This photograph was taken during a quiet November sunrise from the shores of Cap Ferret, at a moment when the world still felt half-asleep. I arrived long before the first glow touched the horizon, giving myself time to settle into the stillness and plan the shot I had envisioned. The basin was calm, but not calm enough to achieve the ethereal surface I desired.
To create the atmosphere, I envisioned a smooth, almost mist-like expanse of water leading the eye toward the Dune du Pilat. I mounted a 10-stop neutral density filter onto the lens. With the light still dim and the filter reducing it even further, the exposure stretched into 2 minutes. During that long exposure, the small ripples crossing the basin dissolved into a single silvery sheet, softening the scene and allowing the scattered wooden stakes to stand out like quiet silhouettes. The filter became an essential part of translating what I felt at the moment into what appears in the final frame.
As the sky slowly warmed into its November palette of pale gold and muted yellow, the dune across the water began to materialize. Its long, sweeping curves caught the first light with remarkable softness—a quality that only early winter and a slow, rising sun can produce.
The result is a landscape that reflects both the natural calm of the morning and the intentional quiet that comes from long-exposure photography. The water becomes a gentle haze, the stakes become markers of time, and the dune becomes a resting form on the horizon.
