The year 2024 has certainly blessed us with plenty of opportunity to photograph the Northern Lights or aurora borealis here in Ireland.

Last night's amazing display coincided with my visit to a calm west of Ireland lake, photographing throughout the evening in different directions to make the most of the ever-changing celestial light show that is the aurora.

I wasn't in one of the dark sky locations, so I did have some light pollution at times, but the peacefulness of photographing the natural dance of colours across the sky with reflections recorded below.

Now, we can't predict the aurora very well here in Ireland but a typical photography workshop with me here at Panoramic Ireland can see you photographing such scenes.

To find out more, send me a message.

The much-maligned herring gull, Larus argentatus which is known in Irish as Faoileán scadán, seen here soaring and gliding above stormy waves on the Atlantic off the north coast of Ireland.

Seagulls in general may be associated with loud, aggressive food stealing behaviour but herring gulls are currently on the UK's Red List for endangered species.

In Northern Ireland, herring gulls experienced a population increase during the 1950s-1970s, in the Seabird Colony Register census from 1985-1988 there were 17,561 pairs of herring gulls in NI while in a follow-up survey, the Seabird 2000 census, only 722 pairs were recorded.

Ireland has lost large numbers of herring gulls in recent decades and it would seem that the western coasts of Ireland and Scotland have seen the largest declines in herring gull numbers in recent decades.

September 2024 - Another Adobe update and yet again another problem with the connectivity between Adobe Lightroom Classic and Photoshop 2024.

You might have had the pop-up warning dialog which reads "Photoshop Version Open Warning: Lightroom Classic and Adobe Photoshop 2024 are having issues connecting. Please reinstall Adobe Photoshop 2024 and try again."

This bug has affected me as well so you're not alone. I was trying to edit this image of Ireland's Cliffs of Moher in Photoshop after having made some Lightroom edits but I ran into the problem.

Here are the steps for a temporary fix for the moment:

1.  Go to Edit > Preferences

2.  Under Edit in Adobe Photoshop 2024 click Photoshop version: 

3.  Choose Adobe Photoshop (Beta)

4.  Then click OK at the bottom to make the changes.

CTRL+E or right click > Edit In > Edit in Adobe Photoshop 2024... should now work and allow you to edit your images in Photoshop (Beta)

This should work for now, the Beta version of Photoshop will work fine for all your editing and this workaround saves you having to uninstall and reinstall Photoshop 2024.

Given the level of complaints about this one I think there will be a fix along at some point but if not then it might be necessary to do an uninstall and reinstall.

Today, September 22nd 2024, marks the autumn equinox as the Sun passes Earth's equator at 13:44.

The equinox marks the point of equal night and day throughout the world although at certain latitudes, such as in Ireland, this won't happen for a few more days.

But it's fair to say that it's as close to the point of shorter days than nights in the northern hemisphere and lengthening in the southern hempisphere that we have, especially as the Sun is rising due east and setting due west.

The equilux is the actual point of equal day and night in any location and as mentioned it occurs a few days after the autumn equinox, in spring it occurs a few days before the spring equinox.

Hours of daylight will shorten until the winter solstice and then we will and lengthening again.

In the meantime, expect images of the colour that autumn brings to the Irish countryside.

Why not join me in September, October, November and beyond to photograph Irish landscapes.

A calm evening close to sunset with cloud obscuring the best of the western sky over the edge of Ireland.

Yet it's still a scenic view as a few breaks in the cloud allows the orange-red sun rays through to briefly illuminate the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

Panoramic Ireland's photography tours and workshops are running all through autumn, winter and into 2025 here on the west of Ireland Atlantic or in the urban streets of Dublin, Belfast, Cork and more.

It has been a late night here at Panoramic Ireland HQ (a field on the edge of Ireland) as the full moon, supermoon, harvest moon combo was partially eclipsed by Earth's shadow at 03:44 this morning.

Still processing images in the quiet of the cold night but here is the first from this fine celestial event, that saw clear skies across much of Ireland.

A small portion of the top of the Moon was cast into shadow as it moved partly into Earth's shadow.

There will be a total lunar eclipse visible from Ireland in March 2025.

Why not join me then, or between now and then for some astrophotography adventures in Ireland.

For the second time in five years, the famous shipyard that built RMS Titanic, Harland & Wolff is to enter administration. That means for now, the famous yellow cranes that are visible from all over Belfast may cease operations although they still intend to trade.

At its peak the shipyard employed 35,000 and during the Second World War, Harland and Wolff built more ships than any other shipyard. Now with an existing order for three Royal Navy warships, it seems likely that a buyer will be found soon enough.

Its two famous cranes, Samson and Goliath, built by German industrial powerhouse Krupp, were installed in 1974 and 1969 respectively. Goliath is the older and smaller of the two, standing at 96 metres, with Samson measuring 10% higher at 106 metres, their yellow paint and iconic H&W lettering dominate the Belfast skyline. Both cranes have a span of 140 metres and they run on tracks, able to move further apart or closer together along the 556 metres of dry dock. Lifting a combined load of 1,700 tonnes and the length of the dry dock makes this shipyard one of the most accommodating in the world.

In the image above, Samson is seen on the left and Goliath on the right, indeed same for the image below where you can see the height differential in the two structures.

Interestingly, Krupp were the largest European company at the start of the 20th century.

Of course, Harland and Wolff is most famous for one ship, Titanic, which left Belfast Lough on the 2nd of April 1912 before beginning its maiden, and sadly its only, voyage from Southampton, Cherbourg and Cobh.

This part of Belfast, Titanic Quarter is home to a fine museum to the most famous ship of the 20th century - https://panoramicireland.com/blog-ireland-guide/belfasts-titanic-quarter-shining-example-of-regeneration

Who knows what the future holds for Belfast's Harland and Wolff, but even if the cranes are quiet for now they will remain an essential and unavoidable focal point in the industrial city's skyline.

It's now mid-September and we are of course past the end of summer in Ireland. 

Here, a scene from a summer journey along one of Ireland's least visited counties, County Cavan, home to scenic roads like this. 

I couldn't travel fast on this road (why would anyone want to?) but it made the journey to my destination much more interesting and enjoyable.

And my journey was indeed slow, not just because of the road but also the need to stop frequently to photograph.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph in places like this throughout Ireland.

Red Sails in the Sunset, the famous song penned by Irishman Jimmy Kennedy in 1935 has been recorded by dozens of artists in its 89-year history including Bing Crosby, Vera Lynn, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington, Earl Grant, Fats Domino, Connie Francis, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Frank Patterson, Engelbert Humperdinck and most recently by Van Morrison. 

That's an impressive list of musicians, and to top it off even The Beatles covered Red Sails in the Sunset.

Kennedy came from County Tyrone but lived for some time in Portstewart, County Derry and there he is said to have watched a ship with red sails called Kitty of Coleraine, itself named after an old song by Edward Lysaght, composed in the 18th century. There was also a steamship with the same name that made journeys from Coleraine upstream on the River Bann to Toome on the edge of Lough Neagh but this was not a vessel with sails. Interestingly, Bing Crosby also performed Kitty of Coleraine on film in 1949's Top O' the Morning.

The lyrics go:

Red sails in the sunset way out on the sea

Oh, carry my loved one home safely to me

He sailed at the dawning, all day I've been blue

Red sails in the sunset, I'm trusting in you

Swift wings you must borrow, make straight for the shore

We marry tomorrow and he goes sailing no more

Red sails in the sunset way out on the sea

Oh, carry my loved one home safely to me

Swift wings you must borrow, make straight for the shore

We marry tomorrow and he goes sailing no more

Red sails in the sunset way out on the sea

Oh, carry my loved one home safely to me

But Kennedy didn't just write this one well-known song, he also penned The Isle of Capri covered by Gracie Fields, Frank Sinatra, Frankie Laine, Fats Domino and Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney; South of the Border first recorded by Gene Autry and later covered by Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Patsy Cline, Mel Tormé, The Shadows, Dean Martin, Fats Domino, Herb Alpert, Bing Crosby (lol), Chuck Berry, Willie Nelson and Chris Isaak; Istanbul (Not Constantinople) covered by Frankie Vaughan, Bing Crosby (as if you had to ask), Bette Midler and perhaps most famously by They Might Be Giants; Teddy Bears' Picnic covered by, you guessed it, Bing Crosby again and so many others; and that Hokey Cokey (widely disputed), please don't!

Of course there are many that I haven't mentioned, including Harbour Lights, first recorded by Frances Langford and later covered by Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Engelbert Humperdinck, Willie Nelson and Vera Lynn. What, no Bing Crosby for this one? Of course, Bing Crosby recorded Harbour Lights in 1950 reaching #10 on Billboard.

Jimmy Kennedy certainly has an impressive catalogue. Here, in this post are some images inspired by his songs.

There are some red sails from Ireland and Scotland, the Isle of Capri and lovely Harbour Lights from County Down.

Morning sunlight somewhere behind the clouds in the west of Ireland. Before the heat of the day, low cloud and fog sit in the valley in front of the heather-clad mountains.

Photography in Ireland is always a mystery, the weather forecast may say good weather or bad weather but the day, and a journey through the countryside, often reveals a difference.

I'm rarely disappointed though. 

Here, on a photography workshop in the west, JK from Virginia in the USA wanted to spend time photographing typical (but not boring) Irish scenes so we headed for somewhere that I knew would have good visuals like this for the first location.

Thick cloud blanketed the rest of the landscape but here we had a view beyond, to the mountains and, in the foreground, sheep dotting the hillside.

A good start to the day despite a negative weather forecast.

From here we headed on to photograph coastal scenes as the low cloud lifted from the western countryside.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph - improve your photography, in the west of Ireland, in Dublin or somewhere else in the Irish countryside throughout 2024 and 2025.