This was an interesting day on location.  The chosen spot was Hammock's Beach State Park's Bear Island.  The night before (130 miles away) seemed to promise a dull day due to a night-long storm and lack of sleep.  Unfettered by only three hours of sleep, I began the drive around seven in the morning.  After various events, such as checking up with the relatives and finding an acquaintance on Emerald Isle, we eventually made our way to Hammock's Beach State Park and arrived just before the four o'clock ferry.  This meant I had almost an hour of real shooting time. Walking to the beach was a small trek.  The ferry deposited us on one side of the island and the crew followed a half mile path to the other.  On the way, I noticed an interesting tree amongst reeds and driftwood.  I took a quick snapshot and continued. Once left to my own machinations, I returned to the spot with the tree.  Climbing a sand dune opposite the path achieved the elevation I needed to take the pictures seen to the right.  The sky was cloudy and just beginning to show some dark spots.  The sun was high and behind me, providing lighting on the land while the sky maintained a semi-threatening tone in the distance. I took advantage of that by trying out various filters, as it was my first time taking shots both with filters and at a beach.  Once a measurement was taken on the sky, it was determined I needed a .9 ND grad.  With the ND grad and polarizer in place, I alternated use between a twilight grad, blue 2 grad, and tobacco grad.  For some pictures (not included here), I decided to enhance the sky's threatening nature by introducing a .6 ND grad with the ones I was already using.   Verdict:  As I mentioned, this was my first time with the filters and at a beach.  Judging from the pictures, wind has blown sand on the inner ND grad, producing spots in the sky on every picture.  I could potentially remove these with a photo editing software, but have not yet had time.  The composition itself is good, but I may have done better if I turned the camera a little to the right to give the tree's right side some breathing room.  The sky is very colorful, but I feel I may have over calculated the ND grad's effect and could probably have done a better job with a .6 ND grad. On a side note, I was still cleaning sand out of my stuff a day later!  I will definitely return to Bear Island later for another chance.  On that day, I won't forget a can of compressed air with which to spray my equipment after every shot!