In 2009, I spent Christmas at the southern-most point of Africa: Cape Agulhas. I was eager to see another amazing sunset as I did so often being in Africa for a couple of months. However, there was a big layer of clouds covering the whole sky and I was pretty disappointed. That was when the idea for this shot struck me. There was this small strip just over the horizon where the Sun illuminated the clouds, restrained by the Atlantic ocean below and the thick layer of clouds above. I exposed for the sunlight and left everything else pitchblack to achieve this result.

Canon EOS 40D, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, ISO 200, 1/800 second, 44mm, f/8. Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom 2 with finishing touches in Adobe Photoshop CS4.