A Wicklow Panoramic | The Sun and the Moon – Wicklow Mountains, Ireland

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Wow, this image has been on my to-do list for some time, 8 months in fact. This was taken all the way back in January and while I knew I had a great image I also knew it needed a lot of post work to bring out what I witnessed that dawn. I was driving up to Lough Tay during our cold snap at the beginning of the year, the roads were covered in a thin layer of frost and ice. As I was turning a small bend in the road not far from the Lough itself I was greeted with this very special scene.

The Sun was just peaking above the mountains out of frame left and that soft light was just kissing the peaks of the mountains giving them this amazing soft pink glow. There was only the faintest wisps of clouds in the sky. Meanwhile far to the right the Moon was still hanging there above the mountains casting its own soft glow, before it disappeared below the mountain.

This image is created from 3 separate Landscape orientated frames stitched together in Photoshop. I used the 70-200 lens set at a focal length of 100mm which allowed me to zoom into the area of the scene that held my attention and thereby excluding a lot of distracting elements in the foreground that would have been picked up by a wider lens. First things first, when planning a stitched pano it is very important to take the time and set up your tripod correctly and get it as level as possible throughout the rotation. Of course when presented with such a fleeting moment as this you need to work quickly.

I also wanted to take this chance to again thank everyone for their kind support during my exhibition over the weekend. It was all very much appreciated.

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
Exposure: 0.6 secs
Aperture: f/9
Focal Length: 100mm
ISO Speed: 100
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