Sunset from Mt. Bue

Canon EOS 20D, Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM, 1/5 f/22, iso 100, tripod. Mt. Bue, Italy.

The Upper Nure Valley, in the northern Appennine, offers many interesting photographic subjects, from macro to landscapes. Few weeks ago I made a two days trip with a couple of fiends, with the purpose of photographing the sunset and the sunrise from Mt. Bue. On wednesday morning, we meet in front of the Hotel Lago Nero (15 km from Ferriere, on the highway 654) and we begin our trip in the woods following the trail 005, that leds from the Hotel to the Lake Nero and then to "Fontana Gelata", a fresh, potable water source. After a short rest, we take the steep trail 007, that led us to the top of Mt. Bue (1771 mt.) after less than one hour of walk. The top of Mt. Bue has a kind of spooky look, due to the ruins of the chairlift and hotel, that were built in late sixties and abandoned after few years. This is a great panoramic place: there is a 360 degrees view on the landscape and in some limpid days you can even see the Ligurian Sea.

When we arrived on the top, it was early afternoon, so there wasn't yet the right light for landscape photography. While we waited for sunset, Luca kindly loanded me his Canon 5D so I had the possibility of take some shots with my Sigma 12-24 on fullframe, where this lens truly shines (indeed, I've bought it for fullframe - I plan to get soon a FF camera for lanscapes). This lens is not as sharp as the best Canon L lenses, but it is still quite good, and it has an amazing and unparalleled angle of view on a FF camera! I have to say that after using it on the 5D, even time that I mount it on my 20D I feel bad ;-)

At 5 p.m., the light begun to improve and some clouds made the sky even more interesting. I composed carefully the photo, with the lens towards the sun - I love the include the sun my landscape photos. I stopped down to f/22, even though the depth of field would have been enough even at f/11 or f/8: the small aperture reduces the risk of flare and it tends to create a "sunburst", in particular with wide-angles.

During the night, we tried to set up a small fire, with little success.

I don't recommend to use always such small apertures, since there is a slight loss of sharpness due to diffraction, but in some situations stopping down to f/22 really helps. Of course, this photo is a blended exposure - with the camera mounted on the tripod, I toke one photo exposed for the sky and another one (with identical composition) for the ground, then I blended the two exposures to create a single photo with wide dynamic range. This is a relatively easy technique but many times it is badly executed: one of the most common errors is to use a small brush to merge the two exposures, trying to follow the line of horizon; the result has a very artificial look. To get a good results, you have to use a large brush - by large I mean from 500 to 1500 or even 2000 pixels - with minimum hardness, to create a gradual, natural-looking transition between the two exposures.
After sunset, we toke some night photos of Santo Stefano and the other small villages that can be seen from the top of Mt. Bue, and then we reached the Rossetti Hut, with a one hour walk in Moon light.

The hut is nice structure, entirely make of wood, that is always open for everyone. There are four berths, even tough there is room for a dozen of persons, if you carry the sleeping bag (actually, you have to carry the sleeping bag even if you sleep on a berth, it is not too clean). The temperature was pretty cold so we tried to set up a small fire, with little success...we had only wet wood and the fire didn't last long.

The following morning, we wake up well before the sunrise, and in less than one hour we come back to the top of Mt. Bue. The sunrise was not as spectacular as the sunset, but still a nice view - even though there was a strong wind and the temperature was so cold that it was difficult to think about photography...it is impressive how much the wind lowers the temperature!

At 8 a.m., we begun the trail to come back to civilization (we choose to follow the same trail of the previous day, but there are various alternatives). My friends were a little tired - this is not a difficult trip, but it requires a little of training, and you have to get used to sleep in the hut - but in few hours we were back to the cars.

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