Solaris

“We lose a great deal when we lose the sense and feeling for the sun. When all has been said, the adventure of the sun is the great natural drama by which we live, and not to have joy in it and awe of it, not to share in it, is to close a dull door on nature’s sustaining and poetic spirit.”

– Henry Beston

The transient light of the golden hour grazes the slopes below the summit of Sharpitor in Dartmoor National Park, side-lit by light grazing through an approaching storm front moving across the western edge of the park.

Leather Tor lies immediately beyond to the left. Peek Hill is to the right and Burrator Reservoir is in the valley below, with Yellowmead Down, Sheeps Tor, Ringmore Down, Lynch Common, and Wigford Down.

The Jennycliff end of Plymouth Sound is visible beyond the reservoir in the far distance.

Technical info:

Pentax K-X
Pentax 18-55mm SMC/ DAL lens

Manfrotto 190XProB tripod
Manfrotto 498RC2 panoramic ball-head

Cromatek circular polarizer

Aperture = f/22
Exposure durations = 0.16, 0.3, 1 and 1.5 seconds
Focal length = 18mm
ISO = 200
Manual mode
Spot-metering pattern
Manual focus

The panorama was created from 2 High Dynamic Range (HDR) images stitched using Photoshop CS2’s Photomerge.

Each HDR section was created from 4 RAW exposures (manual bracketing) using Photomatix Pro 3.27 and finished in Lightroom 3.6 and Photoshop CS2