Epic Sun Rise – Nubble Lighthouse, York ME

This was the most dramatic sun rise either Cheryl or myself have ever seen in our lives. We were staying at a roadside motel right on the main strip at York Beach ME. We had a 2nd story, corner room, which was closest to the beach and had a wrap around porch. I had only gotten about 4-1/2 hours sleep when I heard Cheryl walking around on outside. Moments later she comes storming in, barely unable to contain her excitement, stating “get up, get up, you’ve got to shoot this sun rise”! Honestly I was exhausted and tried to get her to leave but she kept saying “you’ll regret not getting up for the rest of your life”. Well with all the talking I was awake anyways so I stumbled to the front porch and was in awe of what I was looking at.

The sun was just peeking over the horizon to the right of our beloved Nubble Lighthouse out in the ocean. The sky and wet sand were bathed in orange glow. My priorities changed and my only concern now was getting camera, proper lens, SD card, tripod, batteries and so on as quickly as possible. With my camera and longest lens in hand Cheryl followed with the tripod both of us trying to literally not fall down the Motel stairs as we made our way.

We set up on the sidewalk adjacent to the main road. It was the crack of dawn and there was the occasional walker or jogger going by but, by and large, it was pretty vacant and a very special time. As I was still half a sleep all I could think of was “don’t blow this, do not blow this shot”. I’ve seen sunrises and sunsets change and or go away in minutes. However this wasn’t the case. We photographed for twenty minutes or so with the beautiful light and rising sun as individuals, couples and animals walked on the foreground in the beach making for additional photo opportunities.

You have to understand Cheryl is my awesome supportive wife. She’s been with me on many shoots but it’s not because she loves photography it’s because she loves her husband (thank God). Well this morning was different. Cheryl wasn’t just going along “for the ride”. She was buzzing around me with such excitement that she couldn’t keep quiet. “Did you get the people on the beach?”. “Did you see the bird on the rock”? “Is the orange reflection showing up good on the beach”? The energy in this moment was irreplaceable.

So when finished we had a number of shots and settled on the one you see in this blog post as we liked the family walking through and the bird on the rock. I think we both had the same takeaway from this experience. It wasn’t that maybe we had a potential wall shot or something good for the blog. It was that we’re getting old and we may not see many more sunrises this beautiful in our life. We were so nicely reminded that this universe we live on is beyond awesome. It is full of miracles that far exceed our comprehension but its a gift we’re all given every day. For your sake please don’t let them go unnoticed.

Photographed with a Sony A7RII, 42.3 MP full framed mirrorless camera and a Sony 200-600 f5.6-6.3 telephoto lens @ 200 mm.

1/1600th, f8, ISO 500, Aperture Priority