I took this photograph on June 28th at 7:55 pm in Montreal at La Coulée Grou Beach.
Montreal is a big city. However, I found many places free of visual distractions that were ideal for capturing sunrises and sunsets.
From experience, I know that a couple of minutes before sunset or sunrise, the sky can have gorgeous colors in the surrounding area.
Before leaving home, I checked the Photographer’s Ephemeris app to confirm that the location was suitable for capturing the sunset, which would occur at 8:47 pm. The weather forecast was good. This spot is an 18-minute drive from home.
Also, I know that my camera, with my gorgeous Leica DG lens set at an f/22 aperture, produces beautiful star effects.
On location, I set my camera on my tripod. For composition planning, at 16mm, my lens could not capture the entire scene. It was simply too large. Consequently, I would take three overlapping shots to create a panorama. Also, I was worried about the scene’s dynamic range. I didn’t hesitate to set my camera to bracket three shots with 2-stop increments between each exposure to capture the scene’s huge dynamic range. In post-processing, I would create an HDR panorama in Lightroom.
So, when the sun, the star of the show, appeared between the distant clouds and trees, I triggered the shutter to start the whole process.
Behind the camera, the scenery amazed me: the vegetation in the foreground, the star on the left third of the scene, the island in the middle, the absence of visual distractions, all covered by textured clouds.
Once again, planning and gear familiarity paid off.
