Good Harbor Beach at Sunrise

Author's Comments

I have made the drive to Gloucester before dawn more times than seems reasonable, and Good Harbor is the reason. The beach faces east-northeast, which means in summer the sun comes up over the open Atlantic and in fall it shifts south just enough to align with Salt Island in a way that feels almost intentional. The sand bar is the thing to plan around. Two hours on either side of low tide and you can walk out toward the island on a ribbon of wet sand that holds the sky like a long mirror. Time it wrong and you are looking at a channel of moving water, which is its own kind of photograph but not the one most people come for. I prefer late September here. The summer parking fees relax, the crowds thin to a few walkers and the occasional surfer, and the air has lost the haze that softens August horizons into pale nothing. On a clear morning you can see Thatcher Island's twin lights to the south, small but unmistakable, and a long lens will pull them closer than the eye suggests. The wide shot is the obvious one. The long exposure as the tide pulls back across the bar is the better one. The reflection in the thin film of water, with the island dark against a sky just turning pink, is what I keep driving up here for. Bring more layers than you think you need. The wind off the water in October has opinions.

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