Month: June 2025

One Morning At Americas Number One Beach

A stunning sunrise unfolds over Coopers Beach on the east end of Long Island. Coopers Beach, located in Southampton, New York was just named the number one beach in American by
Dr. Beach. This morning was not a summer beach morning in the traditional sense, but a few minutes of gorgeous light made it a special morning. Technical Details: Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 24-120mm F4 S IS lens

I just arrived back from a quick trip back to the east coast to visit family and spend a little bit of time at the beach. The purpose of the visit was not photography related at all but I almost always bring along a small kit just on the off chance I’m able to get out early one morning or late one evening to photograph some of the beautiful scenes found back in New York State.

With sunrise being 5:30 AM, is usually not an issue for me to get out, photograph for a few hours and still arrive back before most of family are awake and ready for the day. I come from an Irish family so of course the trick when visiting them back east, is if I can maintain my normally regimented schedule and actually get so sleep early enough so I can get on location before sunrise.

This trip to Southampton, New York to see family I was actually able to all the above. I had a late night catching up with my family, still was able to wake up bright and early and most importantly, head over to Coopers Beach for sunrise. As far as beach weather goes, I did not have great weather back on the east end of Long Island. I missed the heat wave that had abated just as I arrived but was there for a couple of gray, cool and rainy days. Not great for the beach, but of course it might be just what is needed to make compelling landscape images.

The Lifeguards at Coopers Beach wont be all that busy this morning as the weather overall wasnt great for the beach but was for photography. Lookings south, the Atlantic Ocean appears endless from the lifegaurd perch at Coopers Beach. Technical Details: Nikon Z7II Nikkor 24-120mm F4 IS S lens

It had been a few years since I’ve been able to get out on Coopers Beach and create any new images. The timing, family events and other commitments have made it more difficult in recent years to get out to Southampton, New York and have the opportunity to get out and photograph some of the most beautiful beaches in not only New York, but also the entire United States. For those who pay attention to these sorts of trivial and subjective things, Coopers Beach was just named the number 1 beach in the United States by ‘Dr. Beach’ once again.

Coopers Beach with its beautiful light colored sand, wide beach, dune grasses and often sunny skies in the winter certainly has the credentials to lay claim to being a spectacular location and beautiful beach and scene.

I had one morning to squeeze in a morning shoot at Coopers Beach. With a few hours sleep, I awoke to 60 degree temperatures, 10-15 mph winds and cloudy overcast skies. It didn’t exactly look promising as a photographer, but again I have a 10 minute drive over from the house and I was awake and ready to go already. Out the door I headed with the salty ocean air permeating the atmosphere.

Having been living out west in Colorado for the past 27 years, one of the things I really appreciate about photographing back east is the softness of the light. The subtle textures, color graditions and soft palettes make for dreamy impressionist like conditions that we dont often get out here in Colorado. Technical Details: Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 24-120mm F4 IS S lens

Arriving at Coopers Beach it looked cloudy. Even still, photographing the beach on a cloudy mornings can make for some amazing abstract images. Long exposures, the way each wave is unique and crashes and spreads out on the sands all make for vastly different images and moods. One thing I love about photographing back on the east coast and away from places like Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado where I spend the majority of my time is that the light is so soft and gentle back east. The humidity, angle of the sun make the light much more gently and manageable then the high altitude sun and cerulean blue skies I am now accustomed to photographing in my home state of Colorado.

I headed out on the the beach and had to put my vest on. The weather felt more like being back in Colorado than the east end of Long Island in summer. 60 degrees with a chilly easterly wind blowing in off the water at 10-15mph and hour. Looking east down the beach, I could see a slight glimmer of pink starting to glow. While it looked cloudy, there may be just enough of a break on the horizon that add some nice color to the gray skies. Soon after I had setup my camera, the skies turned a pink, red and purple hue. I had about 3 minutes before the magic was gone and it was back to being a gray morning.

Even with the cloudy conditions, Coopers Beach looked spectacular and the low light conditions allowed for longer shutter speeds with really brings out the mood and pace of this great morning on the east end of Long Island. Technical Details: Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 24-120mm F4 IS S lens

I was feeling good as I knew I had capture some amazing light this morning at Coopers Beach. A few minutes is all I always say I need anyway and this morning couldn’t have been more beautiful. The winds and rains from the night before has smoothed, sculpted and cleaned the white sands of Coopers and the ocean had enough chop to brings out some beautiful texture and form right as the color peaked.

It was an awesome morning at Coopers Beach. It was one of those mornings when you feel like you’ve gotten away with one. While most where sleeping in Southampton, unaware that this beautiful scene was unfolding, I was blessed with a few amazing minutes at Americas number one beach. More importantly, I was able to reconnect to a place that holds a special place in my heart and one I had been unable to enjoy for a few years.

A Spring Jaunt Around Cub Lake

Spring sunrise at Cub Lake. Clouds over Stones Peak, lillies growing on the surface of Cub Lake and beautiful morning light. Rocky Mountain National Park is really starting to look spectacular as late spring transitions to summer. Technical Details: Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 24-120mm F4 IS S lens

It’s late spring in Rocky but you can really feel summer is just around the corner here in Rocky Mountain National Park. After what has been a cool wet spring, the warm weather has arrived on the Front Range of Colorado. Lots of thawing, melting snow and greening grass are the themes right now in the park,

Thursday morning looked promising for a colorful sunrise. After checking all my usual weather apps, Clear Dark Sky, Sunset WX, Underground, I figured I would hike up to Cub Lake for sunrise. The pond-lilies should be sprouting on the surface of the lake and the grasses around Cub Lake should be looking their spring best.

The lower to mid elevations in Rocky Mountain National Park are looking amazing right now. The Fern Lake trail and the bridge over the Big Pool and Big Thompson River are calling hikers and photographers alike right now. Technical Details: Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 24-120mm F4 IS S lens

I get a chuckle when I go through my past photo catalogs. One theme I notice is that I end up at many of the same locations around the same time year after year. I don’t do this on purpose but the light and conditions often dictate where I end up. Cub Lake is one of those locations that is a great place to photograph early in the season. The lake thaws out much earlier than many of the other lakes as it resides at a much lower elevation. The trail to Cub Lake also is snow free much earlier than the Bear Lake and Wild Basin trailheads do. The other great thing about this trail is wildflowers start blowing here earlier than most places in the park and it’s a great place to see and photograph wildlife early in the seasons. Moose, elk and birds are all abundant along the Cub Lake trail in late spring.

So after leaving the Cub Lake trailhead at about 4:30 AM, I arrived at Cub Lake to find conditions more or less like I would expect. There was a modest breeze which is always tricky for photographers shooting RMNP. The breeze would alternate from calm, to gusty which of course muddles the lakes surface and can make catching a reflection in the surface tricky. Clouds were floating over Stones Peak and we had enough breaks with the wind that the overall prospects for sunrise looked decent.

Sunrise at Cub was beautiful as always. Pastels turned into orange and reds and the wind remained modest. I shot sunrise and then headed west past cub lake to connect with the Fern Lake trailhead and loop back to the parking lot. I love hiking this loop as its both beautiful and a great way to get my legs back in shape for ‘hiking season’ in the park. No matter how much training I do all year, nothing gets you in better trail shape than just hiking miles with a heavy pack on.

The Big Thompson River is running at a good clip right now. Seen from the bridge at the Big Pool, the water rushes downstream filled with snowmelt from higher elevations in Rocky Mountain National Park. Technical Details: Nikon Z7II, Nikkor 24-120mm F4 IS S lens

Past Cub Lake, and down to Big Pool. The wildflowers are amazing right now along the trail. The Golden Banner is having a banner year, wild roses and a few columbines were all present. The Big Thompson was running at a good clip with the snowmelt of the spring runoff. After photographing the Big Pool for awhile, I headed back to the parking and ran into a Bull Moose right on the trail. Moose number 2, per his tag was enjoying the verdant green aspen trees right along the trail. It’s been awhile since I’ve actually stopped to photograph at the Big Pool but it’s amazing how time can renew interest in photographing any given subject or location that you’ve shot a hundred times before.

I finished up my loop hike, got back to my car and just soaked in all or Rocky’s spring goodness. Its a great time to photograph RMNP right now. Wildflowers are blooming, elk and moose have their newborns, many lakes are now thawed and lower elevation trails are free of snow and great for hiking. Give it another few weeks and the alpine tundra will be greening up and at its prime. It still amazes me to this day, just how short and fast the seasons progress in Rocky. Blink and you might miss it!.