Kintail Dawn Reflections

There had been a colourful sunrise the day before I took this image, so I was encouraged to make an early start in the hope that it would be repeated. Just a week after the autumn equinox the sun was rising almost directly to the east and I was confident that the view of the Five Sisters of Kintail across Loch Duich from Ratagan would provide the perfect composition I was seeking. With a high pressure system sitting out in the Atlantic drawing in southerly winds my only concern was that there would be enough cloud in the sky to reflect the sun's colours as dawn broke.

I need not have worried. Having set up my camera in the darkness I waited for the spectacle to unfold. It was fascinating to watch the colours come and go as the sun's rays illuminated the cloud layers one after the other. As the sun rose over a 30 minute period my exposure time became shorter and shorter eventually to a point when I could capture a group of images which would stitch accurately into a panorama that would truly reflect the true power of dawn in an expansive sky.