Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
Most days I’m up bright and early and on Monday morning, as I always do, I shot a couple of glances out the window to see if there was any chance of great dawn colour in the sky. Naaaah, I told myself as I turned my attention to other tasks.
About ten minutes later I went into the kitchen for something and noticed this pink slash across the sky. It was obviously not a cloud and because it was a relatively still morning I realised it was a contrail (or condensation trail) left by a high-flying jet.
The aircraft had obviously flown over after my first glimpse through the window, or else I would have seen the contrail before. But in the soft light of those magical minutes before true dawn, the contrail itself, now broadening from its original gossamer-like state, was the only thing above the horizon to reflect the light of the sun that was about to rise.
About twenty minutes later, the orientation of the contrail had shifted further east, but I couldn’t resist taking this last shot, despite the change in colour.
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