The sun was already below the treeline when I took this, so all that was left was a band of orange above the horizon. The trees on either side close in far enough to frame the sunset on a lovely warm evening.

The thrush was sitting on a branch in a cherry tree in the grounds of Blarney Castle late in the evening, and it stayed put long enough for a few frames. The next photo is a blur as the bird looked the other way, and the following photo is of a bare branch. The thrush…

The cardoons in Blarney Castle Gardens have been left to flower, which is what you do if you want bees rather than dinner. This one was about the size of my fist, and the bumblebee had worked its way into the lower edge of it, half buried in the purple. I shot it zoomed in,…

Two anglers cast off the end of Ballycotton pier as the sun set. The harbour crane stood black against the sky, and one man’s rod bent back mid-cast, blurred by the long exposure. The cloud broke into pink and orange over the headland to the west, with the houses along the shore already lit. It…

A grey evening in Kinsale, with a fleet of small boats out on the harbour for what looked like club racing. Most of them carried red sails, Squibs I think, a class Kinsale Yacht Club is well known for, with a few white ones mixed in. The water was almost flat, and the crews sat…

Ballycotton harbour late on a summer evening is one of those places that is rewarding to visit. The working boats had all come in, Atlantic Chief, Excelsior and Prolific were rafted tight against the wall, hulls bobbing in calm waters. The setting sun cast long, side-on shadows and clouds streaked across the sky.

A heron perched on a boat in Kinsale harbour last year. Patient and watching.

Getting a shot like this is half luck and half persistence. You have to wait until the incoming tide is about to retreat to take the photo. This one was at Kilfarrasy Beach in Co. Waterford in 2017. Blarney Photography Club was visiting the area and this was on the itinerary for the the evening…

A single weather-beaten log, marooned on the foreshore. It was nudged back and forth by the waves coming in and out but in the moment this photo was taken, the sky was reflected in wet sand and the log was beached. Safe from the incoming waters.

This is a small section of O’Sullivan’s Cascade in Kerry. The lovely sound of the water falling through the rocks is soothing. The picturesque scene in front of me does the opposite as I worry about composition and, “Did I get a good photo of that?”

Cappagh Beach at half-six in the morning is colder than I’d planned for. We’d driven down to Kerry the night before and I was up in the dark, heading out the door and shared the journey from Dingle with Freddie at the wheel. I forgot my wellies, but while I cursed my lack of preparation,…

We were standing across from Cobh in the park on Haulbowline Island to photograph the fireworks display over Cobh on St. Patrick’s Day this year. With a camera on a tripod, timing a fireworks display is basically an exercise in optimistic guesswork. When I see the firework launch, I press the shutter button, hope a…