Mark Wassell, Misty Sunrise Japan Alps (LANDSCAPE 2025)

My first sunrise in Japan was spent at the world heritage village of Shirakawago in the Japanese Alps. I reached the traditional viewpoint overlooking the gassho huts of the village well before sunrise and spent 30 minutes there waiting for the thick fog to clear. As it became evident that the fog clearance was unlikely to happen any time soon, I made the decision to explore a little further afield where the landscape was higher than the village and less fog bound. Approx 500m from my original viewpoint I found this awesome little hut that I had no idea even existed. It too was cloaked in fog and the background mountains were not visible. As sunrise neared however the fog cleared sufficiently just in time to reveal the mountain line and beautiful sky for this image!

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.