Salvador Dali Sunrise

“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.”
~Salvador Dali

This photo was taken at sunrise on 11-01-15 at Hunting Beach State Park, a border island near Beaufort (BYEW-fuhrt), South Carolina. The beach on the northeastern most point of the island is covered with the skeletal, wave-hardened and sun-bleached remains of massive oaks, pines, and palms, lending an eerie, otherworldly feel to the area. The park also contains an abandoned but preserved lighthouse, as well as miles of boardwalks through salt marshes (populated by innumerable species of bird, as well as alligators).
I was traveling from Charleston to Atlanta on a photo trip with my Bill, Scott, Joey, and Sharon. We decided to overnight in Beaufort so that we could catch the sunrise on Hunting Island, somewhere none of us had ever been before. We got up at 5:00 am and headed for the beaches; however, our trip took us longer than our various GPS apps told us it would, and we found ourselves sprinting onto the beach in order to capture the quickly rising sun! Luckily we made it, and wow, was it ever an amazing sunrise. The colors were so vivid they didn’t seem real, and was we snapped away we commented to one another that these were likely going to be photos that many viewers would think had been “photoshopped” in an extreme manner.
As I was making my way down the beach looking for shots, this particular oak tree’s caulescent cadaver caught my eye – it looked almost Cthulhuian (look it up if you don’t catch the reference), but as I framed it against the sunrise it reminded me mostly of something Salvador Dali would paint (or sculpt); thus the photo name “Salvador Dali Sunrise”. I positioned myself to shoot down the trunk toward the rising sun, and feel pretty happy with the results. This is an awesome place to visit, and definitely not to be missed if you’re in the area (although bring the bug spray! At one point I thought I was going to be carried to the top of the lighthouse by the massive mosquitos!). I hope you enjoy the photo…
Please visit my photography website at: http:--sundershots.smugmug.com- where you will find prints available for purchase in high quality resolution with no watermarks
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