While working on a long time project called Emigus Landscape Photography, I had decided to make several solo visits to the beautiful Pena Park, in Sintra, Portugal. This was in October, 2012.
I was tired and heading to the car, happy with all the photos I had made on that day, when suddenly light changed and I looked back and saw the sun looking through the trees for the first time in the day, creating this beautiful sight that lasted just a few seconds. The Giant Thuja backlit, the colors, the mood, all was perfect.
Fortunately, I still had the camera mounted on the tripod. I put it on the ground, composed the shot as fast as I could, quickly checked the settings and pressed the shutter only to realize that the timer was still on a 2 second delay for using mirror lock up. Shacking and nervous to get the shot, those were probably the longest 2 seconds of my life, while I watched that beautiful light fading with the camera on countdown and the taking the picture. Yes, I almost missed it for a fraction of a second.
After reviewing it, this was perhaps the most rewarding image of the whole month of work.
Amazing photo! Well worth the stress and anxiety to capture it at just the right time :)