As far as light is concerned, there is 'grey' and 'grey'. The one dulls everything, makes it difficult to bring out highlights, deprives colour of its energy, flattens perspective. The second somehow has at its heart an invisible light that still manages to enhance a scene by gilding things with a soft silvery light. In fact, the difference between these two types of light, sometimes almost invisible to the eye until one begins to take photographs, is almost like the difference between old pewter and unpolished silver.
Setting out on my walk yesterday evening I almost decided to leave my camera behind as the light looked so unpromising. However, once down by the harbour I noticed that there was a subtle glow to the horizon and layers of cloud could just be picked out as the sky shuffled myriad variations of grey. And, when I began to photograph some large metal buoys that were up on the quayside for refurbishment I noticed that their colours had a gentle glow. It was almost as if the greens and rusty oranges refused to be diminished. It was the same once I went down to the water's edge. There the colours of the boats became magnified by the light reflected off the water, and the red pennants flying above the fishing boats slashed their colour defiantly against the grey sky.
Furthermore, this same grey also added a calm stillness to the harbour that made the whole scene feel like a painting. And my final shots for the evening were wide angle shots of this scene that I am looking forward to downloading to see whether I have been able to re-create that sense of a painting that soothes the senses.