In October 2024, I spent a wonderful week in the Charlevoix region with friends, all of us eager to capture the autumn beauty with our cameras. Each day began with fog, leaving me wondering how I could photograph an interesting landscape under such conditions.
One evening, I planned a shot for the following morning. I envisioned capturing the sunrise, knowing that the light rays would be quite strong. My goal was to find an engaging location where the sun could serve as a contrasting element in the scene. Using the Photographers Ephemeris app, I identified the shoreline of St-Anne du Nord Lake as an ideal spot to capture the sunrise.
The next morning, I arrived at the location 15 minutes before sunrise. I set up my tripod and camera, equipped with my favorite magic Leica DG wide-angle lens, which creates star effects at very small apertures (f/22). I composed the image using a 26 mm focal length and set the aperture to f/22.
To capture the full dynamic range of the scene, I programmed the camera to take five shots, each with a one-stop difference in exposure. I knew that I could later process these images into an HDR photo in Lightroom.
When the sun rose above the distant mountains, I triggered the shutter. To my surprise, I spotted the sun’s reflection as a twin on the lake!
Once again, my planning and familiarity with my gear had paid off!
