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This morning was the second of my stay in Torres Base camp (Torres Del Paine NP, Chilean Patagonia) with my Patagonia workshop group earlier this year. The day before we had shot an amazing sunrise from down at the lagoon, and our sights were fixed on something different for this morning.
I asked Erik, our guide, to take us to the top of the Moraine surrounding the lagoon at the base of the Torres. After waking up at 4:30 a.m., we had a filling breakfast and started the 1 hour climb to the viewpoint. Getting up the moraine took about 20 additional minutes, some of them traversing loose rock, but we were in good hands and had plenty of time to arrive safely.
Upon arrival, we took some night shots of the Torres and waited for sunrise. Conditions looked good, but I began worrying that a large mass of clouds to the northeast might block the first rays of sunlight from hitting the Torres. I was proven right, and I was beginning to think we came all this way for nothing until about half an hour into the sunrise, when a small crack between the clouds allowed a projector-like orange beam of light to hit these beautiful, iconic towers of rock.
The color was incredible. The opening was so small, even the clouds above the Torres were left in the dark, which looked quite strange and made the mountains stand out even more.
This image is almost untouched when it comes to post processing, but due to the large range of distances to the different components, I had to focus-stack it from 3 shots, one focused on the Torres, one on the foreground rock and one in-between.
It was captured using my Canon 5D Mark IV and Canon 16-35mm F2.8L Mark III.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez’s work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates. Erez offers photo workshops worldwide.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)