That Lucky Snap - 5

This photo was taken about an hour after dawn along a narrow, unremarkable beach at a small hotel called Lazy Lagoon just to the north of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. When I took it - and I was taking masses of pictures each sunrise as it is one of my favourite times of day in the tropics - I didn't think it would be anything special, but there's something about it that makes it stand out. As with so many pictures, it's difficult to put one's finger on exactly what this is.

First, there's the small detail. The boat on the horizon is as example. It's a working cargo dhow called a jahazi, and it's perfectly positioned in the centre of the picture. To its right, and quite difficult to see, is another boat, a small dugout canoe used for inshore fishing called an ngalowa, and one can just see the fisherman standing in it.

Secondly, there are the textures and patterns in the sky, wet beach and sea, all drawn together by the same colours, and contrasted against the rather forbidding black of the land, which is saved from being too fierce by the silhouettes of the palms against the sky.

Then there's the colour, because there really is only one colour, with shades. The resulting skyscape isn't at all usual for a Tanzania beach sunrise. There's something angry about it, something portentous, as if a great storm is coming - yet no storm came.

In the end, it isn't one thing that makes the sort of picture I like, it's a combination of factors and, I suppose, a fortunate composition of them - added to the fact that it brings back many happy memories of Tanzania's coral coast.