Standing atop steep cliffs high above the Atlantic Ocean, I watched the power of the incoming swell as it met subsurface changes.

A fairly calm ocean on a warm, late spring day yet this power came from almost nowhere.

It looks small just like a small crashing wave but, for scale, a guillemot flying low over the surging white water helps to illustrate the magnitude of just this one tiny part of the Atlantic.

Sunsets are a strange thing, amazing to watch and enjoy yet many feel that they are not worthy of a place in landscape photography.

It's an interesting idea, the concept of not photographing one of the most spectacular, and common, natural events that you can witness.

Never the same twice, the sunset can give us plenty to think about as photographers of landscapes, as artists and as travellers in a foreign land and opportunities to work on photographic and artistic skills.

Ardmore Cathedral on a fine sunny winter's day, Ireland.

Ardmore Cathedral is one of Ireland's oldest Christian settlements having been founded in the 5th century by the pre-Patrician Saint Declan. In other words, this was a religious settlement before the arrival of Ireland's most famous Christian figure Saint Patrick.

Situated on a height overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in County Waterford in Ireland's southeast, Ardmore has an amazing collection of ancient monuments including the 12th century 30m high round tower and carvings in the cathedral wall as seen on this image from a bright winter's day in Ireland. The Romanesque carvings as seen here are quite unusual in Ireland.

Read more about Irish round towers here.

I moved on to photograph the coast, Ireland is perfect for landscape photography in the winter.

So if you are looking for something to do in Ireland in winter join Panoramic Ireland, that's me, on a photography tour in Ireland to learn how to photograph places like Saint Declan's monastery here at Ardmore.

The sea stack of Dun Briste on County Mayo's north coast is one of the most spectacular scenes on a spectacular coastline stretching over 2,500km along Ireland's Atlantic seaboard.

Dun Briste or Dún Briste meaning Broken Fort in Irish refers to this small but impressive vertical island on the edge of the Atlantic. In this image, layers of rocks on the stacks exposed sides hint at a sedimentary geological origin.

A Stormy Atlantic Ocean, February 2014, Connemara, Ireland

Another day on the Wild Atlantic Way of Ireland's west coast, this time the day happens to be one of the stormiest in living memory in Ireland. With a tornado in Athleague, Co. Roscommon, almost 200,000 homes without power, 160km/h winds and trees falling on vehicles all over Ireland it was certainly an eventful day for some.

Croagh Patrick, Cruach Phádraig is Ireland's Holy Mountain and like many mountains in Ireland it is busy in summer with climbers.

However, Croagh Patrick is a mountain with a difference, home to a major pilgrimage every year on the last Sunday of July. I've partaken in this pilgrimage in July on many occasions and also throughout the year; but what better way to climb a mountain 764m high, than on a day, known locally as Reek Sunday, when up to 20,000 others are climbing it. There is a sense of camaraderie and the views can be stupendous. 

Connemara

Researching locations for a photography workshop can be very rewarding, especially if the location is in the west of Ireland. Here in Connemara there is notonly a land of bog, mountain and sky but also a land of machair, ponies, and the sea, or, in this case, the Atlantic Ocean.

Connemara or Conamara

The western part of County Galway, situated west of Lough Corrib, is known as Connemara.

It's a land of bog, mountains, sea and sky. This image is taken from a single track bog road on the way to the edge of Ireland, the edge of Europe on the Atlantic Coast.

As I made my way across the bog towards the small lake pictured in this image, I was shadowed by the vertical flight of the skylark hovering in the clouds above me, warbling its distinctive call.