After photographing a concert in Dublin this week, I headed out through the city centre to photograph some more before making my way home.

It was a cold evening and dark by the time I was along the River Liffey, in the distance I could see the Convention Centre and Samuel Beckett bridge lit up in green for Saint Patrick's Day, closer by, I could see Dublin's famous Custom House, a late-18th century Georgian building fronting the river.

Of course, I didn't have the usual tools of the landscape and long-exposure photographer, in this case a tripod. The tripod is obviously not useful for concert photography and not permitted anyhow in the pit area.

A few months after my cancer treatment in 2019, I was travelling through the sunny, lush Irish countryside and found a sign that I had passed many times before. 

It was for Saint Pater's Church, Laragh, County Monaghan.

So off I went for a bit of exploration. Travelling along a small, windy road lined with heavy vegetation, in particular large ash trees, I found the small, attractive church along the roadside; a road that was undergoing resurfacing.

I could see that the door was open, often a rarity in rural Ireland these days so I headed into the grounds, past a small stream and climbed the steps into the quaint, unusual church.

On a recent photography tour in Cobh, County Cork we stopped to photograph the town's best known features - the hilly seaside street with colourfully-painted houses known as the Deck of Cards, and the lofty Saint Colman's Cathedral.

It was my first time visiting the seaside town since before the lockdown began in March 2020 and within moments it became obvious that something had changed since I took my last image. The previously colourful street had lost much of its character with recent colour changes.

From yellow, orange and red - bright, bold colours that clash with the blue and turquoise just a few doors away - to grey, beige and some other indescribable colour; becoming almost identically non-descript.

It's almost as if the owners hate their homes being photographed so much that they have decided to paint them some horrible colour to discourage the camera-wielding tourists.

'How now brown cow' goes the old saying which is often used in elocution, it's also a phrase often asked of us who come from Northern Ireland.

Most from the other corners of Ireland find how northeners pronounce the 'ow' sound to be funny.

Of course, there are many different Northern Irish accents but this one remains a favourite.

Stormy day in Dublin, looking across the River Liffey towards the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the jigsaw building.

A colourful day in the Irish capital, the River Liffey reflecting some of the colour of the sky and the quayside buildings.

Bright sunlight and architecture always works well in photography.

What often doesn't work is shooting against or towards the sun, contre-jour - as seen here in this image.

Photographing through the windows here has allowed me to make the most of the tricky lighting, giving a starburst effect and emphasising the strong sunlight and shadows in the window heads.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph scenes like these, to make the most of the weather, lighting and the Irish countryside with its myriad attractions.

The old farmhouse sits, slowly decaying amongst trees planted by former inhabitants of this bleak place; in an almost treeless landscape in the Irish mountains.

I visited on a recent sunny afternoon, the fine cut sandstone absorbing late day sunshine colour, grass slowly subsuming those stones fallen onto the ground in a gradual softening and reclaiming of the man-made scene.

Here, the only shade in the entire mountain range was to be found under these lush green leaves as a strong westerly wind whistled past.

Panoramic Ireland's photography tours aren't running just yet but will return soon, join us for a photography workshop in summer 2021 here in Ireland - in Dublin, the Antrim Coast, Galway and beyond.

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It's almost Christmas, the end of another year and another decade; here at Panoramic Ireland we have been busy photographing Dublin as always.

2019 has reached December and, for the second year, more than a dozen of Dublin's buildings and streets have been illuminated to give the city a more welcoming feel.

Dublin's Winter Lights have illuminated some of the city's famous buildings for the second year. Created by Dublin City Council the lights switch on at sunset every night in December and stay on until 02:00.

There are 14 buildings and areas in total, including Trinity College, Hugh Lane Gallery and Christchurch.

As well as the buildings there are a few streets and Dublin's Millennium Bridge pictured above. This bridge has in recent times become known as the Rainbow Bridge and is back for winter 2024.

Trinity College is most famously associated with the Book of Kells, a national treasure, and the Long Room Library in which it is housed.

But the campus of Ireland's oldest university, founded in 1592, is a peaceful haven away from the busy streets of the Irish capital.

A landmark in the university grounds, and indeed in Dublin itself, the campanile stands at 100ft or just over 30 metres and is one of the city's most photographed structures.