Gentle waves rinse over the small sea shells on St. Augustine Beach, Florida, at sunrise.

As I mentioned in the description of another photograph from this morning, the simplicity of the sunrise forced me to focus on other senses besides vision. Usually, when watching sunrise from a beach, the second-most salient sense would be hearing. When you are on the beach without all the crowds, you hear so many noises you usually can’t. The main one which comes to mind is the tossing and turning of the shells in the waves. It’s hard to describe, but most of you probably know what I’m talking about. Well on this morning, as I searched my senses, I noticed that even that noise was barely audible. The waves were so gentle, and spread out over such a long flat beach, that the shells weren’t moving much. Instead, the thin layer of water would create small wakes over the shells. And these aren’t large shells entrenched deeply in the sand — these are small coquina clams! It was mesmerizing to watch the water patterns over the small shells repeat themselves over and over, reversing direction as the waves came in and out.

Purchase “Wash, Rinse, Repeat – Sunrise Over St Augustine Beach, Florida” Fine Art Print: