I've mentioned before how I view Jekyll Island, Georgia, USA as my favorite place on earth at the moment. After discovering the island in 2014, I've tried to visit as time would allow. My first visit over the 2014 Christmas holiday was followed by two visits during 2015, (I've learned to take advantage of such opportunities whenever they present themselves !). My last visit in September 2018 gave me a chance to bicycle around the island for the first time. That first visit at some time other than in the middle of winter was a wonderful experience in spite of being caught in a thunderstorm at Shark Tooth Beach and getting soaked !

Turning the calendar to 2020, made me realize that I had not been to Jekyll Island in more than a year. I began to experience a form of withdrawal and decided to do something about it.

The Christmas Holiday usually provides a good opportunity for me to hit the road. But I couldn't do it this year. Then I remembered that UGA is closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Scheduling the preceding Friday off gave me a 4-day weekend. Perfect !

Danita was immediately on board with this idea and was able to schedule MLK Monday off. The best thing about this was that we would be visiting during the off-season when hotel rates are cheap. The Hampton Inn on the southern end of the island was available at a very reasonable rate. I hadn't stayed there yet, and made a hotel reservation for the long weekend.

And I also discovered that this would be Danita's first visit to the island, making her a potential convert to my "favorite place on earth" philosophy.

All we needed was for Mother Nature to cooperate, which she was gracious enough to do. After a cold journey from Athens, temperatures were expected to be near 70 degrees for the duration of our stay.

We made the 5-hour trip after Danita got off work and arrived on Friday evening after dark, so we couldn't see much. But we were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise on Saturday morning.

This was my first chance to really play with the new camera in low-light conditions. Even though the colors are great, I'm still not familiar enough with the camera settings to lessen the graininess. Even so, the pics are still pretty good.

I pushed buttons and adjusted camera settings hoping for the best.

In several of these photos, not only was I able to capture the sea foam, I also got the reflection of the clouds in the shots as well.

Beach access from the Hampton Inn is via a long boardwalk from the pool area through a densely wooded area.

I tried to capture an island visitor in flight near me. If there is a way to get a non-grainy low-light action shot with this camera, I don't know how to do it yet.

I don't know if I'm seeing the effects of the steady wind we encountered. But it looked great whatever it was.

Great colors off in the distance !

More decent shots of the reflection of the clouds.

Another island visitor flew by.

These shots were a little better.

Unlike the old SX40HS, the new SL3 doesn't have a "sports" setting on the dial. So If I'm going to take action shots, I have to figure out how to do it myself. The results weren't too bad.

I encountered a few more locals enjoying the sunrise.

I'll get the hang of this someday.