‘It was one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen’: Dominika Koszowska’s best phone picture

Dominika Koszowska is a self-confessed night owl but she had woken up extra early that morning with the goal of capturing the sunrise. The photographer, who is studying for a PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland, was visiting the Faroe Islands with her friend Michal.

“The weather outside our rented cottage wasn’t encouraging; it was grey and gloomy, but we decided to head for the Skeidhsskardh mountain anyway. We arrived to wind and huge amounts of fog. Michal walked ahead, and suddenly it began to lift. It ended up being one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen, and I was able to capture him looking out over this spectacle of nature with my phone.”

Koszowska used the Snapseed app to improve the contrast and exposure a touch. Sunrise and sunset have long been her favourite lighting to photograph under, even when it’s a phone in her hand and not her DSLR. “My phone is light and I don’t have to change lenses and it’s much cheaper than professional equipment. It’s not the equipment that defines photography,” Koszowska says.

Buoyed up by their successful morning, the friends headed back down the mountain for lunch in the village of Saksun, then on to Tjørnuvík, which has a population of about 70 people. “We visited the beach for sunset. It’s a special day when I get to see not just the sun both rising and setting but capture it too.”