The title of this image is "Ancient Grandeur" taken at Letchworth State Park in Castile, New York.
On the morning of September 4th, 2023 I was up early for yet another outing to one of my favorite state parks with a new objective! Photographing the Hogsback overlook. I entered the park an hour or so before sun up and began driving down the winding road towards the northern end of the park. As the drive progressed I could begin to see beautiful clouds emerge from the darkness of night. Once I arrived at the overlook I explored all of my options. I wanted to capture the glory of the Hogsback and it's surroundings as best I could, however with a wide array of foliage framing in the view point, that was going to be a challenge. I eventually came to the realization that I could use this to my advantage. There was a story to tell of the mighty Oak trees that have stood and watched over the ancient gorge below and this was the view they had all to themselves for countless decades. I began to feel privileged that I was lucky enough to join them for this short lived moment in time, where the soft glow of sunlight uncovered the scenery below me and the clouds were ignited by a spectrum of beautiful color. The sound of songbirds and insects greeting the new day enhanced the scene tenfold. I ended up using my Fanotech panoramic gimble to stitch together 6 photos to fully capture the scene.
This was taken on a Nikon Z7 with a 24-70mm f/4 lens and it was edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.
EXIF: ISO 100 - 24mm - f/11 - 0.4sec
One of my favorite parks. Great story.