Each year on New Years Day, I wake before dawn without an alarm clock and head out to capture the first sunrise of the year. I had missed out on a great sunrise the day before (the last one of 2018) and hoped for a repeat performance. With temperatures in the upper 40’s, I figured no matter what the morning brought, it would be nice to be out shooting for the first time since the Christmas moon.

I drove down Atlantic Avenue and decided to stop at Devereux Beach. The tide was high (and rising) and I had figured out that the sun would rise close to Tinkers from this location. I had shot a great sunrise a few years prior from this spot and hoped for something new this year.

As the sun began to rise, I despaired a bit at the cloud cover – too much for the clear outline of the sun to show; not enough to reflect the light of sunrise. However, the ocean was active and, with the strong wind, I spotted some spray coming off the breaking waves.  As the sun rose a bit higher, I decided to use it as a backlight to add a golden glow to the sea spray coming off those breaking waves.

The small patch of wet sand reflecting the warm glow of the sun was icing for this favorite image from the first sunrise of 2019.