Pre Sunrise on The Coast...

Here’s another example of when sometimes plans don’t go according to plan. Last Sunday I drove to Popham Beach for 3 AM hoping to get photos of the milkyway over Fox Island. Well, despite clear skies when I left the house there was a thin cloud cover at the coast. I did spend a couple of hours photographing the night sky because stars were still visible, I just couldn’t clearly see the milkyway. It was almost 5 AM when I decided to call it quits on the stars but figured there might be some potential for a good sunrise. The clock sprung ahead that morning so the sun was not due to rise until almost 7 AM. I went back to the car to kill some time, I wanted to be back on the beach by 6 because on the coast, the sky starts to brighten at least an hour before the sun actually gets above the horizon (nautical twilight). This is the first image I took after walking back to the beach. It was still very dark and I could see no color in the sky with the naked eye. I exposed for 30 seconds at f/8, ISO 400 figuring I'd get a blue hour type of image but this is what showed up on my display after exposure. I knew then I made the right decision to hang around and my guess for a good sunrise was correct. I spent the next hour taking photos of the sky as it really lit up, this is one of those times where I was glad I decided to hang around.