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Swept Away - Bodie Island Lighthouse
Swept Away – Bodie Island Lighthouse
I was looking forward to meeting up with two of my friends, Rick Dunnuck and Frankie Leyro to shoot sunrise at Great Falls. When we arrived at the gate at 6 AM thinking, ‘oh, just in time, they’re opening gates.’ That was not the case at all, we were in shock by the park ranger who said in the sternest of voice, ‘the park doesn’t open till 7 and you need to leave.’ No explanation of why was coming out of this guy. So we sat in the car wondering what to do next and we were all furiously trying to connect to the website to see if that was really true. The ranger comes back, knock on our window and tell us we can’t stay in front of the gate, then proceeded to tell us go somewhere else to have our coffee.
Three of Frankie’s friend pulled up unannounced and you know what happen next, all of us were out of our car, on the road talking. I knew it was only a matter of time before the super rude ranger comes back and have us all arrested. And he did but this time he was a little less raging and actually tried to explain himself. I don’t know what change him; maybe it was because he was now in front of six people with four cars in front of the gate. We politely nodded in agreement and proceeded to leave. I left with a bad experience, no sunrise shots and didn’t even touch my camera. The only thing that saved this morning was having breakfast in front of a fireplace at Katie’s (by the way, great place to have breakfast in Great Falls, VA).
So the first thought in my mind was I’m going to do sunset where nobody can stop me. My first thought was Bodie Island Lighthouse, 4.5-hour drive to the Outbanks of NC. I can do it, leave at 10 AM and be there for sunset. That is exactly what I did and ended up being more than I could imagine. I was totally Swept Away! One of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever witness! And not a soul was a around for this beauty…only me standing in the marsh and the sounds of quacking ducks into the night. Then came the wonderful drive home and the bad experience I had that morning was totally past.
Swept Away - Bodie Island Lighthouse
Swept Away – Bodie Island Lighthouse
I was looking forward to meeting up with two of my friends, Rick Dunnuck and Frankie Leyro to shoot sunrise at Great Falls. When we arrived at the gate at 6 AM thinking, ‘oh, just in time, they’re opening gates.’ That was not the case at all, we were in shock by the park ranger who said in the sternest of voice, ‘the park doesn’t open till 7 and you need to leave.’ No explanation of why was coming out of this guy. So we sat in the car wondering what to do next and we were all furiously trying to connect to the website to see if that was really true. The ranger comes back, knock on our window and tell us we can’t stay in front of the gate, then proceeded to tell us go somewhere else to have our coffee.
Three of Frankie’s friend pulled up unannounced and you know what happen next, all of us were out of our car, on the road talking. I knew it was only a matter of time before the super rude ranger comes back and have us all arrested. And he did but this time he was a little less raging and actually tried to explain himself. I don’t know what change him; maybe it was because he was now in front of six people with four cars in front of the gate. We politely nodded in agreement and proceeded to leave. I left with a bad experience, no sunrise shots and didn’t even touch my camera. The only thing that saved this morning was having breakfast in front of a fireplace at Katie’s (by the way, great place to have breakfast in Great Falls, VA).
So the first thought in my mind was I’m going to do sunset where nobody can stop me. My first thought was Bodie Island Lighthouse, 4.5-hour drive to the Outbanks of NC. I can do it, leave at 10 AM and be there for sunset. That is exactly what I did and ended up being more than I could imagine. I was totally Swept Away! One of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever witness! And not a soul was a around for this beauty…only me standing in the marsh and the sounds of quacking ducks into the night. Then came the wonderful drive home and the bad experience I had that morning was totally past.