In January 2025, my good friend and fellow photographer Wendy invited me to join her in the gorgeous St-Adolphe-d’Howard region for a couple of days to perform winter photography. This region is an hour and a half North of Montreal.

Before departure, with the destination address, I checked the country house location on the map. Using my favourite apps, Google Maps and Photographer’s Ephemeris, I knew before my arrival that the country house was close to a shoreline, and it would be a prime spot to capture the sunrise, sunset and the lovely moon.

On January 15th, 45 minutes before sunset, I reached the lake shoreline. Again, I planned to 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. I waited for the sun to be located between the low clouds and the distant forest.

At 16 mm, the lens was unable to capture my desired composition: the big curves in the textured clouds, the framing trees on the right, the shoreline, the small mountain on the left and the lovely textured snow on the frozen lake.

So, at an f/22 aperture, I took three overlapped shots with a 16 mm focal length to do a panorama, knowing Lightroom is very good for stitching photos. To achieve a perfect exposure (ETTR), I overexposed each shot by 1.7 stops. As you can see, it was a visual delight!

That’s not all! According to my planning, a couple of hours after this shot, in the opposite direction, using the same gear, I would be able to capture the moon with a lovely star effect.

It happened! In the coming weeks, check my VIP portfolio.

You will see an amazing moon star under a dark blue sky with star trails over a textured frozen lake!
Once again, planning and gear familiarity are fundamental photographic elements.