Why Wonder?

For someone who typically claims that I'm not a "morning person," I sure do appreciate the sunrise. I always have a hard time getting out of bed and I'm always grumpy in the morning but I find that once I get started, I feel on top of the world. Now I normally only get up early if I'm planning on photographing the sunrise or if I have somewhere to be. But I never regret it, even if I'm lacking in sleep or just physically/mentally/emotionally exhausted from the day prior. It is always worth it. Always.

I seem to have this inner-monologue that starts out with "Who gets up this early? Why? What are you thinking? Go back to sleep, Matt." Which is typically followed by "No, you need to get out of bed, the World (whoever or whatever) is waiting for you." Often this ends with me setting a new alarm, rolling over in bed and then falling into a deep slumber only to wake up later saying to myself "Damn it!"

I always remember one specific morning where I DID NOT want to get out of bed. I had made plans to go shoot sunrise at one of my favorite spots at the time and the standard monologue ensued. This internal conversation lasted for at least 10 minutes. At which point, I was basically awake already so fortunately the motivated side of me won out. It was still dark out when I arrived at the beach and I haphazardly got my gear out of the car, proceeded towards the water and set up my tripod. When the sun came up, I was completely flabbergasted at how unbelievable nature can be. To this day, I don't believe I've seen a more beautiful sunrise, and I've seen dozens and dozens since. Standing there, just staring at the incredible wonder that Mother Earth has created, I thought to myself "Aren't you glad you didn't miss this?" Not that I would've known what I would've missed...

Now this photo is an HDR which stands for High Dynamic Range. In order to create this image, I took 5 photos with varied exposures and merged them into one final photo. Other than that, it is not edited at all, I did not enhance the colors, contrast, brightness, et cetera. I will admit that most of my photos get touched up in some form or fashion but why fix it if it isn't broken?

This was over four years ago now and it's still a reminder of what could be. It reminds me that if I don't show up, I might miss a moment of absolute magic. I still struggle some mornings, today included. Turns out I got to see a pretty phenomenal sunrise this morning too, so as usual, it was worth it. Who knows what you could be missing? I know I don't want to have to wonder.