Ghent’s Timeless Beauty

Last Sunday, I embarked on a scouting mission in Ghent's city center to find the perfect location for this year's Christmas card photo. My goal was to locate a spot, take some test shots, and return once the Christmas lights were illuminated. Anticipating architectural shots, I mounted the Leica 28mm F2.8 PC-Super-Angulon R lens on my M11 camera.
As I strolled along the Korenlei, doubts crept in. The streetlights had already turned off, and the available light wasn't ideal. However, I decided to experiment with the shift lens, capturing several shots of the old post office on the Graslei. I set up my tripod on the opposite side of the Korenlei and took the pictures from across the water.
To capture both the building and its reflection, I took three shots using the lens's shift function and bracketed the exposure for each picture to handle the high contrast. Back at home, I used Lightroom's 'HDR panorama' feature to merge the shots into a single image.
For those unfamiliar with Ghent, here's some context about the location and the building: The Graslei and Korenlei are historic quays along the Leie river in Ghent's city center. The post office building, now a luxury hotel with ground-floor shops, replaced a Louis XIV-style warehouse demolished in 1897. The post office's construction took place between 1900 and 1908. Postal services relocated here in October 1910, and temporary post offices opened during the 1913 World Exhibition. In 1998, the building was sold by the Postal Service, and the upper floor was converted into a hotel in late 2017 – Graslei, Ghent, Belgium