This view of Aoraki-Mount Cook from the foot of Lake Pukaki on a calm spring evening is among the finest of New Zealand's iconic landscape scenes.

New Zealand's highest mountain peak, at the heart of the Southern Alps on the South Island, stands at 3,724m/12,218 ft and is some 65km/40 miles distant from this vantage point. Seeing the lake so calm towards the end of the day is a relatively unusual occurrence, and on those occasions when it does happen, it makes for a compelling subject.

I opted for a three frame vertical panorama for this shot, as I wanted to include the distinctive profile of Mount Sefton (3,151m /10,338 ft) to the left, and have the main subject slightly offset to the right of centre, but without pushing the mountains too far away which would have arisen had I used a shorter focal length lens for the composition. I have always been drawn to Morgan's Island as an anchor for Mount Cook itself, and I was delighted to see the lake at its most reflective point around this feature. The bright band of light at the lake horizon also made for a perfect divider. My trusty 100-400mm lens was the automatic choice for this composition, offering a subtle compression effect with the distant mountains in the absence of any foreground interest to create depth.

Mount Cook appears to float at the head of Lake Pukaki, which is the largest of three roughly parallel lakes at the northern end of the Mackenzie Basin. The extraordinary turquoise blue colour of the water is caused by the suspension of 'glacial flour' carried into the lake by the braided Tasman River flowing from the enormous Tasman glacier. For maximum colour contrast, the best time to photograph this scene is winter and spring (July to October) when the snow line is at its lowest. There is a spoiler alert, however! It is frequently 'all or nothing' at Mount Cook. Clouds, rain, and snowstorms often obscure the mountain peak, and although these weather fronts usually move through relatively quickly, a perfectly clear day is still unusual, especially in seasons other than summer.