It's a busy time for Panoramic Ireland at the moment, the long summer days see me busy leading photography tours and workshops in Ireland.

I have also been photographing a lot of music concerts, but on a rare quiet evening after photographing for a client I made my way to one of my favourite places to photograph.

Here, stone circles and alignments sit amongst long grass and wildflowers as the June evening sun begins to set.

It was a fine evening, alone in the countryside with only birds and the sound of the wind to disturb the silence.

Although we are close to midsummer, there are still plenty of fine summer evenings like these to photograph in Ireland for 2022. 

Join me to photograph in places like this or in urban Dublin, Belfast, Cork.

For availability check out the booking pages on the site or send me an email with your dates, places and interests.

A recent visit to the coast brought me to a seabird sanctuary where I photographed many types of wild birds including puffins, razorbills, fulmars and guillemots.

This image, and the others below, made me think of the famous Black Sabbath song War Pigs with its lyrics changed to "Guillemots gathered in their masses, just like witches at black masses..."

Guillemots breed on land between May and September in Ireland, laying eggs directly on to rock - no grassy ledge or built nest.

Recent weeks have seen me photographing nightlife rather than wildlife at many concerts in Dublin and Belfast, including Whitesnake, Queen and Bryan Adams.

Don't forget that Panoramic Ireland's photo tours are running every day, in Dublin and around the coast. Join me to photograph seabirds, landscapes and streetscapes.

A recent visit to the Antrim Coast, one of the finest sections of coast in the world, saw me heading off to Rathlin Island pictured to the left in this image.

A quiet evening with a little cloud, and unusually for the Antrim Coast, little wind, saw some colour and movement in the scene as golden hour gave way to blue hour.

There was little to stop me from staying here photographing this scene for the night except for an early start the following morning.

An hour or so of changing conditions and changing my viewpoint up and down this short stretch of coastline allowed me to photograph a specific image. then to bed and ready for the next morning.

Visiting Ireland? Join me to photograph on the Antrim Coast, in Dublin or in Connemara during 2023.

I have read a few articles recently, and many over the years, that in part mention how gloomy the weather is in Ireland, how you shouldn't move or holiday here because of the weather. Well, here is a fine April day of 17C to 19C temperatures on Rathlin Island off the Antrim Coast.

Pictured here is the East lighthouse, one of the island's three lighthouses, and in the background is the headland known as the Mull of Kintyre, just 10 miles beyond.

A warm and still day on one of Ireland's largest offshore islands, in April the heat haze is evident as seen below.

Join me, to photograph in Ireland throughout the year not just in hot and sunny weather but dark and gloomy weather too.

The fulmar Fulmarus glacialis is not a native bird to Ireland, although it is now resident here all year round having first been recorded on the island in 1911.

It is similar in size to a seagull but is a member of the tubenose family or procellariids, more commonly known as petrels.

It spends much time gliding, as it was when I photographed it here, using little energy to ascend and descend then flying low over the surface of the ocean - a common trait of petrels. Indeed the fulmar is related to albatrosses.

Each year the fulmar will return to the same ledge on the same cliff and will often mate for life. It lives for over 40 years and is a pelagic feeder of any type of fish.

The upper feathers are grey with brown feathers often visible, though most guides fail to mention these they are very evident in the image above. Undersides are white and the fulmar has a distinctive blue portion of the nose.

The fulmar is one of Ireland's fascinating seabirds, fantastic when seen in flight.

The Giant's Causeway needs no introduction here on Panoramic Ireland, it's a favourite place to photograph.

Here a quiet moment in spring looking up towards the headland along the basalt columns in contrast to the images below that show the columns and the dramatic, crashing waves of the North Atlantic.

Throughout 2022 I will be returning here to one of my favourite places to photograph, at the Giant's Causeway, many times.

The weather has been marvellous over the past week in Ireland, although some cold air has arrived to bring frost but at least no snow.

Here, on a journey through one of Ireland's most scenic counties - Tipperary, I drove along the scenic road to a famous viewpoint known as The Vee to photograph the view of the Galty or Galtee Mountains.

The Galty Mountains reach a height of 917.9m and are Ireland's highest inland mountain range, most of the country's highest peaks are much closer to the coast.

Panoramic Ireland is working on a project featuring the area, if you want to see more of this region of Ireland send me an email.

Little bunches of daffodils in a stone wall field in the west of Ireland.

Each bunch looks about the right size to make a perfect gift of flowers, ready to cut straight from the field. Daffodils are so colourful at this time of year.

Just out of sight some sheep grazed in the corner of the stone walls, keeping the spring green grass low amongst the daffodils. It makes a contrast to this image of a field full of daffodils.

At the end of March every year, 25th of March this year - 2022, sees the Irish Cancer Society's Daffodil Day where they raise significant amounts of money for their services, find out more about the Irish Cancer Society here.

Perhaps the sheep have a side line as florists, selling to passing motorists.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph the famous scenes in Ireland and the not so famous places like this field of daffodils.

Sunset in the west of Ireland, the spring equinox occurred today March 20th, this sees the sun pass the equator and means that all places on earth effectively receive the same amount of night.

In Ireland, the days started to become longer than night on the 18th of March, a few days ago - this is known as the Equilux.

Here, a few moments before sunset on the equinox the bright and colourful sun edges towards the horizon to mark the official start of spring, even though meteorologically spring begins on the 1st of March and in Ireland, traditionally it begins on the 1st of February or Imbolc which is also Saint Brigid's Day.

At the moment daylight length is increasing by over 4 minutes per day, every day in Dublin although that rate of increase will begin to slow all the way to June 21st when the days will shorten again.

Of course, in Ireland seasons are not fixed and there is quite an overlap between winter and spring, we can still see snow and hailstones in April and heatwaves in February and March - one of which is predicted for the coming week.

March 2022 has seen many changes in Ireland, there are now no public health measures in place in order to mitigate against COVID-19.

This has allowed people to attend large sporting events, music concerts and to travel through Ireland with no forms to fill in - the useless Passenger Locator Form is gone, unfortunately the mask-mandate has gone too meaning that it is up to the individual as to wear a mask or not in indoor settings.

And to complicate things further PCR tests are now virtually impossible to get unless you pay a private provider meaning that positive case numbers are largely underreported. Combining the over-the-counter lateral flow or rapid antigen tests with PCR tests, reported positive tests are three times more now than at the start of the month.

Austria is about to reintroduce mask-wearing requirements as positive numbers increase rapidly there, the Scottish Government have kept their requirements in place until at least April 4th and other European countries such as Italy (until May1st) still require FFP2 masks in public indoor and transport settings.

In Ireland, unfortunately, the Irish Government have decided to leave the decision to the individual, which means virtually no-one wearing a mask in public settings.

This increase in cases, of people not taking basic precautions has led to the rather embarrassing spectacle of the Taoiseach being quarantined on Saint Patrick's Day in Washington DC, indeed he will be stuck there until the end of March.

As of yet, Ireland has not seen increases in intensive care hospitalisations but those do tend to lag.

Ireland is still a safe place to visit and with plenty of open spaces in the countryside there is an easy escape from the crowds.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph in Ireland.