Balaton Anvil Sunset

Lake Balaton is the heart of this passion project for me because it never seems to show the same face twice. Calm, stormy, pastel, metallic, foggy or intensely colorful, the lake changes constantly with the weather and light. I think of these transformations as its “1001 faces,” and I keep returning to photograph as many of them as I can.

This panorama was shot from a moving sailboat with my Nikon D850 at dusk. As the light faded, I had to keep the shutter speed and ISO high enough to counter the rocking boat while maintaining enough overlap between frames for the panorama stitch. The boat, horizon and other sailboats were all moving at once, and the light was changing from frame to frame. That challenge is part of what I love about photographing Balaton: sometimes the scene only exists for a few seconds before it vanishes never to be seen again.