I headed to the beach at Surf City, NC before sunrise. I got in position, and as the sun began to show on the horizon, I began to take bursts of shots. I used a Nikon D7100 and Nikkor 200-500/5.6 lens, handheld with vibration reduction on. I shot the image in Aperture Priority mode, at ISO 250, f/5.6, 1/800sec and +1.3EV.