A Charleston Sunrise

Charleston is my favorite city to visit. Every year, I manage to find my way there 5 or 6 times. It's even where my and my gorgeous wife got married last October. 

I was fortunate enough to spend part of this week down in the Holy City. For the first time, I stayed at the Francis Marion Hotel downtown off of King Street. It was just a few blocks away from the water front park and the battery so I decided to take a stroll one morning over that way. I got up at 5am with my camera bag and tripod over my shoulder and walked over to see the pineapple fountain. 

When I got there, I noticed that there was a cruise ship in the harbor. It was actually sort of odd, seeing this massive ship sitting in the harbor lit up like a Christmas tree while the rest of the city laid peacefully asleep in the dark of the night. I decided to take a few shots there first since it was still an hour or so before the sun would rise and there was nothing else to do at the time. 

After a few minutes of that, I moved over to the pineapple fountain. By this time the sunlight was just beginning to peak over the horizon and all I saw was a faint silhouette against a night sky. So I picked up and went over to the railing by the water. I waited patiently as the orange glow on the horizon slowly pushed the deep blue sky further and further up. 

I decided I would try my hand one more time at the pineapple. And as luck would have it, the sun finally cooperated with me enough to get a shot off!

After I was finished and packing up, I started walking off to return to my hotel. But something made me decide to look over my shoulder once more. And as I did, I saw the sun finally peaking over the horizon. I scrambled to get set back up before the moment passed and was cable to capture it. 

Here are some of my favorites from that morning. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!