Well now I certainly feel like I have seen it all. Yesterday morning on our last day on the island of Santorini, I went out for a early morning stroll in Oia, seeing that there were a few clouds in the sky. Having shot sunset at Oia Castle the prior evening, I was very hesitant to approach the location again for another image. First of all, I was weary of the crowds, and second of all I felt as if I had already shot everything from this vantage point. Boy was I dead wrong. In case you don’t already know this vantage point is known as the “Oia Castle”and it offers 180 degree views of the great white city on the cliff that everyone is raving about on social media. The location is absolutely unapproachable at sunset during the peak season because the entire island goes here to catch sunset. And if you ever want to watch the most iconic sunset, you actually have to show up 3 hours early to hold your spot.
Anyway I saw the clouds and rushed over to the castle to photograph Oia, and to my surprise, I was literally the only person on site to witness this unfold. No one even showed up until the lights of the town pretty much turned off. It was absolutely funny watching the other photographers run up the hill after the best of it had already happened. It’s funny because I saw a reflection of what I must look like when I’m rushing to get set up.
Anyway, not often that I can say that I shot the image of my year in May. I don’t think I will ever see as magnificent of a sunrise and I don’t suppose I can repeat this in the near future.
(Note: my sister was having a little fun with my image and I uploaded her version previously. The correct image is the one you see above now)
This image is made up of 8 shots panning across the landscape, stitched together in post processing.
Equipment: Sony A7R3 w/ 16-35mm
8 images | ISO 100 | 16 mm | f/10 | 2.0 sec
