“I have looked at the sea a thousand times from the same spot and through the same eyes. And I have seen a thousand different seas,” said David Stick in The Cape Hatteras Seashore, a book for which I took this picture.

My introduction to the Outer Banks of North Carolina was when I stood on the wreck of the Laura Barnes during a northeaster with waves washing around the old wood timbers and ocean mist carried on the wind. Winter was the time for pictures when there were still a few wrecks on the beach, and storms would uncover forgotten timbers of others.

And it was a time to study the sea and its ever-changing personality determined by wind and currents. It never disappointed with a temperament that ranged from its sunny, calm moods to its dark and broiling, storm-driven waves. But there was one attribute about it that never changed: it was to be respected at all times.