The Blue Hour is a classic time of day for landscape photographers to photograph. There are in fact two blue hours and both don't necessarily last for an hour.

The first blue hour precedes sunrise and the second of the day comes after sunset; wrapped inside the day there is also the golden hour that we will talk about separately.

During the evening blue hour - light is fading, the sun has set and we lose the direct brightness from our light-giving star.

Red light passes through Earth's atmosphere and further into space, while blue light with its shorter wavelength gets trapped and scattered, and bounces around to create a blue coloured period we call the Blue Hour.

There are many elements that go into creating an image.

There's the old favourites such as composition, shutter speed, aperture and so on. Then there's location; but often patience is the key element required in photography, particularly landscape or seascape photography such as in the image seen above.

Here a scene from a coastal landscape photography workshop on Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way in Dingle, County Kerry. This is Star Wars filming territory and on this occasion we spent quite some time waiting for the rain to pass us by and when it did, we were greeted with this scene looking across the Atlantic towards neighbouring Iveragh.

Stunning and worth the wait I'm sure you'll agree.

I often get asked in advance of photography tours and workshops "What will we do if it rains, do you have a contingency?", well yes we will usually photograph something majestic, because it is in the stormy mixed weather conditions we often get in Ireland that we see the most atmospheric light. The ephemeral rays of sunshine lighting up a portion of the scene in the distance, a bright sky that tells of the drama that has passed or is about to pass.

We can't always promise great weather but always a great time photographing the landscapes and street scenes of Ireland.

The essence of travel photography, in Ireland. Patience required, fun guaranteed and you're going to learn a lot!

Send me an email if this sounds like an experience you would like to enjoy.

For more information on Panoramic Ireland's (that's me) photography tours and workshops in Dingle click here and for more of our Dublin tours click here. Suitable all year round - spring, summer, autumn and winter.

The Antrim Coast is a rugged, beautifully scenic place with the wild Atlantic pounding at its shoreline and islands constantly.

Here Sheep Island, a tiny island of basalt rocks sits close in front of the much larger Rathlin Island composed of basalt overlying chalk - evident in the cliffs as seen in the distance.

I was leading a photography workshop on this coastline, a part of Ireland I know very very well, for more information see here.

It was a windy day but still with blue sky and plenty of clouds as we considered that we were lucky to be on land rather than on the high seas, tripods shaking with the wind it was a time to shelter and photograph handheld.

Beautiful, don't you think?

Another of my favourite images from 2017 came again from Ireland's midland region just like this one here.

Again, after a long day of photographing landscapes we found ourselves in not an ideal position for photographing the sunset, not being the chief objective of our photography workshop.

Here we found this lane that seemed to invite us across its water-filled potholes towards the colour of the evening's setting sun.

The wind was blowing, the usual, bright orange colour filled the horizon and above the blue hour was beginning to start.

This was one of my favourite unexpected scenes of the year.

It is very representative of Ireland, not the famous scenes from our beautiful coastline but the hidden Ireland that I like to find for you on my photography workshops and tours.

To join me on a personalised tour in Ireland, to find scenes like these, contact me using the main menu or use the email address at the top of the page.

This was at the end of a long day's photography workshop covering woodlands and waterfalls, Panoramic Ireland (that's me by the way) run photography workshops and tours for all levels in Ireland from Cork to Galway to Belfast to Dublin.

We were in Ireland's midlands for the best part of the session and sunset wasn't high on our priorities for the day but we happened on this scene and found that post-sunset cloud glow to be very photogenic with this pastoral scene of green fields and cows.

To join me on a photography workshop in Ireland for sunset photography, street photography or architectural photography and everything else as well use the contact page on the main menu above. Send me an email with whatever locations you are interested in and dates when you will be in Ireland.

In the meantime, enjoy this sunset scene, it's relaxing don't you think?

Another of my favourite workshops from 2017 was this one from County Kerry, here we have the bright summer sun shining over County Kerry's famous Dingle Peninsula - probably the most popular non-Dublin destination in Ireland.

In the distance the mountains of Kerry can be seen, the highest amongst these are the Macgillycuddy's Reeks with Ireland's highest mountain Carrauntuohill. On the right of the image the Atlantic Ocean sitting between the Iveragh and Dingle peninsulae.

Panoramic Ireland, that's me by the way, run photo tours and workshops throughout Ireland from the scenic landscapes of Dingle as seen here to the urban streets of Dublin and Belfast. For more on my Dingle photography workshops in 2018 see this link or contact me through the menu above.

As I write this the clock is about to turn past midnight and into Monday 25th December 2017, Christmas Day.

I have been working hard on many projects this year, currently on my best of images - my personal favourites from the past twelve months.

Here is one of my favourites, a setting sun lowering through the sky over Northern Ireland - rays shining across the green countryside and high into the bright blue sky.

Your support throughout this year, and previous years has made all of this possible and I look forward to continuing into 2018, chatting on social media, via emails and indeed meeting you on tours here in Ireland.

To book a photo tour, one-to-one photographic advice and mentoring session from anywhere in the world or to buy one of my prints please use the contact form in the top menu.

It's hard at times to get a good location for sunset photography on the east coast of Ireland.

The further north and south out of Dublin that you go there become possibilities but Dublin south to Wicklow affords no opportunity to photograph sunset from the coast.

This is, however, overlooking the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains with the Irish Sea in the foreground.

Along with a series of images that I took in January of this year, 2017 this is one of my favourites and makes it into my "best of 2017".

Hazy light partially obscures the mountains, notable among them the outline of one of Ireland's most famous, Wicklow's Sugarloaf while sunlight shoots across the cloud-filled blue sky.

It's a beauty, don't you think?

I'm currently working on my favourite images from the year 2017. This year has seen a lot of variety in my photographic subjects, from images of fine dining to music festivals, landscapes and animals. A little of everything that makes Ireland what it is.

This image is from January, the opposite end of the year from now - December, yet it looks like it could be from high summer.

These interesting ferns, seen here growing from a wall, are very common in Ireland and often grow in limestone rich rocks. Underneath, a carpet of mosses add a real soft feel to the hard man-made wall that divides private from public property; nature as we know respects little that humans put in its way.

We're now rightly through December and on our way to the end of 2017.

At the start of the year I posted about my last foray of 2016 along laneways in rural Ireland here.

At the end of autumn, just a few weeks ago I was exploring another lane, this time in Northern Ireland.

The resulting images are both very different but both convey the same idea - what lies ahead on the journey.

The differences for me between the black and white last lane of 2016 and this, last lane of autumn are massive. My journey has taken me to three commissions by the biggest name in world publishing - The New York Times, working on travel articles as a photographer.

I have of course worked for many other famous names in travel including Easyjet, Ritz-Carlton and Ireland's Irish Times and the UK's Sunday Times.

Continue with me on my journey in 2018 as I explore more of Ireland, follow me on social media or sign up for my newsletter.

Send me an email if you have any questions and I look forward to seeing some of you on one of my photography tours and workshops in Ireland.

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