sunrise really is the best time of day

The landscape always looks better at the extremes of the day, when the golden light illuminates the ground and the sky.

Since getting ill though, I have struggled to take advantage of my favourite time of day, sunrise.  I don't sleep well, and when dawn rolls around I'm usually comatose and by the time I'm conscious the sun is well and truly up.

Sometimes though I am able to rise early enough, and when I set a 6am alarm earlier this month I did manage to resist the urge to stay in bed and got up instead.

I was met with freezing cold conditions and clear, starry skies.

I thought about going back indoors and into bed as the lack of any cloud cover disappointed me.  The last thing I wanted or needed was a crystal-clear sky.  But I persevered and headed for my intended location, the foothills of the Brecon Beacons high above the upper Swansea Valley.

And I was rewarded for my perseverance with perfectly timed clouds rolling in just before dawn and being illuminated by the rising sun.

Fujifilm GFX100, Fujinon GF23mm f4
1/5th of a second at f16, ISO 100
tripod, self timer release, Lee 3-stop soft graduated filter

I recorded my outing and got my drone up into the air for some spectacular footage which you can view by watching the video below: