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 25, on my way back home from the office, I saw the beautiful clouds.

Again, it was a clear signal that I had to go back to my local paradise. On that date, sunset was at 17:50. 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 lens, which produces beautiful star effects when set to a very small aperture (F/22), and cable release. I also installed my 10-stop ND filter for a long exposure.

All the essential 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 f/22 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 17:25, I triggered the shutter. As always, I used the Live Time feature on my Olympus camera to achieve a perfect histogram (ETTR). It took 70 seconds. Looking at this magic scene during the long exposure, I dreamed of returning to the famous photographer’s paradise.

Later, in postproduction in Lightroom, I created a sky mask and performed a dehaze set at +15. I duplicated and inverted this mask and put 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?