little sunlight through. Just before the sun came over the horizon, the clouds just above the ocean glowed pink (another shot for another day!). As the sun rose higher, the light streamed over the top of the clouds and illuminated them with golden light. I shot like crazy for those fleeting minutes using a long exposure to try catch the waves streaking back out to sea. I was fortunate to have it all come together in this image. It was my lucky day for sure!

Click on the image to view a larger version in the galleries.