Spring is here and the longer hours of daylight bring more opportunities to spend time out on the coast or in the countryside. If you have a liking for sunrises, however, you there are possibilities all year round, as these pictures from Alan Hendry show.

Gallery1

Most were taken in Caithness (with a few in Sutherland and one each in Easter Ross and Inverness), in all seasons. There is no colour enhancement on any of the photos.

Alan is interim content editor at the Groat and Courier and in his spare time likes to get out and about with his camera.

“I know my limitations as a photographer and there is no real skill involved in taking these,” he says. “It’s just a case of keeping an eye on the pre-dawn sky and how the clouds are shaping up, and being prepared to get up extra early in summer or to withstand chilly temperatures on winter mornings. Often you can go out in conditions that look promising only to find that the sunrise falls flat for whatever reason, so you learn to be philosophical about it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

“But it’s usually worth making the effort. It’s good to be out on a shoreline or a cliff-top when there’s no-one else around, watching the colours of the sunrise becoming more vivid before they fade into the emerging daylight. It’s an uplifting way to start the day.”

If you would like to share your sunrises, or sunsets, email your photos to editor@nosn.co.uk

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.