When I was living in Aberdeen, Scotland, I was lucky to have great beaches nearby, with very few people on them (North Sea, brrr!). I spent many morning at sunrise taking photos of the sun and sea.
In this case, the new granite stone groynes had been recently installed to try to keep the sand on the beach instead of letting it go down the coast. I thought they’d make good framing.
It was sometimes challenging because the sky was getting bright very fast, and the foreground was still dark. I had to learn to use (string or multiple) ND grads and bracketing (I usually used both at the same time to cover the range of light in one scene).
I used the Canon 350D + Sigma 10-20mm, my usual landscape setup at the time.