PHOTO: Autumn in Brecon Beacons, Wales, UK


This is a photo of a gate somewhere in the Brecon Beacons mountain range of South Wales in the United Kingdom.

My wife and I were travelling in the region during early Autumn, at a time when the weather can be erratic. It is a time of intermittent showers and sunshine, with very "moody" skies that take on a deep grey colour and give the impression that they are "soggy" with rain, like a sponge that has become saturated to full capacity.

At the time of taking this photo, I was looking out across a valley towards the town of Brecon (we were on the road from Abergavenny to Brecon). The expanse of the valley lay beneath a very grey sky. Then, very suddenly there was a burst of light that lit up the surroundings. The light came from behind me. As I wanted to capture the "moodiness" of the skies, I turned towards the light and, looking up an embankment, I saw the gate pictured here. Before the light changed I took a quick shot of the gate with the blue of the sky peeping through the clouds. I slightly overexposed the shot because I wanted to preserve the sense of the light all around me.

I decided to call the photo "heaven's gate" to preserve the memory of looking up at that "heavenly" sky with the light radiating all around me like some "divine" presence (notice the slight solar flare in the lens).

It's moments like these that I treasure - for their simplicity and raw beauty, and how they reach into the soul and linger there for the rest of my life.


Image: Gate, somewhere in the Brecon Beacons, South Wales, UK. Copyright - Michael Beaton 

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