Fire Island is a barrier beach south of Long Island, NY, east of New York City. The Fire Island lighthouse was built in 1858, replacing an older lighthouse. Here are 3 photos over a 4 year period.
#1: I wanted to use a long telephoto (Sigma 50-500) from a far distance to show the lighthouse and sun at roughly the same scale. I figured out 2 1-week windows per year when the positioning works out well. The upcoming window was a cold, blustery February week. I got the photo but wasn't fully satisfied. Turbulent air blurred all my attempts - the flagpole on the left is supposed to be straight. I overexposed, too, creating some flare around the sun.
#2: I didn't get a good chance to retry the sunrise photo for 2 years because of work, weather, or just not wanting to wake up so early. My schedule and weather forecasts were good in February 2016. It was less windy than when I tried #1. I got into position to a cloudless sky except for a narrow cloud bank on the horizon, right where the sun would be rising. My intended photo was ruined. I waited another hour for the sun to rise above the clouds and got a keeper.
#3: More recently, there was an interesting alignment of the moon, Venus, and Mercury. I searched for a foreground element to use in the composition and found a spot on the barrier beach where the lighthouse and sky lined up.