Majestic Panoramas

"A few years ago, in January, my family and I had taken a short break to the countryside to get away from the hustle and bustle of life for a few days. For outdoor photography, January is in my opinion a notoriously uninteresting month in the Western Cape, where we live."

"We saw nothing but blue sky for the first three days, great for a holiday, bad for photography. The area we stayed in was nestled in a deep valley, so first and last light were non existent. On the fourth day cloud cover was predicted, so Sam, my daughter, and I headed out before dawn to photograph the peaks from a vantage point we had scouted the day before. On the way I photographed two old farmhouses that found their way into my Abandoned collection, so the morning was already a success."

"The morning before, scouting compositions, the view had opened up as we came over a rise and I said to Sam, 'I have been here!' I had not, but I had seen the scene in a photograph by a fellow landscape photographer, taken no more than a kilometre from where we stood. There is a principle here that we both feel strongly about. The last thing I will do is make a composition that copies a colleague's. Once I know a picture exists and I cannot make it dramatically differently, it is a no go area. So I said to Sam, 'Let's turn around and look elsewhere.'"

"About ten kilometres away two mountain ranges converge in an area known as the Horse Shoe. The upper slopes are hard to reach, because the farms you have to cross are fenced and gated. The light that afternoon was so poor it felt like we were wasting time, but we walked up a steep hillside from one of the farm gates and a magnificent vista opened up in front of us. Using PhotoPills on my phone I checked the path of the sun, which confirmed that early morning light would be ideal."

"The next morning cloud had filled the sky overnight and the light was atmospheric. To our surprise the gate to that farm was open. Working on the principle that it is usually easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, I drove in, parked the 4x4 out of sight of the farmhouse, and climbed the mountainside with my camera gear. The clouds were moving quickly, and the sun had climbed high enough to light the tops of the peaks. The breaks in the cloud made dappled light on the landscape. It felt like a stage performance with spotlights following the production, although the star of this show was the light itself. Then, in one brief moment, it all came together."

"Packing up, I saw the farmer prowling round my vehicle. I whistled and waved, preparing my story of forgiveness. He turned out to be a nice person, and his one piece of advice was, 'Sell the Land Rover and buy a Toyota Land Cruiser.' He let us drive through his farm to the upper slopes, and just before the sun entered the valley I found a second composition. Two photographs in one morning. Thank you, Lord!"

Made together with Samantha Lee Osner

The Majestic collection is a collaboration between Martin Osner and his daughter, Samantha Lee Osner. They often work the same landscapes on the same mornings, as they did at Majestic Peak, and each brings back a different picture. Her panoramas range from the Klein Karoo to Theewaterskloof and Swellendam, and her Heavenly Aura carries the same wide format out over the Atlantic.

See her panoramas on samanthaosner.com