Long Key State Park

Getting up early to shoot one sunrise on our Florida vacation wasn't enough for me. I had to try and squeeze in one more. A little online research made Long Key State Park seem like a viable choice -- fairly close to our hotel, and with some southeast-facing shoreline.

What I hadn't counted on was the park's gates not opening until 7 a.m., which I really should have expected given my recent experience at Biscayne.  Unlike Biscayne, this park's gate actually was closed when I arrived.  So I parked on the side of the Overseas Highway and started walking.

Not too far in I found this canoe launch area, which was pretty enough to stop and shoot but not quite what I had pictured in my head for the main event.

As I progressed along the Golden Orb Trail I found my vantage point -- a strip of coast that had a nice curve to it and a clear view towards the rising sun.  Even the clouds were cooperating, adding some texture without blocking all the color.  I don't really know how to describe the consistency of the shore; it wasn't exactly sandy, but wasn't exactly muddy or rocky either.

At one point, a flock of birds decided the scenery wasn't quite picturesque enough without their presence.

The low clouds on the horizon helped give me the extended dance remix of sunrise, prolonging the time during which the exposure was fairly consistent across the scene.  I liked how the tops of the clouds had taken on a pinkish hue at this point.

Just before the sun finally burst over the top of the clouds, magnificence.  I can't get over all the different colors in the water at this moment -- yellow, orange, turquoise, violet -- nearly everything but the sort of blue that you'd expect, and that would predominate once the sun rose just a bit higher.

Not my normal variety of photos in this post.  Most of them were shot from the same exact spot.  But what's the point of moving when the sky constantly changes the view for you?