Sunrise at New Smyrna Beach, Florida: 04 August 2013

New Smyrna Beach, photographed in Volusia county, Florida (04 August 2013).

It doesn’t really matter how many years pass by or how old I get, I always feel like a kid when I’m staring at the incomprehensible wonder of Florida’s east coast at dawn. In high school, I sometimes biked six miles to school along the Atlantic coastline, letting the sun rise to my left as I drove south. Later, when I was living far, far away from central Florida, I’d only feel like I was truly back home when I’d watch the sun rise the morning after my return. I won’t wax on too poetically about the beach –that ground’s water’s been pretty much covered by many writers far more graceful with language than myself–, but I will say there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a thick, robust, salty breeze blowing against you as the sun starts to stretch over a slightly-clouded marine horizon. I do love a good sunrise!

Here, then, is a series of early morning photographs taken at New Smyrna Beach on 04 August 2013:

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Uniola paniculata (Sea Oats) on the residual dunes near Flagler Avenue.

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The soft remnant of a wave loses the last of its momentum.

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A dolphin, likely Tursiops truncatus (Atlantic bottlenose dolphin), cruises the dawn.

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Egretta thula (the Snowy egret) patrols the Atlantic dawn for a little breakfast.

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New Day Begins.

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Next on Dust Tracks: New Smyrna storms!

~ janson