Not the greatest image I ever posted but you should have seen me getting it!
:toocool:
Seldom do I rush into anything, no, I'm pretty slow and thoughtful about the whole process of capturing images. This image gives me a little smile thinking about it. I saw it from the road, around 100 metres away, uphill. The sun was descending rapidly behind a mountain range and the shadows moving quickly across the fields as the sun became smaller and smaller.
I decided to run for it!! A look in the rear mirror and nobody behind, full breaks and parked as safely as I could. Grabbed the folded tripod and the camera bag. Started to run like I was chased by a predator. Extending the tripodlegs inflight and hearing my breath increasing. Seeing the shadows moving fast I almost realised that this rush is for nothing, but I did continue at full speed ahead.
Reaching the spot where I thought was good I slammed down the tripod, ripped open the camerabag lid and at the same time as grabbing the cam, I pushed the on button. Connected it to the tripodhead, cocked the shutter and pushed the soft release.
I'm not kidding when I say that 1,5 seconds later the scene was gone. By the time the Aptus processed the captured image and put it on the display, the trunk, the stones around it and the whole green field in the foreground was in dull shadow.
I did not level the cam, I had no idea what exposure time, what f stop or where the focus was set! Catching my breath after the rush, I realised I was lucky with the settings, infinity focus, 1/15 and f5.6, and guess what - I have not levelled the image in post, it was deadlevel by luck.
It is perfectly true that if I had time, then I would never compose this image with the lower branches interfering with the distant mountain range, they would be above the ridge with air, but hey, under the circumstances not too shabby....