I spent three important years in Wales studying and during that time went climbing in Snowdonia, toured the northwestern reaches, but had never been there purely for photography. So I jumped at the opportunity to join a workshop, run by Dawn2Dusk photography, that facilitated the exploration of Snowdonia and Anglesey. As evening drew near on the third day we stopped at Capel Curig and hiked up a nearby hill to get high enough to see the whole valley set out before us to the west with Llynnau Mymbyr (the lake seen in the lower central part of this photograph) towards Snowdon (silhouetted centre) and Glyder Fawr & Glyder Fach (right).

The day was very cloudy but there were breaks that allowed diffuse beams of sunlight from the setting sun. For the next hour the beams came and went with a centre point that moved from behind Snowdon towards Glyder Fawr. Sometimes the light beams were so intense as to make the photographs very contrasty with multiple sunspots. These shots were not very successful but we waited and watched. Eventually, around 20 min before sunset, the sun had declined to the point where it was just behind Glyder Fawr and this was then favourable for just two major light beams to emerge between the two mountains and illuminate the southerly side of the valley (Carnedd Moel-siabod). The whole evening was a spectacular show of the effects of light beams emerging from the cloudy sky. It was a memorable experience that I relish as I look back at that series of photographs.