I was so lucky with the weather to get this photo. In Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, right near Frisco Pier, I’ve learned to wait for good images. They’re always worth it. On this day, the wind was blowing the tops off of the wave crests and the tide was going out, which created a waveless but stormy space between the beach and the cresting waves. The clouds hung very low, moving out to sea. The raw power of nature in the OBX can be felt…and if you wait long enough, captured on film to be revisited again and again. (With a little luck, that is.)

Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, is one of my favorite places to photograph. I have been shooting photos in the Outer Banks (OBX) for more than 25 years. Diamond Shoals during a storm is magical because of the unbelievable power of confluence of the Labrador and Florida Currents. Surfers and sports fishermen are lured there by the intensity of the waves and the diversity of the fish. And scuba divers are drawn there to explore the many, many shipwrecks that rest on Hatteras’ sea floor.

This is Emerson’s first trip to Cape Hatteras and her first experience in the ocean. Soon she shall have a surfboard and a waterproof digital camera.

I have been photographing at Cape Hatteras for over 20 years. The rejuvenation factor there is huge…for me AND the pups.

Spending can get away from you when you are carefree and somebody else is paying the bill. I am very thankful for what I have when I see how the rest of the world lives…