During my road trip through Florida last month, I visited the St. Augustine Pier for a sunrise. Here is a sequence of shots from that morning:

1- Taken at 6:51 am...about 15 minutes before sunrise

St. Augustine Beach PierSt. Augustine Beach Pier, or St. Johns County Ocean Pier, at 350 A1A Beach Blvd in St. Augustine, Florida on December 8, 2018

2- What looked to be a very promising sunrise really fizzled out. This picture was captured at 7:13 am. I used a neutral density (ND) filter to just go with the flow and soften the scene since there weren't any dramatic colors or clouds.

St. Augustine Beach PierSt. Augustine Beach Pier, or St. Johns County Ocean Pier, at 350 A1A Beach Blvd in St. Augustine, Florida on December 8, 2018

3- By 7:17 am, the scene was not brightening at all. In fact, practically all of the color was getting erased. I used a stronger ND filter to try to salvage the photograph by going with a more minimalistic approach.

St. Augustine Beach PierSt. Augustine Beach Pier, or St. Johns County Ocean Pier, at 350 A1A Beach Blvd in St. Augustine, Florida on December 8, 2018

4- Things started to open up a bit by 7:22 am. There was enough interest in the clouds and some of the returning color, that I removed the ND filter for this last shot.

St. Augustine Beach PierSt. Augustine Beach Pier, or St. Johns County Ocean Pier, at 350 A1A Beach Blvd in St. Augustine, Florida on December 8, 2018

All four image were taken from the exact same spot with the camera secured to my tripod. You can get a lot of different looks within a very short window of time!