Every weekend night at bed time for the last few months I’ve been checking the weather forecast for Salisbury Beach. Any time it called for clear skies I would tell my beloved wife that if I found myself awake about an hour before the sunrise I was going to make the half hour drive to the beach and take a few pics. The idea was to have sunrise pics to complement the sunset pics we took at Mission Beach in San Diego last year. Because, you know, I am a total dork like that. It never happened. I even set the alarm clock a couple of times, but I just never got myself out of bed.

This morning I woke up at about 3:30am and never fell back to sleep. The forecast called for clear skies. At 5:20 or so I figured, I’m awake anyway… what the hell, right? I also needed to be up early to take the Nissan to the dealer for some routine work. So I just did it. I went to the ocean and snapped some pics.

Here’s a good chunk of them.

I was there with about 20-25 minutes to spare, and the sky was bright enough to see without any trouble. I killed time by snapping waves and sand and everything.

Check out that sky. I mean, right?

I wasn’t the only nerd on the beach. There was a couple to my right who were posing a stuffed animal in front of the ocean. There was another group of three people hanging out to my left who were just visiting and waiting for the sun to arrive. There were also some folks out on the water, apparently.

I mean, the sky, am I right?

Even though the sun still hadn’t come up yet, I was digging the way the sky reflected off of the wet sand.

The Atlantic may be a total wimp compared to the Pacific, but she still snuck in a few decent waves.

The birds are flying South for the Winter. The jerks.

This guy doesn’t seem to be in a rush to get down South.

I guess there was stuff behind me too.

There’s one little spot on the horizon that’s getting brighter…

…Is that the sun I see?…

…Yes! There she is!

The guest of honor.

Good morning, Massachusetts!

One thing I remember about our Pacific sunsets is that the sun was not too terribly bright when it reached the horizon. You could look right at it, no problem. That was not the case today. It got really bright, really fast. I put the neutral density filter on not long after the sun first poked it’s head above the water. Sunglasses for the camera, if you will.

The farther out I zoomed, the less light made it in.

At this point the sun was well and truly up, and it was time to head to the Nissan dealer. Check off another of the goofy ideas I have for photo shoots. Done and done.