Sunset over the North Sea

For me, unfortunately 2006 did not spawn a good candidate for the "best of" event. Therefore I was facing a challenge on December 17th: Shoot a good one now or miss an event.

I chose to go for the first option and fortunately the weather seemed good that day. I decided I was going to take a panorama of the sun setting above the sea. That usually looks good and Holland is known for its great sunsets.

But then Murphy's law kicked in.. Everything went wrong by the time the sun began to set, keeping me from leaving the house. By the time I strapped my tripod to my motorcycle, the sky was beautifully pink all over and I really felt like I was about to miss the event.

I drove as fast as I could to the coast, at times exceeding the speed limit with 100 km/hour and parked right below the dune. I took my camera bag, helmet, tripod and ran up the dune.

Alas, I overrated my stamina..: I had a fever, I was heavily packed, I was wearing a tight and stuffed motorcycle suit and the dune is some forty or more meters high. I came to a crushing halt about 2/3s on my way to the top. I had to sit down and catch my breath. By the time I came to the top and I set up the camera and tripod, the sun just shifted behind the clouds on the horizon. Bye bye, nice sunset..

Anyway, I decided to still shoot the panorama and although it's a bit silly to label it "best of the year", I still like it enough to make it my entry.

The panorama shows the view from the highest dune in Groot Valkenisse (province of Zeeland). To the right you can faintly see Zoutelande. To the left, the Westerschelde river and ahead: Dunkerque (100km away). The entire dune is made of sand. It protects the peninsula of Walcheren, which actually lies below sea level, from flooding.

Europe / Netherlands

Lat: 51° 29' 37.09" N
Long: 3° 29' 57.27" E

Elevation: 40m

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Hardware used: Nikon D70s, Nikkor 10.5mm, Nodal Ninja3
Software used: PTGui, Photoshop CS2, Pano2QTVR