Photographing the Pier on Tybee Island

Tybee Island is a great place for photographers. Not only can you make a living photographing weddings there like my friend Shannon but it also has some incredible landscapes and ocean views. It is still my favorite place to photograph the sunrise…

When photographing something as bare as a beach you should really try to find something to anchor the foreground of your photograph too. You just need something there. Or, you can find lines to help add definition to your photograph. That is what I did with the Pier on Tybee Beach. I really like how the pillars of the pier form a path for your eyes to follow…all the way ’til the end. In February, there were 3 days when the sun rose perfectly symetrical with the opening at the end of the pier. I waited months to get that photograph. I went all three mornings and all three mornings there was no real sunrise due to the clouds. It was one time I was cursing the clouds in my photograph. So…I guess there is always next year.

Photographing the Gloomy sunrise on Tybee

The other morning I went out to Tybee Island to photograph the sunrise. The sunrise itself turned out to be a little bit of  a bust compared to the day prior, which I wasn’t there to photograph (blah). As the sun was coming up there was absolutely no color, just grey. I was on the verge of hanging it up and going back home, but decided to stick it out awhile to see if anything good might happen. Every landscape photographer has a horror story or two about giving up on a landscape too soon and seeing an awesome scene in their rear-view mirror. So, stay put, see what happens. I mean, it wasn’t like a chore, you can’t beat watching the sun come up on Tybee Island. The sun breaking the horizon out over the Atlantic is a site to behold…when there are not a thousand and one clouds blocking the view.

Scenes like this are a perfect use for high dynamic range photography. Most of the photographs on my website are high dynamic range photographs. It really makes the colors pop and the textures come to life. There is no way you could get a photo like this from a single exposure. It isn’t happening. I have seen a thousand and one photographs of Tybee Beach and very few of them can actually make me feel like I am there. One more reason I love shooting high dynamic range…

Watching the sunrise on Tybee Island

Yesterday morning I decided to head out to Tybee Island to photograph the sunrise. The day prior, the most amazing colors I have ever seen were coming from the direction of the rising sun, but I was driving into Savannah for a meeting. So I had to glimpse them in the rear-view mirror. I was hoping for a repeat performance, but it wasn’t meant to be.

When I arrived at Tybee Island, camera in hand, the sunrise was still about 90 minutes away. I used that time to take some long exposure photographs and play around with some light painting. As it got closer and closer to the actual rising of the sun I realized that it was going to be a bust for the most part, definitely not the color I had seen the day before. I decided to stick around and try to make the most of it.

At the point in the photograph below, there was a young boy who walked right into frame as I was trying to photograph what little color the sunrise was giving me on Tybee. Normally I really don’t like having people in my photographs and go out of my way to avoid them. However, this kid just stood there for over 5 minues, watching the color fill this part of the sky. I went from mildly annoyed to filled with happiness. Here is this young kid, in the world of computers, video games and other digital distractions, taking a few moments to be mesmerized by the beauty of nature. More people should be out experiencing this. It is one aspect of being a photographer I really love. It brought me back to July and August when my girls and I would head out to Tybee at sunrise to watch the sun come up, which brought a tear or two to my eyes. There is something spiritual about it, I cannot describe it, you just have to experience it…

Insomnia – Great Way to Photograph Sunrise

Lately I have been having a helluva’ time sleeping. Stress, anxiety…it really takes a toll on you. I have been a nervous wreck for about 2 straight weeks, blah. However, I have found that the lack of sleep I have been experiencing has been contributing to an increased number of photo-shoots at sunrise. Who would have that?! Haha…

Photographing Shrimp Boats on Tybee Island

Well, I guess it should technically say ‘ Photographing Shrimp Boats in the waters around Tybee Island’…but close enough.

Shrimping is a big business in these parts. If you go to any self-respecting seafood restaurant in Savannah you will find freshly caught wild Georgia Shrimp on the menu. Many of these shrimp are caught by small boats fishing with a crew of only a few men.

This photograph was taken while I was on a Dolphin Tour off of Tybee Island. During the course of our hour-long dolphin ‘hunt’ we came across a number of these Shrimp Boats. Each and every one of them had seagull flying and dive-bombing the deck and dolphins swimming around the boats waiting for the scraps. It was quite the sight.

Photographing the Cockspur Lighthouse

Well, that might be a little bit of an overstatement. I wasn’t planning on photographing the Cockspur Lighthouse, but got this photograph anyways. The Cockspur lighthouse can be found on Cockspur Island, between Fort Pulaski and Tybee Island. If you leave Savannah, head east on 80 for about 20 minutes and you will come across it. The Cockspur Lighthouse is on a little outcropping of an oyster bed. At high water the ocean actually comes right up to the base of the Lighthouse. At low time you can get out and inspect the lighthouse, but make sure you wear good think soled shoes…the oysters will slice your feet up pretty good.

This night I wasn’t even intending to photographing the lighthouse. I was photograph the sunset over Lazaretto Creek. At one point I turned around and noticed the lighthouse was completely lit by the setting sun…but nothing else around it was. It was awesome, as you can see below. You might think this is some Photoshop trick, but it isn’t.