A recent photography workshop took me to Dublin Bay where we photographed the bright sunrise sky.

The morning's forecast was meant to be for good weather and it didn't disappoint, the pinks and oranges shine across the cloud-filled sky and reflect off the surface of the calm Irish Sea.

Setting up our tripods, we waited as the light changed from darkness through the blue hour, golden hour and into daylight - photographing all the while.

This is one of my favourite images of 2017 taken at Dublin's famous Forty Foot swimming spot.

To join me on a photography tour of Dublin and its bay contact me.

Fraoch mór is the Irish name for heather, Calluna vulgaris and it can be found over large parts of the Irish landscape.

It is also known as ling and it prefers acidic, boggy soils that cover the upland areas of Ireland. These are places that often, at first glance, appear barren with vast open tracts of treeless ground with only heath in view as far as the eye can see. But when the heather is flowering the uplands are filled with the sounds of bees busy collecting pollen. From April to August, before the pale purple colour bursts across the Irish countryside, ground nesting birds such as skylarks can be seen and heard hovering overhead.

Sometimes summer in Ireland is just not what you would expect. Well, perhaps it is what you might expect.

Usually our summers are filled with long days, sunshine and cloud with a good deal of rain but much blue sky - like this.

Summer 2017 has so far proved to be a good bit different with many grey days, lingering cloud and reduced sunshine. It has still been warm but all of this provides a challenge to the photographer.

After a day when the weather was supposed to have been better, the evening's stormy sky changed to bright golden sunshine at sunset.

But only for a brief moment or two.

This image is of that sunset light, the embedded post below is of the stormy sky just before sunset and after the day's rain had ceased.

That's how the Irish weather goes, it's difficult to say if the weather will be good or bad but there is always going to be something worthwhile for the photographer.

I always leave for the day with a plan for landscape photography, and adapt according to the weather and other factors.

To learn how to photograph in any conditions such as these or these contact me using the contact page.

Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way stretches for 2,500km along the country's Atlantic seaboard from Cork in the south to Donegal in the north.

Here is one small section of that coastline, in County Clare when on a photography workshop we stopped to photograph the delights of this county well known for traditional music, archaeology and Father Ted.

I call it 'Waves' and you can join me on a photography workshop in County Clare or anywhere along Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way.

A recent photography workshop saw us finish up for sunset at a famous Irish location but on the way we stopped here to capture this rural scene of green fields and sheep-dotted mountain ridges sidelighted by the low summer evening sun.

An old fence runs into deep waters from the shore.

I stopped here after a photography tour to capture this blue, wave-filled scene and used the fence to add interest into the image.

I found this old stone bridge recently, having photographed the valley in which it sits I climbed down off the road, slipping most of the way on the steep incline that was boggy and wet.

Thankfully the ground was soft.

As I mentioned in previous posts, this week saw me returning to Dingle in Ireland's southwest.

And I wasn't disappointed, neither of course was JM who joined me from the USA for one of my one-to-one photography workshops in Ireland.

I have been spending time photographing and leading photography workshops recently in Dingle, Ireland's most westerly peninsula in County Kerry.

Here is an image of the Atlantic, its waves crashing up over ancient rocks under a stormy sky.