Daily Blog

I went down to the Doherty's one of the local shop on Christmas eve with my son Barry who is visiting from Dublin. This was the view from outside the shop! So before we went in we took a few pictures. Barry reckoned I am a bit of a fraud! "Reading your blog" ,he said ,"I thought this landscape photography was difficult, but around here the pictures just happen all around you !" he has a point!!

Happy Christmas to all who view this site.
Thanks to all who have liked , shared and commented or even purchased my images over the years. may you all have a Peaceful Christmas!
This image is from Ballintubber Abbey where Christmas has been celebrated for nearly 800 years (798 to be exact!)

I went to Castlebar this morning to get a few things for Christmas, "go early " I thought, "get in and out before the crowds ". What a surprise I got, just after 9am and the car parks were full, and as for the supermarket, well trolleys were being filled at such a rate, I thought maybe I had missed news of an impending tragedy on the morning news!!!
The picture is from the shores of Lough Feeagh, near Newport, I loved the little Gorse bush, I wonder should I go and put a few Christmas lights on it ?

The rain in just relentless at the moment so another day with no photography.But I am delighted to report that I had three images selected for the Cork International Salon of Photography . Here is one of them, taken early one cold winters morning!

Back in Mayo after a family gathering in Athlone, Patricia's Mum, Marie celebrated her 80th birthday !!
So while I took some family pictures I did not do any landscapes, so here is an image of the sun setting behind Clare Island made a couple of weeks ago.

I was in Castlebar this morning and found myself with an hour to kill. Walking around the shops a few days before Christmas just seemed like hell to me so I took a quick spin out to Ballintubber Abbey, much more peaceful!

We had not seen the sun for three whole days, but today it did its very best to break through! We still had rain though!.
I am away for a couple of days and have left my phone at home! How did we ever manage without mobile phones? I mention it here because I often get people phoning me in a panic at this time of year to get vouchers for classes, or for prints for Christmas presents, I had two such calls this morning!. But don't panic, I can still get my emails or Facebook messages, and of course vouchers can be ordered through the website!!!

The rain still has not stopped! This was day three of the rain and there has been no let up at all. Now I know that the West Coast of Ireland is famous for its rain, but we normally get very changeable weather. And its that constantly changing weather and light that makes the West Coast of Ireland so exciting and so interesting for Landscape photography. To demonstrate this I am posting an image from the same location as yesterday's image. The difference between the two is NINE MINUTES ! In the first, we have lovely blue sky, replaced by a "lovely" grey one and misty rain in the second, but there is still enough light getting through from the sun to hit the mountain.Creating what I would describe as lovely soft light, a few minutes later the light was gone and we were left with "lovely soft rain"!! But in those few minutes of transition the light was really beautiful.

The rain continued all day again today, so once again the camera stayed in the bag! So here is an image made a week or so ago from the Great Western Greenway, whenever I go for a cycle now I make sure to bring my camera, and even though I have travelled the Greenway many times the scenery is ever changing and my cycles are often distributed by regular stops to take pictures! This view of Bellacragher Bay is taken about 4 km outside Mulranny.

I am a great believer in getting out to take photographs whatever the weather. Even on the worst of days, with rain and wind there are often moments where the sun breaks through and creates opportunities for dramatic pictures. But today was lone of those days when the rain was just relentless and there was no sign of any break in the clouds so I did not make any new pictures.
This image from Keem Strand on Achill Island was made a week ago, on a nice bright day, a half a second exposure was just long enough to show movement in the water.

It looked like a nice sunset this evening, but I did not get out. I had a busy day making prints, that people are giving as Christmas presents. So I was queuing in the post office for ages as the sun set!!
This picture of Clare Island was taken earlier in the week the day before the stormy weather when the skies were black with rain clouds. I went out anyway hoping the sun would break through at sunset time. I have learnt over the years that it is often just at sunrise and sunset that the sun will sometimes just get under the cloud for a few moments. Well it very nearly did, not quite but enough to give a little lift and almost silhouette Clare Island. This little bit of colour lasted about three minutes before it all closed in again, but I did not mind, I was happy to get even a glimpse of sunlight!

You will have heard of the dawn chorus. Well this morning I was out for the dawn, I did not hear much of the chorus, but this soloist refused to be disturbed by my presence! And delightful he was too.

Well it seems the storm has passed, the winds have eased and it is now just raining heavily. I did not get out into the storm much so this is not the best storm wave you will see. I took no risks taking the picture, I did not even risk getting the camera wet. I sat in my car with a 230mm lens on a fujiXE1and watched. What actually caused me to stop the car as I drove by ,was the location. This is a favourite location of mine. If you were to check my post from 24th November you will see a peaceful twilight picture with a rock partly submerged by water, in that picture the rock is on the left of the image.In this picture that same submerged rock is on the left, and that wave that is just hitting the shore is at the very spot I was standing photographing on that lovely calm evening! You can't be too careful!

I am posting early today, simply because I got my picture early and am excited to share it with you. We are in the middle of a storm here on the West coast and as I lay in bed this morning I could hear the wind battering the house. I decided I should try and photograph the sunrise with crashing waves etc and it just might be good at that time so dragged myself out and off out. Now I was not going to take any risks so I drove along the coast looking for a suitable spot to get the waves from a safe distance. Sunrise time came and went but the sun could not be seen so I photographed waves. It was very dark though and the pictures were not great. Then at 9.29 exactly, a gap started to appear in the cloud. I had time to change lens on my camera make some adjustments for the extra light, frantically remove a graduated ND from my camera bag fit it to the front of the camera and start shooting. Suddenly the sun broke through and as i shouted "Thank you God" I tried to enjoy the moment but also to keep concentrated on getting the exposures right in the camera, and at the same time just marvel. By 9.32 the sun was again completely hidden from view, and the storm continues!

Just back from a day shopping in Dublin! So no photographs taken. We arrived back this evening into a wild atlantic storm, hopefully I will get a chance to photograph some of it in the morning if its not too wet.
In the meantime here is a picture from the wild atlantic way at Cloughmore on Achill Island.

I am sure you have heard the tale, that at the end of a rainbow you will find a crock of gold. Well, I have seen lots of rainbows and have not yet found the crock of gold.! I was photographing on the Greenway in Mulranny a few days ago when I photographed this rainbow. just as I pressed the shutter, a van passed through the shot. So I took a few more pictures and forgot all about the van. But this afternoon I was looking through the images and noticed its not any old van.....Its an Allied Irish Mobile Bank ! A MOBILE CROCK OF GOLD !! So possibly I have the only photograph ever taken of a rainbow with a crock of gold under it, I think I might go and buy a lottery ticket !

It was wet most of today here and its blowing a bit of a storm outside as I post this. I did not use the camera today, but took this picture of Bellacragher Bay yesterday morning. Its amazing how different a place can look depending on the light and the weather. I particularly like to shoot into or towords the light , it can be more challenging, but usually produces more dramatic results.

Patrick who came for some one to one tutition on printing yesterday decided to stay a second day for some Landscape photography. This morning we got up early and went out to photograph the sunrise on Mulranny strand, the sunrise was a little disappointing it was very cloudy and it looked very unlikely that we would get anything. But we persisted and the sun did break through just a little ,and after an hour or so on the beach we decided we had done our best so would go back for breakfast, but instead, we went up on to the Greenway, as it looked like there was a clearing coming in the clouds. So we spent some time photographing Bellacragher Bay, the light was lovely and we worked away for another hour or so. Then it began to spit rain and just as we were packing up our cameras this amazing rainbow formed in the sky above us. So there was some fairly frantic action for ten minutes or so. We were very glad we had not gone back for breakfast!! And that I think is one of the big secrets of Landscape photography, simple as it may sound, you just have to be out in the environment to witness things. I am often asked how I can be so lucky to be at the right place at the right time so often, but really its just about being there for a lot of time !

The image shows Patrick, my student for the day, capturing a rainbow!

I did not take any photographs today, but spent a good part of the day re processing a lot of work that was lost following a major computer crash a few months ago. The work lost included commissioned work from 15 different sites for one client, who had misplaced the DVDs I had given them with the finished work on! Fortunately I always back up the original files, so I was able to retrieve them, but of course I spent the day editing and reprocessing. So you can see the importance of backing up your originals, maybe I should be more thorough in backing up the finished work as well!!
This sunrise over Mulranny Beach was taken last Sunday morning.

This morning I went for a cycle along the Great Western Greenway. The "greenway as it os locally known is a cycle path that follows the route that bthe Great western railway used to follow, we no longer have trains in this part od the county , but at least the old line is being put to good use. I was cycling the stretch from Mulranny to Achill Island and back a round trip of about 30 kilometres. I was doing this for exercise, but it is such a scenic route that of course I brought my fuji XE1 with me but had no intention of stopping to use it About five kilometres out I just had to stop to take a picture. No when cycling I carry my phone with me and use an APP called Map my Run and every kilometre the APP talks to me and tells me how far I have gone, how long it has taken me , how fast I was on the last kilometre, and what my overall speed is! all very motivating. Of course I had left the house determined to beat the time set on the same route a few days ago. But by stooping for that photo I had messed up my times. So I set off determined to make up the time, I peddled like mad almost blocking the scenery out of my mind, as every kilometre I travelled the App reported on my performance and sure enough I was catching myself up!! But then after about 24 kilometres I looked up to see THIS and my resolve evaporated, I just had to stop! I definitely won't make the olympic team , but I may set a new record for myself another day. I just enjoyed the rest of the cycle home.