This shot was taken less than 10 minutes from my home in one of the oldest and largest nature reserves of Flanders, “Kalmthout Heath”. No mountains, hills or waterfalls but a flat area with unique fauna and flora. In this area, I give several photo workshops, and when there are no classes, I look for special places and moments in this park. After several weeks of steel blue skies, a weather change was predicted. I consult the app "Clear Outside", where you can check the different types of clouds. The app gave me enough positive information to take my backpack and head to the nature reserve.

I went to a tree which I have photographed several times, but this time I wanted to take a slightly different photo. The cloud cover formed a virtual mountainous background which could well block out the sun completely. I moved further away from the tree to get compression and backlighting with my Telephoto lens (Canon RF 100-500).

After a short search, I could set up my Canon R5 on my tripod. As soothing as nature can be, the more waiting for ideal conditions can be a bit stressful. The closer the moment came, the more the cloud cover began to close in on the horizon. The chance of a "fire sky" was getting smaller by the minute, but as many landscape photographers know, persistence is sometimes the key to success.

As all photographers know, every successful photo is preceded by dozens of failures. The use of the telephoto lens gave the impression that the entire sky was coloured orange. But on this evening, my patience and planning were rewarded, exactly what I had in mind. An overwhelming blissful feeling that I relive every time I look at the picture.