There is a downside to creating a career from your favorite pastime. After being in it for nearly twenty years, as I have, that pastime can start to feel a lot like work. And while I truly enjoy my daily work, the hobby sometimes seems lost. Rare are the days that I pick up a camera for reasons other than journalism or taking snaps of my kids. So last week, while on a brief respite in Cape May, I decided to take an hour or so to recapture the hobby for which I once had so much passion.

I wanted to explore the “golden hour” during our time on the Cape, so I got up before my wife and boys, and before the sun, for a stroll along New Jersey’s southern-most coast. Among the discoveries that morning: a pair of lifeguards rowing through the surf, a small beached shark struggling for survival, two teen girls modeling for each other on a lifeguard stand, and enough magical morning light to make the early rise seem worthwhile.