Last week, We spent a few days visiting North Carolina's Outer Banks. February isn't really the best time to visit if you want to hang out on the beach swimming or soaking up some sun. It is a great time for viewing migratory waterfowl and enjoying practically deserted beaches.

Many businesses are closed during this off season but the beautiful sights are still available and uncrowded, a great combination in my book.

On our first afternoon, we visited to Bodie Island Lighthouse. I was treated to a wonderful sky just before sunset that made a wonderful backdrop for this terrific structure.

The threat of rain, on our second day provided some dramatic skies, a nice backdrop to the color and pattern in the sand dunes at Jockey's Ridge State Park. These dunes are really impressive as they rise steeply in the middle of a residential area. The dunes here are the highest in the Eastern US. If you visit, try to go early in the day before the patterns in the sand are trampled by visitors. Shortly after shooting this image, a bus load of kids stormed past me, obliterating the wonderful patterns. The kids did seem to be having a great time so it was hard to be too upset. I even shot a few of them (with my camera of course) as they slid down the steeper parts of the dunes.

The sand dunes along the beach are constantly moving. Here, the sand is overtaking a prominent building, once occupied by the coast guard. The fence post and barbed wire in the foreground, only inches above the sand, once stood at least seven feet above the ground.