On January 9th, 2025, at night, I checked the weather forecasts for the coming days.

The next day, the forecasts predicted a clear sky at sunrise, which was at 7:32 a.m.

The usual question was, “Where should I go to capture the sunrise? " I used the Photographers’ Ephemeris and Google Maps applications. It was clear that I had to return to Bellerive Park, a 16-minute drive from home.

In February 2024, doing the same planning, I captured an amazing Moon Star image from this park.

So, on January 10th, half an hour before sunrise, I was at this park along the beautiful St-Laurence River. I reached the river shoreline. The scenery amazed me: a perfect blue sky with no clouds and a frosted river. It was clear in my mind that I would not perform a long exposure. I would use my magic Leica DG lens, which produces beautiful star effects when set at a very small aperture f/22.

I set up my tripod, camera with the magic lens and cable release and waited for sunrise. After sunrise, I moved to many locations on the shoreline to find an interesting foreground element to be composed with the rising sun. You can see my tracks in the snow. I tried the icy river shoreline, pieces of ice blocks, and the trees on the right side of the scene as complementary elements. Suddenly. I saw this broken tree wrapped in the snow with a hole. I

To compose the image, I moved behind the tree. I used a 16mm focal length and an f/22 aperture, and to achieve a perfect exposure (ETTR), I overexposed by 1.3 stops. I pressed the shutter at 07.55.

With the same planning and effort, I found my local sunset paradise.