Beautiful photos of Sunrise at this Florida beach

I was at South Florida's Lake Okeechobee in February for a Bassmaster Elite Series event, and when that assignment wrapped up I was left with a couple of days to kill before I had to be in Southwest Georgia. The question was where to go.

So I pulled up Google Maps and started looking around, hoping to see a potential sunrise location within an hour or so. That's how I found the wonderful Coral Cove, a Jupiter Island beach that features a line of coral and limestone formations.

It looked perfect!

I was walking down the beach the next morning as the very first hint of light leaked over the horizon. The Atlantic surf was booming, which had me pumped about the potential of creating a print or two capturing those big waves crashing over the rocks.

Coral Cove is really interesting. Most of Florida's Atlantic coast is bare beach, but this is one of those special places were coral and limestone sit right on the edge of the beach. The stone is rough and pocked from the effects of the surf, making for some wonderful photographic opportunities.

And boy was the surf ever active on this morning!

My vision was for prints that captured the action of water splashing high in the air as the waves smashed into the rocks, while also capturing the water foaming onto the beach behind the formations.

As I worked, the sky lighted up with golden light from the impending sunrise. It was just beautiful

The first print created that morning is "Coral Cove Surf" (above), which includes everything I hoped for: splashing water and spray, waves washing through the crack in the coral and foamy surf reaching up the beach. 

And then the sun popped over the horizon and floated in the haze.

I reset my composition to include the sun as waves splashed and reached for the top of the frame. The final print was titled "Morning at Coral Cove" (below), and I think it truly captures the essence of this beautiful location.

I loaded my gear up for the drive north knowing I had the makings of some really special prints.