Cocoa Beach Sunrise

Staying in Orlando, I couldn't pass up the opportunity at shooting a beach with a pier, which I missed out on when I went to Miami. The two big beaches near Orlando are Cocoa Beach and Daytona Beach. I chose Cocoa Beach, hoping it would be less busy, though I did have to go on the toll frenzied Highway 528.

I went for a shot with the pier cutting across the frame and into the sunrise, rather than one down the pier or one with sunrise coming through the pier piling. There were a lot of people taking pictures around the pier, where I think they were hoping for a sun-star from one of the pier pilings, that never materialized. 

I got a little lucky that there was any color at sunrise at all. The weather reports were mixed for the morning, with showers in the afternoon. With the rain coming, I got some nice dramatic clouds and the bonus pre-sunrise glow, though no actual sun.

I tried a couple of longer exposures; trying to get a shot with a lot more motion in the clouds. Unfortunately not having a 10 stop nd-filter (I tired taking numerous 30 second exposure, hoping to stack them in Photoshop) and with the clouds moving left to right rather than forwards and backwards, the picture turned out so-so.

The above is one 30 second exposure. I tried stacking a couple of 30 second ones in Photoshop but it turned out not looking so good, guess I can't get around buying a 10 stop ND filter.