“A weekend get-a-way to charming Cape Cod with your spouse for an anniversary celebration.” This conjures up so many emotions – romance, affection, and togetherness. This is good for most couples, but not for us.  We do think of all those things, but we add one more important ingredient – photography.  Forget sleeping in and having coffee served to us in bed…  We get up before dawn to catch a sunrise over the ocean.  Forget a candlelight dinner at the local bistro… We camp out at the beach waiting for the golden hour to photograph beautiful sunsets. To each his own!

On our first night we tried to mix in both, a nice dinner and a sunset photo shoot at the beach. After a good meal and a very small amount of wine, we were running a bit late.  We sped to First Encounter Beach, which seemed like the right place for a romantic photo shoot.  Getting there just before sunset, we came across what looked like a junior high school outing – there were four busloads of kids running all over with kites, footballs and frisbees. We found a less trodden place to shoot, but the sun dropped behind the clouds before the  sun actually set. Although we got a few shots, we were a bit disappointed in the results.

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Sunset Cut Short by Clouds – First Encounter Beach, Eastham

On our walk back to the car, we came across a man with his bird.  You don’t see Scarlet Macaws on a Cape Cod beach very often!

You never know when you run into a Macaw. "Taco" was quite friendly!

You never know when you might run into a Scarlet Macaw. “Taco” was quite friendly!

The next morning started quite early as sunrise is now about 5:15. With a 4:15am wakeup call we dashed to a nearby beach.  Again, we did not get great results, but we did enjoy the fresh ocean air.

So much for coffee in bed...  But his was eye-opening just the same!

So much for coffee in bed… But his was eye-opening just the same!

On our last morning, we needed to get up even earlier (4:00) as we had a 30 minute drive to our location at Fort Hill. Our goal was to shoot the sunrise through the beautiful, wispy reeds.

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Sunrise through the reeds.

Although the clouds obscured the initial sunrise, the setting was quite nice.

Although the clouds obscured the initial sunrise, the setting was quite nice.

All in all, not the perfect photographic weekend experience, but definitely a romantic one!

Quick restaurant review: The Del Mar Bistro in Chatham was so good, that we dined there twice. 4.5 stars on Yelp!