Dark Thoughts
The afternoon I wanted to photograph the tree came and I would be shooting in the opposite direction of sunset. That was perfect because I really wanted the colors of twilight. After all I still had the morning for a good sunrise.
Jekyll Island is a very popular destination and I love it dearly but I knew it would make photographing the tree difficult.
I set up four hours before sunset and waited. Fifteen minutes before sunset came and I was excited as the temperatures were dropping with the sun and the beach was clear of people!
Just then a family of seven came down to the beach. The dad looked right at me standing by my tripod and then set all of their stuff right below the tree. I chose to bite my tongue and see what happened. After all, the kids couldn’t want to swim for too long after the sun went down and my shot would come fifteen minutes after sunset.
Well, ten minutes after sunset came and they were still playing in the water. At this point, the dad had looked at me quite a few times and was attempting to leave; his kids and wife were having none of it.
Now being an honest guy, I was about to my breaking point, the light was getting great and I had driven two states of coastline to photograph the perfect tree. Out of the corner of my left eye a cargo ship caught my attention, it was heading straight into my shot.
Time was running out, fast.
I stood there and closed my eyes asking God if I could have this picture and not be rude in the process of doing so. A couple minutes after my prayer the family packed up and moved up the beach.
Still not out of my picture I adjusted my angle to remove them from my frame and grabbed a quick three images before the boat came into frame on the left.
Completely eaten alive by the bugs, I grabbed my gear and high tailed it off the beach extremely happy with the image I was able to capture!