It took 3 months of planning and waiting, then twice I had to reschedule due to cloudy skies, but it finally worked out this morning. Sunrise alignment with Sandy Point Lighthouse, which is near Annapolis, MD on the Chesapeake Bay.

I took 37 photos without moving the camera, just shot after shot. I was so tempted to run around the beach, maybe capture the sun right behind the lighthouse or try to get different angles, but I stuck to my guns and didn't move. I had to reduce the exposure several times as the sun grew in brightness as it climbed. I then selected the best 6 where the sun was evenly spaced and created a composite, layered image.

I screened each sun layer, then used a shot that I exposed separately for the rocks and water with a GND to bring out the foreground. Just had to touch up 2 little artifacts from the screen layering where the colors got a little wacky in the rocks. The original Photoshop layered image was almost 800 MB!

It'll be about 8 months before the sun will be in this spot again. I already know what I'm going to do differently next time....sucks I've got to wait so long!

Kind of reminds me of a memorable scene in the movie Star Wars on the planet Tatooine :)