A Twist of Darkness

This was quite a complicated shot to accomplish.

I went to this west-facing spot hoping to find a clean bright sunset, but I came across a stormy weather that made it difficult to get a sharp picture without tons of water drops in my filters .

After crossing about 500 meters of swampy ground where I often had mud up to my knees, I finally found a spot in which I thought I had the best framing and visual guidelines for what I wanted.

What appeared to be a sufficiently clear dusk to paint some colors through the clouds quickly changed (which is appanage of Scottish weather) to unbearable conditions for photography, with heavy rain that did not stop pouring for more than a few seconds and gusts of very strong winds that by themselves were impeditive of any long exposures.

After more than 20 failed attempts while soaking wet and freezing to my bones I finally caught an opening in which I got this exposure of 30 secs.

Although it was not the photograph I initially had in mind, I was satisfied with the result and the atmosphere pauted by the dark sky overlapping the last light of the day and the various clouds of condensation that hovered over the place in the distance.

The lines created by the entrainment of the sky as well as the movement of the lake help simultaneously to guide the eye along the image and towards the mountains.
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