St. Finbarr’s Oratory at Dawn

Nine exposures, three positions, and a lake disturbed by a biting wind. That’s what it took to stitch this panorama together at Gougane Barra just after dawn. The sky refused to cooperate with anything dramatic, so I leaned on the scene itself: the oratory sitting quietly on its spit of land, the water holding just enough calm to throw back something of a reflection, and those bare winter trees looking atmospheric without trying. Did I say it was cold? My fingers were feeling it.

I’d have traded my tripod for a bank of broken cloud, but you work with what the morning gives you. The HDR merge kept detail in the shadowed chapel walls without blowing the sunrise glow, and the reeds breaking through the water surface add a bit of texture to what would otherwise be a fairly smooth lower half. It’s not the Gougane Barra postcard shot. That needs mist, or rain, or both, but there’s a stillness here that I quite like.

Apertureƒ/8CameraILCE-7RM5Focal length24mmISO100Shutter speed1/13s

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