I love this place close to home (30 minutes walk): it shows the river Rhine around sun set on a cloudy day. It is very rare for Cologne that there is snow, but the day of the shoot was one of these days.
I loved the calm atmosphere when I arrived at the location, and I aimed to emphasize this in post production as well as during the shoot: I used an ND filter that made the river look like a shining mirror.
I placed the camera on a Gitzo tripod (about knee-high) to take the shot.
Camera and lens used: Canon EOS 5d Mark II and Canon 17 - 40mm f4 L lens
Exposure settings: 25 Seconds, f22, ISO 100
Post-processing: RAW processing and conversion to black and white in Adobe Lightroom. The look of a serene scene is enhanced by a combination of reducing clarity and texture as well as adding a bit of haze and adjusting the tone curve.