I headed to Bandon Beach for sunrise after enjoying an amazing sunset the night before. A storm had passed through the area the day before, and the forecast was for clear skies on this day. Knowing I wouldn't get any type of cloud drama in the sky, I knew that I would need to work with a closer foreground and not have big sweeping landscapes, including the sky.

Sunrise is a magical time with the soft pastel colors that often appear. This soft color palette is very complimentary when working at the beach, and I wanted to take advantage of that as much as I could. I had walked a bit down the beach, examining the various sea stacks (there are many here!) and chose these as the ones I wanted to spend time with during sunrise. The tide was slowly moving out with gentle waves breaking onshore. There was enough water movement around the stacks that I knew would create some visual interest, but it wouldn't be a huge part of the story I wanted to capture.

With the sun rising in the east, the landscape brightened up a bit, and I shot various compositions, working to get as much separation between the stacks as I could and minimize overlaps. About 5-10 minutes before the sun crested the hills in the east, the pastel colors intensified and flooded the sky. I shot this scene in landscape and portrait orientation and liked the landscape orientation best, as the stacks fill the frame so well.

Once the sun rose and shone direct light on the stacks, the shoot was over. The brightness created an unpleasant contrast on the soft scene I was shooting. So, I packed up and headed off to my next location, which was more agreeable with direct light. A very successful morning all around!