When I woke up this morning at 5am, I started making excuses as to why I should just go back to sleep. I stepped outside on my porch and stared at the sky for a few minutes, pondering the clouds. I wandered down the path towards the beach perplexed as to whether there were any clouds or just the one over my house.

I came back inside and stared out the window for another 15 minutes. As some light crept into the sky, I knew I had to hit the road, things were looking good!

As I raced up the coast, the blue light lit up some amazing clouds that I just couldn't see in the dark 20 minutes earlier. Oh baby, this was gonna be good!

But alas, as I ran down the beach, the sky turned gray. My unwillingness to just get up and go at 5am cost me some really nice blue hour magic. Funny, because thewengler once told me how he always makes excuses not to get up for sunrise shots.

Today was my turn. So the lesson I learned is simply, if you're going to get up at 5am, hop in the car and just do it.

Of course, black and white can always mask the fact that I missed the best color, so here is yet another monochrome coastal shot.

Nikon D300
Nikkor 12-24mm @ 12mm
66sec @ f16, ISO 100
Tiffen .9 ND Filter
Lee .9 and .6 Soft GND Filters