No landscape photographer's spring catalogue would be complete without images of bluebells hyacinthoides non-scripta carpeting a woodland floor.

Here on our photography workshop that also dealt with photographing in inclement weather, as we photographed streams and forests so too did we concentrate on the colour in front of us.

While they didn't carpet every square inch of the beech woodland floor, they still looked incredible at the end of May amongst the lush green grass and ferns of the Irish countryside. And that path, encouraging us further into the woods.

Today I headed into the mountains, the day started cold and grey with a lot of driven rain.

Perhaps not the best choice to be high on the mountain tops in Ireland in wet and windy weather so I went instead to a sheltered woodland to photograph streams and flowers - where the bluebells are still in fine colour.

Here I gave full attention to the small stream, cascading through the woodland but with little flow there wasn't a lot to capture that impressed.

Silhouettes often make a useful tool in photography, strong lines breaking the horizon or the shape of a majestic tree outlined against the colour of an evening sky.

Silhouettes serve to show off the sky, the photographer exposing for the highlights rather than the shadows to allow the shapes of the subject to come into its own.

The blue hour and golden hour that both occur every morning and evening are rightly considered by landscape photographers to be the best times of day to capture scenic landscapes.

Lasting for a short time either side of sunrise and sunset the ephemeral light is soft and colourful, sympathetic to the natural landscapes.

As the sun sets on another day, after photographing some of Ireland's fine landscapes and scenes we turned our attention to the setting sun and these trees and buildings silhouetted against the bright blue sky.

Since I have been recovering from cancer this year, I haven't made as many forays into the countryside as usual.

Still, there have been exceptions such as this colourful foray into the Tipperary countryside and this rainy day adventure to a lime kiln.

Belfast's River Lagan cuts a snaking path through the edge of the city, the true city centre situated a little to the west over the now covered Farset river from which Belfast gets its name.

Béal Feirste is the Irish name for the second largest city on the island of Ireland, meaning Mouth of the (River) Farset.

A scene from the west of Ireland as storm clouds roll in.

Ireland's weather is variable, the country is influenced by westerly winds from the Atlantic predominantly but is also subject to Arctic and Siberian influences.

I do enjoy visiting the famous places in Ireland, there's Kilkenny, Dingle, Dublin and the Giant's Causeway to name a few.

But I also enjoy leading photography workshops in the non-famous places here in Ireland - those places that make up the bulk of the Irish countryside such as here in the above image of a typical woodland scene in spring.

Ireland is full of ruins, it's also full of church ruins.

Many of the ruins are scenic in their broken state, centuries of tumble down action, ivy growth and fine locations but few are more scenic than the ruins of Dunlewey in County Donegal.