On a flight to San Francisco I had an inexpensive backpacking tripod, battery charger, assorted filters, and hiking shoes stolen from checked in luggage. Remember, the TSA X-rays every checked bag. They know if it's worthy of a treasure hunt.

Thanks for the feedback, I stored the original this time. The grainy look is most prominent in the sky. The point of interest had yet to rise. When it does, there's enough light and the grainy texture disappears.

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Might as well jump in head first, this is my first post. A little background first - I'm shooting with a D300 and in this case my 18-200 zoom @ ISO 400, f8, 3 sec. I use PSE 9 for post processing. For whatever reason, I've never been pleased with any low light photos I've taken with the D300 as they are grainy like the ISO is cranked beyond it's capability. In this case I wanted to try for the silky smooth wave look just before sunrise along the ocean. The only post work I did was clone out the lighted oil rigs on the horizon. I'm thinking the dark sand foreground needs attention as well, but cropping makes the grainy texture stand out even more. I'm open for suggestions.

This is the first photography forum I've joined, been seriously shooting for about 10 years. Hoping to find some fresh inspiration here.