I thought I'd share a little bit about this image from Meteora, Greece, located about four hours north of Athens.
My wife and I were driving around the country roads that wind in and around these magnificent rock spires, and the sun was getting lower and lower. We came around one bend, and I knew I had to pull over immediately.
Realizing I didn't have much time to catch the light on the spires and monastery to the left, I didn't set up my tripod, but instead shot hand-held. The rocks to the right were in deep shadow, so I knew I would need to take bracketed exposures, one for the highlights, another for the mid-tones, and a third for the shadows.
Since mosaics are my specialty, and I wanted to get as much detail as possible, I took two rows of images totaling 19 shots - for each set of exposures - so I wound up with 57 images!
Once home from our trip, this was one of the first images I tackled. This was 2007, so all the tools that I have at my fingertips now either didn't exist, or were much less adept. I spent several days getting all the images lined up properly, and adjusting the exposures to come up with this final composition.
I can still feel the excitement I felt then, knowing that not only was I in the presence of a magnificent scene, but also had an opportunity to capture it and share it. Enjoy!