The Tide Pulls Away at Kilfarrasy
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…
Soft Water, Hard Rock
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?”
Youghal’s Wooden Sentinels
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.
Red Hills and Yellow Flowers
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…
Silk and Stone: A Long Exposure at Santa Cruz
I scrambled out onto the rocks at Santa Cruz in Portugal taking photos of various views and then climbed up to a rock platform where I was greeted with this view in front of me. I had an ND filter, but no proper tripod, only a small “plate tripod” that just about did its job…
A Quiet Evening in Kinsale
Even on a calm evening when I took this photo, a moored boat moves about if given enough time. This long exposure shows the slight movements that show the water isn’t quite as still. There’s no wind to speak of, the surface looks like polished slate, and yet the boat is nodding away to itself,…
First Light at Cappagh
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,…
Where the Dingle Coast Meets the Swell
Clogher Beach in early March is not what you’d call hospitable. This little cove on the Dingle Peninsula opens straight onto the Atlantic, and the swell hits the slate head-on; the spray goes up twice as high as the wave itself. I was there with Blarney Photography Club, all of us strung out along the…
Gold on the Mountain at Gougane Barra
The cloud had been sitting on the mountains all morning like a hat pulled down over its eyes, and then for about fifteen minutes the sun broke through low and side-on and set the entire rock face above Gougane Barra on fire. The golds and ambers were almost absurd. It was the kind of light…
The Lone Boat at O’Sullivan’s Cascade
There was a single boat on our little corner of the Lakes of Killarney. I’d walked down from O’Sullivan’s Cascade to join other photographers from Blarney Photography Club. They were busy photographing the same scene you see here and everything around them. We were enjoying the afternoon sunlight on a calm October day last year.
When the Atlantic Catches Fire
The cold at Cappagh Beach the morning I made this photo was the sort that makes you question every life choice that led you to a dark car park before dawn. The sunrise wasn’t that great but shortly before we left, the sun cracked through a gap in the cloud and turned the entire Atlantic…