Deeside panorama

Deeside Panorama #1

Panoramic view of the river Dee estuary at Connah's Quay, North Wales

The story behind this image

I've been here before, but only at dusk up to now.

This is the view looking down the river Dee towards the sea, standing on the dockside at Connah's Quay at sunrise.

At dusk the sun sets just to the left of this composition, which makes for dramatic skies and silhouettes, but at sunrise in summer, the light is at virtually 90º to this scene which makes for a much more gentle and revealing lighting effect.

So I decided to turn up here one morning on my way to work and see how the scene looked.

The sky was partially cloudy to the east, so the sun didn't appear at sunrise, but shortly after it found a gap in the clouds and bathed the estuary, buildings and and suspension bridge in lovely soft light.

This is a great spot to shoot panoramics, so I was ready for the light when it came, with tripod leveled and ND grad filter in place to make the most of the opportunity.

In the end I only got this one set of images to blend into a panorama, as as quickly as the sun appeared in a gap in the clouds, it disappeared again, leaving the scene before me flat and uninspiring.

But I reckon that the fleeting nature of good light makes capturing it all that more appealing.

Image data

Filename - deeside panorama 01.jpg

Camera - Canon 5D

Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 84mm

Exposure - 1/15sec @ f11, ISO100

Location - Connah's Quay, North Wales

This image - 1200x277px JPEG

Conversion - ACR & PS-CS5

Comments - Levelled tripod used to take individual exposures.