Mellon Udrigle is a small crofting community located on the north-western shores of Gruinard Bay in the Scottish Highlands. The nearby beach, with its clear turquoise water, beautiful white sand and gentle dunes, is spectacular in its own right. Combined with the stunning views of the mountains of Coigach and Inverpolly in the distance, it is a truly magical place.

On this particular morning, there was a fair amount of pre-dawn cloud despite the promising weather forecast. About 40 minutes before sunrise, the first hints of colour started to appear in the sky and an astonishingly beautiful sunrise followed.

I took this image just as the sun peaked over the top of the mountains across the bay. By this time, the pre-dawn pinks and blues had turned to a pale orange, which reflected beautifully in the water.

The tide had come in quite a long way, washing away the curve of the sandbank that had featured in the foreground of my earlier images. I decided to exclude the beach and zoom out to focus on the contrasting colour of the orange sky and the blue outline of the distant peaks on the horizon.

I used a polariser to reduce the glare on the water and enhance the pastel colours that reflected so beautifully in the sea. I added a three stop neutral density filter to slow my shutter speed further, smoothing the water but still retaining some texture. No other filtration was required as the light levels in the sky matched those of the sea.

It was an exhilarating hour and a quarter – both photographically and simply by being there.