Jacksonville Beach in Florida is a classic Atlantic Ocean beach with deep and broad, flat white sand beaches topped with short bluffs and dunes covered in sea oats and grasses. During the day and into the late night, locals and tourists fill bars and restaurants like the Pier Cantina & Sandbar near the famed Jax Beach Pier. Music plays loudly and kids of all ages run and play in the surf. Mary and I were visiting Jacksonville along with a bunch of other extended family to celebrate my third daughter's graduation from nursing school. We all visited the pier and enjoyed the bar together the afternoon before her graduation. I walked around the pier, took some iPhone sketch shots, and wondered what it might be like at dawn. I found out the next morning.
Long before dawn, when all the partiers have drifted off to the 24-hour diners, and the parking lot near the pier is almost empty, the fishermen and surfers begin to reappear. The tide beneath the pier is hushed, moving in swirls, submerging your feet, and painting the sand in the dark. Dawn light that is already brilliant hours away in Africa begins to bleach the sky. Pier struts rise out of the dark water and reach for the light beneath the moon. You're all alone with the light on the sand and water.
The pier is huge, especially at this low, close vantage point directly beneath it. Even with the Nikkor 19mm PC lens, it took 15 separate images to create the full panorama. And it took multiple tries before I had the light on the colors of the sky, the reflections of the sand, and the texture of the water I wanted.
This artwork is a brilliant combination of deep blues and soft dawn colors. This is a bold image of panoramic proportions, and is available as a large format print or acrylic block artwork from our lab partner WhiteWall. The title is from the medieval Latin for the color ultramarine, and means literally "beyond the sea."
Provenance: Hasselblad X1D II | Nikon 19mm | 15-image-stich
