The story:
Chasing the Golden Breath of the Sudetes
A M O R N I N G I N L O W E R S I L E S I A
An alarm clock set for 3:30 AM rarely sounds inviting, but in the Sudetes, it is the price of admission to a spectacle witnessed by very few. Outside the window of my shelter in the Kłodzko Valley, the world rested in a silent, indigo stillness. There is a particular kind of quiet that precedes a misty dawn, a hushed anticipation the earth seems to hold onto until the sun finally forces it free.
I reached the edge of the mountain meadow just as the first amber reflections began spilling across the horizon. The Sudetes are not sharp, dramatic peaks like the Alps. They are older, softened by time, and wrapped in legends. That morning, they performed their most iconic spectacle, what I once used to call a “treasure,” and now simply call a “sea of mist.” A dense blanket of white fog settled deep within the valley, leaving only the silhouettes of distant ridges floating like islands upon a milky ocean.
For me, photography in these mountains is about capturing the exact moment when the earth takes a breath. Isn’t that what we all miss the most?
T H E M O M E N T O F T R A N S F O R M A T I O N
As I set up the tripod, tiny droplets of mist settled across the camera body, while the lens needed constant wiping. And then, suddenly, everything changed.
The sun rose above the mountain ridge not gradually, but violently like a burst of fire cutting through the cold of dawn. Golden light poured into the fog, illuminating the valley from within. For a brief moment, the landscape looked unreal, like a scene suspended somewhere between dream and reality.
Sunrays pushed through the trees, creating luminous beams stretching across the fields and drifting mist. The shadows were still long and heavy, giving the light an extraordinary depth. Even the subtle lens flare became part of the story for me. A trace of the meeting between the camera and the raw energy of the rising sun.
I stood there in silence, watching it all last for only a few fleeting minutes. And in that moment, I realized that the most beautiful things on earth are always the most temporary. Perhaps that is exactly why they hold such value. And perhaps that is why it is always worth waking long before the rest of the world.
Sudety Mountains, Poland
© Michał Mierzejewski
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Copyright Michal Mierzejewski.
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