I’ve just finished up processing my photos from our Southwest road trip and from our recent visit to Hilton Head Island, SC.  Just in time for our next adventure – we shove off again on Saturday!  This will be our annual “Friends and Family Tour” as Kathy likes to call it.  Other than our kids, most of what remains of our families is in Ohio or will be there for the Fourth of July.  I’ve got a childhood friend who lives in western Pennsylvania, and we have friends in Wisconsin. 😉  So off we go!

I mentioned earlier that I only got up early on two mornings at the beach, but I chose them well.  I’ve been going to Hilton Head long enough to know when the tides and times coincide to provide the pools I love to use as foreground.  An added bonus is when the clouds cooperate too, as they did for me on both occasions.  Sweet!

I found it interesting that, even though the conditions were virtually identical both mornings, the overall color cast was radically different – red the first morning and blue the second.  I did minimal (for me) processing on this photos and the colors are pretty faithful albeit a bit more saturated than what I saw.  I’m sure the difference in color is due to some sort of atmospherical anomaly, but I only know that it made for some purdy pitchers.

Mornings are a lovely time on the beach.  I could go out there without a camera, sit on one of the storage boxes the lifeguards use and watch the morning unfold.  When the sunrise is early – around 6:15 – like it was in May and June, there are very few people out – just me, a few birds and sometimes a few dolphins.  Most of the people are walking, so even if they walk through my frame, a slow shutter speed makes them blurry and sometimes invisible.  There was one guy with a dog that had a light on its collar which was kind of annoying, but he thankfully stayed out of my view!