I took this photograph on June 27th, 2026, at 5:28 am in Montreal, at Plage de l’Est.
Montreal is a big city. However, I found many places free of visual distractions that were appropriate for capturing sunrises and sunsets.
Before leaving home, I checked the Photographer’s Ephemeris app to confirm whether the location was suitable for capturing the sunrise, which would occur at 5:06 am. The weather forecast was not perfect! It said that it would be partly cloudy. In my mind, I thought that I would be lucky enough to capture the sun between the distant horizon and the lower clouds. This spot is a 17-minute drive from home.
At sunrise, I was flabbergasted to see the fine clouds above the distant horizon and their reflection on the river.
I set up my tripod and camera with my gorgeous Leica DG lens, which produces beautiful star effects when set to a very small aperture (f/22).
To capture the scene, I wanted to include the shoreline elements on the left side and the small trees in the distance on the right.
At 16mm, my lens was unable to capture the whole scene. It was simply too large. Consequently, I opted to take three overlapping shots to create a panorama. Before pressing the shutter, I 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!
When the sun and its reflection on the river were visible, I started the bracketing process at f/22.
Using the nine bracketed files, Lightroom created the final HDR panorama.
Once again, planning and gear familiarity paid off.
