Last Wednesday, I visited Little Harbor at dawn hoping to capture the First Harbor Christmas tree boat with a backdrop of color in the sky. I started shooting at water level but, as the dawn broke, found the angle from the parking lot better for capturing the colors of the rising sun.

However, when going through images, this tight grouping of boats immediately caught my eye and I had to work on it. The First Harbor boat casts a golden light in Little Harbor with Marblehead Light’s green beacon visible through the trees but also reflecting just to the left of the golden water. I chose a wide open aperture (f/2.8) to keep focus on the tree and allow the other boats to blur slightly.