aspangler@MiamiHerald.com

When it got half-light, Marc Fest walked out onto the beach at Eighth Street on Miami Beach and dug his tripod down. He was going to make a video of the sunrise and upload to his website, so that others more late-rising might share its radiance.

He does this almost every day. He started aftersunrise.com last month, after he had surgery for thyroid cancer and realized the worth of a simple pleasure.

Fest's friends, back in his native Germany, assured him that the site is ''awfully corny'' and took it as damning evidence of his Americanization. But he persists, not much daunted.

''When you look back to this, in the middle of the day, it will seem like days ago,'' he said. ``It's something you can always reach back to, like a stake in the labyrinth -- you wander through your day but you can always follow the thread back. You won't get lost.''

The ocean was gray and turbid under the wind. The sun started to rise. A fat cloud dead ahead refracted its light until the disk itself was visible. Wednesday's sunrise was a little after 7:02: sublime, if that's your thing, but not too different from Tuesday's, or Monday's, or any day's.

''After doing this for a while,'' Fest said, ``I realized that the most beautiful sunrise can be a little boring.''

He decided to improve the sunrise with an interview segment. He likes to ask people what they're looking forward to.

He likes the results. ''The day is like a blank slate,'' he said. ''You're like a blank slate, at this time. And there's just enough nervousness to give another layer,'' he said. ``I'm always a little afraid of rejection.''

Fest looked around for interview candidates. He rejected a grizzled man huddled behind a lifeguard stand with a large beer. He was rejected by a couple of guys scanning with metal detectors.

He watched a man and woman who appeared to be arguing down where the waves hit the sand. Her lips curled back and she jabbed a finger at his face; he grabbed her arm and forced it down. They talked but the wind took their words. After a while she laid her head on his chest and he kissed the top of it, and when Fest approached, they rejected him together.

So Fest persists. Subsequent sunrises have brought a fisherman looking forward to catching some snook, and two tourists from California who said they were looking forward to love.

''Wonderful!'' said Fest, from behind the camera.

If you have a story idea, e-mail nspangler@MiamiHerald.com.