I took this photo during a sunrise on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. On this day there were storms forecasted from the mid morning basically throughout the entire rest of the day. So, I figured there was a good chance of getting a dramatic sky at sunrise. I couldn't find any foreground elements to use in my composition so I was kind of struggling to figure out what to do. Just a shot of the empty beach can be kind of boring even with a pretty sunrise.

Then, only for a few moments, some dramatic clouds and colors started to appear. I set up my NiSi filter system as fast as I could with my 10stop ND filter to get a long exposure. I was able to get 1, about 2 minute exposure. Not long after that the colors faded away.

Since I couldn't find any foreground elements I decided to just use the water. I got as close as I could without endangering my equipment, switched to a 3stop ND filter, waited for the waves to roll in, and fired off a handful of about 1/3 a second exposures getting different textures and patterns in the water.

To create the final image I used my favorite water shot and basically just replaced the sky with my 2 minute exposure sky in photoshop. Once blended together I finished it off with the basic kinds of adjustments and a little bit of selective masking and dodging and burning in Camera Raw and photoshop.