I took this photo in Duck, North Carolina. On the Outer Banks.

There were storms predicted later in the day. So, I decided to get up early for sunrise thinking there would be a good chance for some dramatic skies. The morning started out dull and flat with not much going on. The beach was also empty and I was struggling to find an interesting composition that wasn't just the beach.

Then all of a sudden these brilliant reds and pinks and oranges appeared out of nowhere in the sky. I decided to do a long exposure so I hurriedly attached my filter system and with a 10 stop ND filter attached I took a 2 minute exposure.

The sky looked great but the water was just a blurry mess. Since I couldn't find an interesting foreground element I decided to use the water as my foreground. I set the camera up low and right at the end of where the waves were coming in. I switched to a 3 stop ND filter and waited for the water to come in and fired off a bunch of 1/3 to 1/2 second exposures. These shorter shutter speeds allowed me to get motion in the water but still keep some of the textures.

In post processing I picked my favorite water shot and basically just replaced the sky with my long 2 minute exposure sky.