Last Light of 2018

The last day of 2018 and the last light of a darkish winter day of anticyclonic gloom, a slight gap in the clouds over Wales allows a few rays of sunlight to filter through, lightening the mood at the end of the day.

31st December 2018 and I walk down to the beach to hopefully capture the last of the daylight for 2018. It had been a dark grey day of anticyclonic gloom, with few breaks in the clouds evident but I walked down in the hope that there might be a glimmer of magic before sunset. That hope was rewarded as a gap in the clouds over Wales allowed the last rays of sunlight to filter through, casting a warm orange glow on the waters of the River Dee and the Welsh hills above Holywell.

Down on the beach there is a cool north westerly breeze whilst, out on the horizon, a grey curtain of rain is evident, masking off the line between sea and sky. the tide is incoming.
Over Wales there is a glimmer of light, a gap in the clouds, probably caused by the mountains of Snowdonia, is letting a patch of golden orange sunlight filter through, and it falls in bright rays of light falling across the hills and shining off the sea on the coast near Holywell. 

In Camera... Winter light, the Last Days of 2017

The last light of 2017 lingers on, reflected in the pool of water surrounding an iron man on Crosby beach. Out to the west leaden grey storm clouds gather over the Welsh hills.

The last days of 2017 were days of sunlight and storm, producing a good variety of lighting effects down on Crosby beach. The image above  (AG786) was taken at what should have been sunset on the last day of the year but the thick storm clouds out to the west obscured the sun. The only light was from a small patch of clear sky above the beach which this pool reflected.

A little earlier the same light had reflected off the sea, a shimmer of silver light in an otherwise grey scene.

A couple of days earlier swathes of snow and sleet had swept across the Wirral peninsula late in the afternoon, falling from a high, heavy cloud mass and producing a veiled grey curtain between the beach and the sunset over the distant hills of North Wales.

Here the setting sun managed to burst through the storm clouds in one glorious burst of yellow light

before the rain and sleet swept in to obliterate the light.