-
May is the Month for Bluebells, Bealtaine Festival - Arts and Creativity
Written by Darren McLoughlinInternational travel photographer and Irishman in search of the best bits of Ireland. Leading photography tours and experiences in Ireland.
Contributor to New York Times / Sunday Times / Irish Times
Cancer survivor.
Ask me about Ireland or about photography in Ireland.
May is in my opinion the best month of the year in Ireland with fresh growth on trees and hedgerows, flowers in bloom including bluebells carpeting woodlands and hillsides all over Ireland just like in the image here.
May is also the month of the Bealtaine Festival, celebrating arts and creativity for older people, a program of thousands of events throughout Ireland for older people to engage with arts and crafts through learning and teaching.
This festival takes its name from the ancient Irish festival of Bealtaine, held at the start of May and which marked the start of summer in Ireland.
Running since 1996 it was indeed the first such festival in the world; previous years have seen the likes of Colm Tóibín talking about his novels and other works.
-
West of Ireland Panorama - Sidelighting, Sunshine and Shadow in the Mountains
Written by Darren McLoughlinInternational travel photographer and Irishman in search of the best bits of Ireland. Leading photography tours and experiences in Ireland.
Contributor to New York Times / Sunday Times / Irish Times
Cancer survivor.
Ask me about Ireland or about photography in Ireland.
Sidelighting, sunshine and shadow in the mountains from this week's visit to the wild landscapes of the West of Ireland.
We have had very fine weather this week in Ireland, with Sunday being the hottest day of 2023 so far.
I headed through the wide open spaces of Connemara to meet ES and JS who had arrived from the US, we met on location for an early morning photography workshop on photographing panoramic images.
And where better to photograph panoramas than here in the wide, wild west.
Both ES and JS are keen photographers although neither had made panoramas before. So for the morning here we made panorama after panorama.
First off the warm morning sidelighting and shadows on craggy mountains.
To learn how to photograph panoramas using your current camera including how to choose a location, camera settings and post-processing using multiple software contact me here at Panoramic Ireland.
-
Nenagh Castle, County Tipperary (Free to Visit)
Written by Darren McLoughlinInternational travel photographer and Irishman in search of the best bits of Ireland. Leading photography tours and experiences in Ireland.
Contributor to New York Times / Sunday Times / Irish Times
Cancer survivor.
Ask me about Ireland or about photography in Ireland.
A recent journey took me to north Tipperary and the town of Nenagh.
It's a fine, large town, though not the largest in Tipperary, that accolade goes to Clonmel in the south of the county.
Nenagh has a distinctive castle, or at least a tower - remains of the much larger original built around the year 1200 by the local Theobald FitzWalter, Baron Butler, whose descendents would become the Earls of Ormond and was constructed of limestone rubble.
It is tall, at around 25 metres, with additions built in the 1860s - the crenellations at the top.
Seen here on a bright spring day in this panorama with some of the walls of the original castle.
I discovered that Nenagh Castle is free to visit, and while visiting the town's tourist office I was informed that the local library, as well as the other libraries in Tipperary, also host free events and exhibitions throughout the year.
So I went for a coffee at the nearby Steeples cafe then headed to the library.
Irish jeweller and designer / maker Christina Keogh has an exhibition on in the library of beautiful silversmithing, gold and gemstones as well as traditional goldsmithing tools and will give a talk on Tuesday 18th of April in Nenagh Library.
-
Sidelighting in Wicklow, Mountain Landscape Photography in Ireland
Written by Darren McLoughlinInternational travel photographer and Irishman in search of the best bits of Ireland. Leading photography tours and experiences in Ireland.
Contributor to New York Times / Sunday Times / Irish Times
Cancer survivor.
Ask me about Ireland or about photography in Ireland.
Sidelighting in Ireland's Wicklow Mountains.
The scenic wilderness of the Wicklow mountain landscape is quite unlike anywhere else in Ireland, especially when combined with unusual cloud and weather patterns.
Here, sidelighting from late evening sunshine breaks through high cloud and illuminates the remote valleys.
2023 is a good year to visit Ireland, join Panoramic Ireland to photograph in Wicklow as well as Connemara, Dingle and Antrim's Giant's Causeway.
-
Roll Out the Red Carpet, Red Sticks Glowing in Dublin's Docklands at Grand Canal Square
Written by Darren McLoughlinInternational travel photographer and Irishman in search of the best bits of Ireland. Leading photography tours and experiences in Ireland.
Contributor to New York Times / Sunday Times / Irish Times
Cancer survivor.
Ask me about Ireland or about photography in Ireland.
Dublin's Docklands underwent significant, almost complete redevelopment in the 2000s with the biggest names in the tech industry still building and locating in the area today.
Here in Grand Canal Square the public realm was designed by landscape architect Martha Schwartz and the choice of red paving blocks and these tall red glow sticks were designed deliberately to give a red carpet effect coming from Daniel Libeskind's 2,000-seater theatre.
On the right is the distinctive chequered pattern of the Anantara The Marker Hotel.
This is now a good-looking part of the city and the redevelopment has brought a lot of life into the area that was run down for many decades at the end of the 20th century.
Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph in Dublin at night on our award-winning photography tours and workshops.
antrim
architecture
autumn
coast
dublin
galway
green
ireland
landscape
landscape photography
mountains
nature
northern ireland
panoramic ireland
photography
photography workshop
photography workshops
photo tour
photo tours
scenery
seascape
snow
sunset
travel
weather
west of ireland
Wicklow
wild atlantic way
winter
woodland