Light is perhaps the most powerful tool of photography.

It is through light that photographs come to life. Lighting determines not only brightness and darkness of an image, but also tone, mood and atmosphere.

On April 1, we were very excited to announce the beginning of a year of photo challenges in partnership with our long standing friends, the Scotland from the Roadside Facebook group.

The first theme challenge was "Land of Light" which was left completely to the imagination of all snappers wanting to take part.

Each month, a new theme will be issued - the only request, that photographers have fun exploring this amazing and beautiful country we get to call home.

Over the last few weeks, more than 100 striking images have been sent in for the Land of Light feature and it has been an incredibly difficult job to choose which ones to include in our final roundup.

This small selection of an incredible offering captures those who really embraced the "Land of Light" theme.

They're not necessarily taken by professional working photographers, but are images where people have really captured beautiful shots and have had fun with the idea behind it.

If you would like to take part in the next photo challenge, please watch out for announcements on the Scotland from the Roadside page.

Loch Lomond sunrise by Gary Chittick

Tree of Life at twilight by Colin Glen

Light on the loch by Carol Bone

Glen Coe in pink by Karen Daly

Burning sun on the Forth by Duncan Martin

Light through the pine trees by Jaclyn Sparks

Northern Lights by Joss Ward

Sunshine days by Gerard Grimalt

Mountain rainbows by Duncan Hodgson

Light on the mountain top by Thomas Lamont