I'm almost always up for a trip to the South Carolina coast.  Sometimes I'll get up at 3am to drive there to catch a sunrise.  I didn't have to do that this time.  ;-)

I spent this past Saturday evening and Sunday morning with a large group of photographer friends in Charleston.  We shot the Ravenel Bridge on Saturday evening, and then got up (still early, my alarm went off at 3:45!) to drive to Botany Bay, on Edisto Island, for dawn.

As we were walking to the beach in the pre-dawn, I caught an occasional bolt of lighting from a thunderhead to my right.  Concerned that we might be caught on the beach in a storm, I checked the radar.  It was clear that the storm approaching Hunting Island would not be a immediate threat to us, but we should keep an eye on it.

As we got to the beach, the mostly clear skies we had when we left Charleston were mostly gone!  I was afraid that we wouldn't have much of a sunrise.  But as I was setting up to start taking photos, I noticed the thunderhead again.  While the sun wasn't yet up, the rich light from the approaching dawn was catching the top of the thunderhead, and reflecting back to the beach.  The result was this photo.  I hope you enjoy it!