As explained in the following, published in my portfolio.

with my gear and planning efforts, I found my local sunset paradise. The above-mentioned beauty was captured on September 22, 2024.

On October 1st, on my way back home from the office, I saw the distant divided sky: a portion with lovely fine clouds and another with very few clouds. It was quite unusual!

Again, it was a clear signal that I had to go back to my local sunset paradise. On that date, sunset was at 18:33. As usual, I arrived in the area 45 minutes before sunset.

I parked the car on the side of the road and reached the Rivière-des-Prairies shoreline.

I installed my tripod, camera, Leica DG wide-angle lens and cable release. I also installed my 10-stop ND filter for a long exposure.

All the important elements of the composition were there: lines, curves, textures, patterns, shapes, colors, and framing elements. I composed and framed the image using a 16mm focal length and an F16 aperture (35 mm equivalent).

I envisioned a long exposure to smooth any wind ripples on the water's surface, increase reflections, and augment the impact of the clouds. At 18:10, I triggered the shutter. As always, I used the Live Time feature on my Olympus camera to achieve a perfect histogram (ETTR). It took 91 seconds. Looking at the scene during the long exposure, I had the funny impression that the clouds were avoiding the electrical lines and poles crossing the river! I was electrified to contemplate this magic moment.

Later, in postproduction in Lightroom, I created a sky mask and performed a dehaze set at +15. I duplicated and inverted this mask and set the shadows to +100. Then, I pressed the AUTO button in LR to let the software perform all the other adjustments automatically.

Did you find your local paradise in your close vicinity to play with your camera and Mother Nature?