I was attending the Georgia Environmental Conference on Jekyll Island, Georgia, and looked forward to revisiting "Driftwood Beach" nearby. I first became enthralled by the unusual beauty of this beach during the Georgia Nature Photographers Association Expo two years earlier. The beach is covered with dead uprooted trees, no driftwood at all actually, but resident trees from the adjacent maritime forest being overtaken by encroaching erosion. The day after presenting my paper, I awoke early and headed down to Driftwood Beach in the twilight, wearing a headlamp to navigate among fallen trees but unwittingly attracting every form of biting insect. I especially like the simple form of this tree, one of the few still standing, against the blue dawn sky.

I took this image on 08-21-2014 at 06:26 am using a Nikon D90 and Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 AF-S lens on a Gitzo tripod with Kirk ballhead. The image was taken at 32mm at f/16, ISO 200, for 6 seconds.