Pic(k) of the Week: Coquina rock in surf at sunrise

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

A coquina rock is battered by the Atlantic Ocean surf, captured in a photograph at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park in Palm Coast, Florida, on September 6, 2025, at 8:21 a.m. EDT.

This boulder is part of a ¾-mile-long coquina rock formation, the second-largest of its kind along the east coast of North America. The largest formation is located further south on a barrier island in Jupiter, Florida, Blowing Rock Preserve.

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What is coquina?

Coquina rock is a type of sedimentary rock (specifically limestone), formed by the deposition and subsequent cementation of mineral and organic particles on the floor of bodies of water at the Earth's surface. The coquina rocks at Washington Oaks are part of the Anastasia formation —stretching from the city of St. Augustine to Palm Beach County — that was created during the Pleistocene era (12,000 - 2.5 million years ago). Lower sea levels allowed slightly acidic rainwater to dissolve calcium carbonate in millions of exposed shells. This process effectively bonded the shells to the sand, resulting in the creation of rocks that solidified over time.

One characteristic of coquina rocks is the regular, perfectly cylindrical holes in many sections of a formation, formed by erosion of rock by rainwater. These weathered formations create shallow tidal pools that support crabs, sea snails, anemones, and other small marine life The word 'coquina' is Spanish for 'cockle' and is the name given to Donax variabilis, a small, burrowing clam that lives in the sand just at the ocean’s edge, and is the main shell component of the rock.

— Florida State Parks.

Sunrise took place at 7:04 a.m. EDT; I didn't capture this photo until 8:21, an hour and seventeen minutes later. Why the delay? When I arrived at the park entrance at 6:30, the gates were locked. Florida state parks don't open until 8 a.m. The moral of the story? Do your research.

And yet, a beautiful moment to experience.

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Thelonius Monk: Brilliant Corners
Album: Brilliant Corners (Label: Riverside)
Recorded 1956; released 1957.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Gulls & waxing moon over surf at dusk

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

Gulls fly by, as a waxing gibbous moon, 89% illuminated, rises over an Atlantic Ocean beach at sundown

City of St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA. 4 September 2025 (7:47 p.m. EDT).

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Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage
Album: Maiden Voyage (Label: Blue Note, 1965)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Sunrise over St. Johns Pier

End-of-summer sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.

St. Johns Ocean & Fishing Pier: St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA. 3 September 2024 (7:23 am EDT).

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Pic(k) of the Week: Wind-swept beach (for Thelonius Monk)

Beach dunes after a late afternoon storm.

St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA. 1 September 2024 (18:39 EDT).

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• Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American composer and pianist, born on 10 October 1917; he died on 17 February 1982.
  
  Monk's performance, here, of Pannonica — a tune he composed and named for Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter, an English-born patron of late 1940s and 1950s American bebop jazz ('Nica' to her friends) — displays a compositional ethos and keyboard virtuosity distilled to its essence. Utilizing null time, rhythmic surprise, dissonant harmonies, 'wrong notes,' and tones seemingly coaxed from 'between' the piano's keys, he transforms a deceptively simple melody into a miniature gem of severe beauty.


• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays.
• Photo 41 of 52, for year 2024. See a larger, hi-res version on Flickr: here.
• Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.


• Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II.
• Lens: Olympus M.40-150mm F4.0-5.6 R
• Settings: 45 mm; 1/640 sec; ISO 200; ƒ/5.6


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Pic(k) of the Week: Wary weather watcher

A storm approaches;

Warily, the dog watches.

Beach life.

St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA. 9 September 2022.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Morning mist on the beach

On the beach,

It's a morning sun,

Through cloud and ocean spray,

A beacon in gloom.
At peace.

St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA.
30 October 2022 (9:19 am EDT).

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Pic(k) of the Week: ¡Cuidado!

I thought I'd sneak in a beach photo before the weather turns too cold. Here: a father and children at St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA, on 7 September 2022.

Patience and chance choreographed this image. I noticed a man carefully introducing his newborn to the ocean. As I began snapping photos, his older son blithely ran by. It was a "decisive moment," as the French humanist photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson might have labelled it.

Of course, to paraphrase U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, I am no Monsieur Cartier-Bresson.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Calm at crepuscule

Two contemplating sunset, looking east over the Atlantic Ocean.

St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA. 4 August 2018 (9:08 pm)

And, yes, they knew that the sun sets in the west. But high clouds catch and reflect its light back to the east.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Dune fence down.

Dune fence down: desolation at/on St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA.

Photo taken on 30 June 2021.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Red beach bicyclist

The beach.

The ocean.

The surf.

Clouds.

A bird.

A red jersey.

A bicyclist.

An early evening exercise-ist pedals along the Atlantic Ocean, at St. Augustine Beach, Florida. 4 August 2018.

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