October 2018. It was the day before the start of the photo tour that I would be leading. I went to check out the places we were going to visit. It was a cold start with beautiful clear weather, lots of autumn colours and a layer of snow on the higher mountains. The valley of the river Spey lay at my feet in the autumn sun, the peaks of the Ben Nevis massif were covered in snow and the many birch and larch trees were beautifully coloured gold and copper just before the moment they would lose their leaves.

The Scottish landscape is beautiful in all weather conditions. Grim and dark, shrouded in mist, it gives the landscape drama. But this image, this sun-drenched landscape, windless, the best of autumn and the coming winter combined, it touched me enormously and the feeling of happiness that I experienced at that moment is forever present in me. Picture postcard perfect ....... so what?

this image was featured in Landscape Photography Magazine issue 153