"This photograph might never have happened. The entire day had been overcast, producing soft and relatively cool light. There seemed little probability of sunlight, and even if there had been, the thin veil of cloud at higher altitudes would have still have blocked any hard directional light from bringing this arch and gate to life. Without the lighting that I was so hoping for, it was impossible for me to predict how highlights and their accompanying shadows would materialise and how they may or indeed may not have interlocked. For a long time, I was looking at a dull and lifeless arch with half a gate and little more. Somewhere however there was a quiet voice urging me to stay.

Periodically I would stroll through the arch and look upward to see if there was any likelihood of any clearance in the cloud cover which would allow a splash of sunlight through. Then I would return to my roughly planned position. I was moments away from accepting defeat yet chose to take yet another few steps through the arch to look up to the sky. To my great surprise a small patch of cloudless sky appeared to be maintaining its shape and size with seemingly no cloud masking it. I raced back to my position, and then it happened. For possibly no longer than ten seconds the entire scene transformed into something exquisitely graceful and that I found hugely moving.

I could never have known that the relationships between the arch, gate and stencil-like shadows would emerge in the way that they did. The dense arc of the lower shadow fitting so sweetly with the arch above was to my mind the most wondrous event. The inside of the arch itself reflecting the pink light borrowed from the ochre tiled floor beyond was another element that could never have been foreseen. Due to the gate being hung at the appropriate height, and indeed, arced as it was, I particularly enjoy the small gap that resulted directly below the gate.

I have a friend who would always say to me, 'Just a little further along the road, Charlie.' To this day, I thank him for that last remnant of tenacity that afforded me a photograph that I shall always have great affection for. Perhaps a more fitting title would be 'Further along the Road'."  Charlie Waite