The Photo

Another shot taken in the mountains of Umbria, central Italy. The Valnerina is a series of valleys that run through the Sibillini National Park, and contains some of the highest peaks in the region.

This is probably one of the most physically demanding shots I’ve ever taken, just for the effort involved in getting to the location before sunrise. We were staying in a small village about 30km away, and to get here for sunrise I had to get up at 4.30am and set off in the dark, driving through twisting roads that run through the fog filled gorges. Eventually, I started to climb up into the peaks and the road had 20 or more hair-pin bends, which were pretty scary in the dark and the fog.
After climbing around 1500 meters I leveled out onto the plain and parked up in the village of Castellucio I’d intended to grab some breakfast here, but I could see the sky lightening, and as I hadn’t had the chance to explore the location previously and find a shot, I was keen to get up into the peaks. So I hiked up another couple of kilometers and found this location looking out over one of the snow-capped peaks.
By the time I got here, I was pretty exhausted…not having eaten anything and hiking up to around 2000 meters, I really felt as though I was running on empty.
Looking out at the view though, it was more than worth it. The whole valley was covered in mist, and as it cleared from between the peaks I was hoping for colour in the sky, but sadly it never came.

This is a long exposure, taken before the sun had come up using a grad filter to lengthen the exposure, and a neutral density grad filter to hold back the brightness of the sky. I left the colours deliberately cool, rather than warm them up in post-processing.

You can see my location from this shot I was up on top of the ridge to the left of the image. There’s a black and white version of this shot here taken with a shorter exposure and after the sun had risen.




Metadata

Taken in the Valnerina, Sibillini National Park, Umbria, Italy
Nikon D3 | Nikkor 17-35 f2.8 ED
Gitzo GT2541 tripod w/ Gitzo GH1780QR ballhead
Lee 0.9 (2 stop) soft edged ND grad filter | Hoya ND400 9 stop ND filter
117s | f19 | 20mm

More shots from Italy:

Godspeed
Sibillini
Vitaleta
Cypress
Two


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