Morning at the Pier on Anna Maria

On Sunday I spent part of the morning at the pier on Anna Maria Island. This image is a study of sorts. I recently purchased a couple Lee filters and have been experimenting with long exposure daytime photography. In this case the experiment was to see what would happen if I took a long exposure of the sunrise. I used a wide angle so that the pier would be somewhat proportional to the sun. This is exposed for nearly three minutes, 175 seconds to be exact. For an experiment, I kind of like how it turned out.

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Morning at the Pier on Anna Maria
Morning at the Pier on Anna Maria Island

If you look close you’ll see ghost like images of the white egrets that populate the pier in the morning. I would normally try to keep them out of the frame but in this case they’re faded presence adds a narrative to the scene, an indication of what was going on at the time. In fact, what was going on is there were fishermen behind me net casting for bait fish. They would dump the catch on the pier and the egrets would snatch up any that didn’t make it into the bait bucket. Long story short, I was surrounded by white egrets.

more images from anna maria

I came here to watch the sunrise on a Sunday morning. As usual I wasn’t alone, there are always a handful of people doing the same thing. It’s a beautiful place and time of day to be here and it’s almost like being in church, there is a sense of reverence. In a way I suppose I was at the weekly Anna Maria sunrise service, only the parishioners were my fellow egrets and fishermen.