One of the most prominent, and fantastic views in Waterford City is that from Merchant's Quay on the south side of the River Suir looking towards the lofty Ard Rí Hotel on the Airmount side of Waterford.

Opened in the 1960s the 160 bed former hotel was bought by Jurys in the 1990s who then sold it to the McEniff hotel chain who still own six hotels in Ireland.

In 2005 the hotel burned and it closed for good. Subsequent fires and vandalism followed before it became a canvas for one of the Waterford Walls projects which saw Joe Caslin create this large street art piece to at least give the impressive structure some dignity.

The site was bought in 2017 and has not been developed since despite plans to do so. This side of Waterford City, part of which lies in neighbouring County Kilkenny, is due to undergo a large scale transformation that will see a whole new section added to the city known as Waterford North Quays (SDZ).

Join Panoramic Ireland, that's me, for a photography tour in Waterford in 2023 and beyond.

Winter is a perfect time for photography in Ireland, there are stormy days and calm days like here in this image - days with bright golden sunshine.

The Mournes are one of my favourite places to photograph in Ireland, situated in County Down, about an hour south of Belfast; Slieve Donard, pictured here, reaches 850m above sea level and is the highest peak in the Irish province of Ulster.

The recent cold weather, icing over the roads and landscape of Ireland, has ended for now but winter is really only getting started.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, in the winter months when Ireland is much more quiet, to photograph in the Mourne Mountains of County Down, or the Giant's Causeway, Belfast or Dublin.

Beautiful golden light in the Mourne Mountains, County Down, as the recent cold weather comes to an end.

Ireland has in recent weeks seen days with low temperatures, as low as -9C - winter is well and truly here. 

But now, in a quick change, we have reached 11C - a change in some places of 12 degrees in 24 hours, 20 degrees in less than a week.

Major plans are afoot for Saint Stephen's Green, the shopping centre is due to be replaced and works are due to start soon for Metro North that will see a lot of major redevelopment.

In 2019, Davy Group bought the famous and unique Saint Stephen's Green Shopping Centre pictured above. They have submitted plans for complete redevelopment of the site which will add two floors in height, reduce the amount of retail space and add office space instead. 

As a consequence, the entire structure will be removed and replaced with something like this, below.

I wrote a few years ago about one of Ireland's most famous mariners, Admiral Brown, who was born in Foxford, County Mayo in 1777; pictured above is the statue in Dublin rather than Foxford.

It has been almost 10 years since my last visit to Foxford, another journey to this scenic part of Ireland is overdue.

Over many years, William Brown distinguished himself as a mariner and eventually rose to the rank of Admiral, having founding the Argentinian navy during its independence campaign from Spain in the early 19th century.

He is regarded as a national hero with almost every town in Argentina having a street named for Almirante Guillermo Brown as he was known in the country.

In recent years of course the interest in Argentine-Irish connections has received a boost, particularly with the current World Cup 2022 featuring Irish-Argentinian Alexis MacAllister.

Sometimes in Lightroom, just having a Smart Preview is enough.

Using Smart Previews saves having hard drives plugged in all the time, edits can still be made and images exported at a reduced size from the original.

But if you need to export the original file size for printing, for a client or even to make further edits using Photoshop or other software then you will need the original file.

It does happen that when you do some tidying in your hard drives, files and folders can get moved and Lightroom will see them as Missing.

In this case, my Q drive started to have troubles and I moved to using my second copy on a new drive.

There are, as always, a few ways to do anything in Adobe products.

Here, I have a Smart Preview and want to locate the original photo:

Tickets for Ireland's biggest music festival, Electric Picnic 2023, will go on sale this week on Friday 9th of December.

Some of the headline acts for EP23 have been announced and include Billie Eilish, Lewis Capaldi and Niall Horan.

Find more information on tickets here.

I have written about Dublin at Christmas before, the city is of course well known for its nightlife and vibrant culture but recently Dublin has made it on to the Conde Nast Traveller best cities for Christmas list.

And I would have to agree, there are plenty of bars, lots of great museums and sights to see.

Strangely though the authors did suggest that it is somehow typical here in Dublin to eat black pudding on a night out "There’s no better way to warm up on a cold Christmas night than with some black pudding and a few pints—"  and this very line has raised a few chuckles from many Irish people, because no one eats black pudding in this way.

Of course, when you are here why not take a Dublin Photography Tour with Panoramic Ireland, it's one of the best ways to see Dublin and is an activity that doesn't involve drinking.

Dublin's Custom House is no stranger to the pages of Panoramic Ireland, the iconic structure was finished in 1791 and has been probably Dublin's most recognisable building ever since.

Architect James Gandon designed and oversaw the construction of the Custom House, literally the place where taxes or customs were paid on good coming in to and out of Dublin.

Built with Portland stone, a fine white limestone from the south of England, the Custom House exuded a strong sense of authority over the merchants in Dublin yet the location was obsolete by the time it was finished as the main port operations had moved much further downstream to accommodate larger ships of the late 18th and early 19th century.

The Custom House is seen here with half reflections on a calm River Liffey affected by a little wind.

Panoramic Ireland's Dublin Photo Tours are the original in Ireland and run all year round - learn how to improve your photography with a private experience from an Irish photographer who has worked for the biggest names in the travel and publishing world.

Sunset on Saint Patrick's Cathedral, one of Dublin's most famous buildings.

Founded on the site of Saint Patrick's conversion of a local pagan to Christianity in the 5th century, the first reference to the site dates from the 9th century but it is 1212AD before the church becomes a cathedral.

The original tower was destroyed and rebuilt in 1370, the spire as seen here pointing skywards was added much later.

Interestingly there was a university founded here at Saint Patrick's in 1320 that, had it still been in existence, would be the 10th oldest university in the world.

Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph Irish, and Dublin, scenes.

Photography workshops and tours available all year round, throughout Ireland.