Daily Blog

Patricia and I spent a couple of nights in Westport at the Castlecourt hotel on one of their amazing midweek deals. So on our second morning I decided to get up and photograph the sunrise before breakfast. I went out to Lecanvey and set up about half an hour before sunrise. it was very cold, very windy and there was a blanket of cloud with absolutely no colour in the sky at all. I waited around to see if it would change and eventually decided it was hopeless and I went down onto the beach to photograph the water with some rocks instead, As I concentrated on the rocks I did not at first notice the change that was happening, but after taking a few pictures and deciding it was time to go back for breakfast I looked up and saw these colours in the sky, so I grabbed the camera and tripod and ran the length of the beach to get back to my original spot on Lecanvey Pier, I got a couple of pictures before the sun actually came over the horizon and the colours faded, delighted I headed back to the hotel for a full irish!! What a life!!

Just back from a great day chasing the light around the Doolough Valley and Sheefrey Pass. The sun had already set by 2.30 pm in the valley so it was quite dark when I got to this location, I have just downloaded the pictures and have not had time to look at them all, but I just knew when I made it ,that this would be a favourite!

I did not get out today, so here is an image from Pontoon made almost a year ago!

Its very dark in mayo today, Patricia and I took a walk on Carrownisky Beach around sunset time but there was no sun, just really low cloud and hardly any colour at all. It was still a lovely sight though, but best suited to Black and White.

Here is a more unusual image from today. I travelled to Pontoon in the hopes of photographing the sunrise. It was a very dark and cloudy morning and as I left the house it seemed unlikely that I would see the sun, but I travelled anyway in hope rather then expectation. I was due to arrive in Pontoon with just a couple of minutes to spare before sunrise. As I drove through Foxford I could see that I would defiantly not see the sunrise, then that was confirmed when the railway crossing gates began to close on the road ahead of me. I stopped and momentarily felt defeated, then I thought,"hold on, there could be a picture here"! I just had time to put up the tripod and set up the camera with a slow shutter speed to capture the train move accross the road.
This is a three second exposure, there was no time for another one!

This afternoon is very dark and a little damp,nice for a walk, but no glimmer of sun, but I made a trip out to Urlaur Abbey again this morning for the sunrise and was not disappointed.
I just wish the pier at Urlaur was maybe six feet longer, and twenty feet further away from the Abbey! I am sure it is perfectly placed for the fishermen but thought really should be given for photographers!! My tripod was teetering on the edge to get this image!

The weather we are having has been so mild that the plants seem to be getting confused! I took this photograph of Bellacragher Bay on Tuesday morning, but you can see the Gorse bush in the bottom right is in full bloom!!!

Here is another image from yesterday mornings visit to Mulranny Strand.

I had a lovely day today, I was not very confident when I was getting up that it would really be worth getting up so early. I had arranged to meet a couple of photographers who had contacted me through this page. We had agreed to meet on Achill Island. So I had decided to go to Mulranny for the sunrise on my way to Achill, but as I left the house it was drizzling rain. Even when I got to Mulranny an hour later it was clear I would not see the sunrise. The light was lovely though and with no wind at all, it was very calm. I spent an hour and a half enjoying the gentle movement of the water on the beach. I then headed to Achill and met up with Peter and Nadia. Nadia lives in Wexford and has some great pictures from the area and Peter lives in New York. It was Peter who found my website and decided to contact me on their trip to Mayo. We took pictures together before having a lovely lunch and chat about all things photographic. Unfortunatly I had to leave them as they headed off to photograph the sunset. Here is one of the images from Mulranny strand this morning, the mountain in the distance is Croagh Patrick.

I did not get out with the camera today so here is an image from a couple of weeks ago. This is the Doolough valley in Mayo, always an interesting place to photograph. I have often described how Landscape photographers spend a lot of time just waiting, sometimes for the sun to come out, or, like on this occasion waiting for the sun to go in. I spent five minutes waiting for the cloud to hide the sun to make the picture possible.

I am in Cork this evening and spent most of the daylight hours driving here! The day was generally grey, but there was a fabulous sky over the N17 just outside Tuam so of course I had to stop.

A lovely day in mayo today, but I spent most of the day indoors doing product photography. I did get out for a short while first thing this morning and made this image of Urlaur Abbey and Lake at sunrise. When I got there it was completely covered in cloud and I did not think I would get a photograph, but just as the sun came up the cloud began to break up.

Here is another image from Wednesdays one to one landscape day with Canice. We arrived at this location on lough mask a half hour after sunset. Canice was more then a little surprised that we could still make good pictures. But as I always tell people its not the amount of light its the quality of light that determines if good pictures can be made.
This image needed a thirty second exposure at iso 100 and f22. The decision to use f22 and iso 100 was so that there would be the long 30 second exposure resulting in movement in the cloud.

Today I was helping fellow photographer, Canice, who had come for a day of one to one tuition in Landscape photography. I often joke with my "students" that you are not really a landscpe photographer until you get your feet wet taking pictures, as I did again today. But Canice proved me a liar, as he came very prepared with a pair of fisherman's waders!! Here he is working in Lough Carra.

The weather seems to be turning colder, I cant wait! I did not get out today so here is a picture of Ben Creggan, rising above Doo Lough, taken a week or so ago.

Its a standing joke in our house that Keem strand on Achill is 1.5hours drive from here....unless you are travelling with Eamonn, then it could be 4hours or more!! Thats because I will be stopping to take pictures. But would you blame me? We live in such a great county with pictures everywhere!! Here is a typical example, to get to Keem Strand, as I was trying to do on the day I took this picture, you have to pass Keel Strand. And when you see a sky like this from the road, sure it would almost be a sin not to do a little detour wouldn't it?

Did not get out today, so here is an image from a recent trip to Achill Island. Taken from Claggagh Beach you are looking at Clare Island.

This is the same boat as can be seen in yesterdays picture of Ashford Castle, judging by the water and the leaves, it has not been brought out on the lake for a little while. This image is taken from an unusual angle but to get the coloured leaves in the picture I had to climb up a few steps, but there was another branch of leaves between the camera and the boat. So to take the picture I used the self timer on the camera, which gave me ten seconds to go down the steps, and pull the "offending" branch out of the picture!

On Monday I posted an image of Ashford castle, I said I would need to go back to get it in better light. I knew I could not wait too long or the lovely autumn coloured leaves would be gone. so I went back on Tuesday morning and this is the shot. Glad I went because we had lots of wind and rain yesterday evening and night so I am sure the leaf count will be a lot less today! I think it looks a lot better with a bit of bright sunlight!

Yesterday I promised to post an image taken at the same time as yesterday's . Yesterdays view of the big boulder shows a lovely blue sky. But this is the view from my right! As you can see the rain showers were galloping in from the Atlantic. I love this kind of weather for photography. When I hear "showers" on the forecast I know we will see constantly changing light, and occasionally really lovely scenes as the sun and the clouds do battle. This image was made within a minute of of yesterday's image.