Chasing the light: five skies from coast to ridge

Photographers call the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset the golden hour. The sun sits close to the horizon, its light has more air to cross, the colour warms and the shadows stretch, and whatever it falls on looks better than it does at noon.

This set brings together the dawns and dusks we photographed in five places over the past year: four of them on the coast, one in the hills. No two skies are the same colour. Some are orange and pink, some purple and gold, and when the cloud is thick the light is only a bright rim along its edge. Palms, a beach hut and a row of thatched umbrellas take turns in the foreground.

None of it needs expensive equipment; a phone and a small tripod will do. What matters is time. Arrive half an hour early, find a foreground, then wait and let the light change by itself. The deepest colour usually lasts little more than ten minutes, and if you miss it you can only wait for the next clear day.