Groynes in the sand as the water rushes away to do battle with another wave coming in. The ever-present push and pull of the tide, defeated for some time at least by these wooden posts.

Two days of unbroken Cork sunshine had to end somewhere, and they ended like this. I was in the posh Dunnes in Bishopstown and when I came out the sunny sky became a brooding wall of cloud piling up overhead just as a jet lifted off. From the ground it looked tiny, but that’s distance…

A scarlet-railed bridge, a limestone arch, and a pond almost still enough to hand you a second bridge for free. I caught this one at Fota Wildlife Park, framed through a gap in the spring foliage, the fresh greens crowding in from both sides. The contrast is what pulls me in. Those bold red posts…

Two pigeons, one pile of grain, and a standoff that never became a fight. There was plenty of food for everyone on Sullivan’s Quay, Cork.

The sun has almost set and still casts an orange glow on a clear sky. I was down at Youghal Beach facing the afterglow, and instead of the big dramatic sunset I half-expected, I got this: a clean gradient running from deep blue at the top to a warm orange seam along the horizon, the…

A chimney, a pitched roof, and a sky lit end to end. I caught this little hut alongside the old Youghal railway just as the light gave up for the evening, the blue overhead sliding down into a thin band of orange at the horizon. Two stretched-out lenticular clouds hung there like someone had smudged…

Joe O’Leary of the band Fred. Stanley Super 800 Friday night at the Savoy, and the place was buzzing. Joe of the band Fred opened things up solo. It was just him, an acoustic, a red tee and a flat cap, perched in front of a wall of Orange amps that looked far too big…

I was standing on Emmett Place with my neck cricked at an awkward angle, trying to work out where the real sky ended and the reflected one began. Two people passed by and I’m sure they might have wondered what I was photographing with my head almost stuck to the window. Well, I’d noticed the…

I almost walked straight past this clump of yellow without looking down. The Mirador de Guise y Ayose pulls everyone’s eyes outward, across the rumpled red hills, all the way to the hazy Atlantic but the real show was happening at my feet, where a burst of wild mustard had punched up through the volcanic…

I spent a few minutes watching this white-tailed eagle do absolutely nothing, and it was riveting. It sat on its branch at Fota Wildlife Park like it owned the place which, fair enough, when you’re the largest bird of prey in Ireland, you probably do. The dark backdrop did me a favour here, throwing all…

I was visiting Fota Wildlife Park with Henry recently when he spotted these two in an enclosure and I genuinely cannot get over how small a little grebe chick is. It’s basically a wet pom-pom with an attitude. The adult, all chestnut throat and businesslike beak, was patrolling the surface and the chick paddled over,…

As I climbed up the rocks from the beach I spotted a lone fisherman in the distance. He hadn’t caught anything yet but in the bright sunshine I caught a nice silhouette. It was Santa Cruz in Portugal, and a lovely day to be beside the sea.