Meet Jack the black cat, Cork's friendliest cat.

Walking through Cork, before or after one of my Cork City photo tours I often take time to go out of my way and visit Jack, who will definitely appreciate it if you do indeed stop to say hi.

Join me to photograph in Cork or somewhere else in Ireland.

Street colour from Cork, known by locals to be the real capital of Ireland. Here, the Kino, a now defunct theatre was as famous for the colour of the events that it hosted and the colour if its distinctive edifice on the city's Washington Street.

Panoramic Ireland really enjoys photographing in Cork and the Kino has always been a colourful place on Washington Street, the main thoroughfare from the city centre towards the university.

The Kino was a cultural hub in the city but unfortunately was finished off by Covid and the lockdowns, now it hosts some Phoenix Nights themed events.

Seen here in better days with fine street art before the pandemic and a lockdown that was the most restrictive in the world.

Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph in Cork, Ireland - book here.

Imagine the scene, it's a fine summer's day in the Irish countryside, County Cork this time; the sun is shining strong, stronger than for most of the summer of 2021.

We stop off to view some old ruins and find this fine big field, one of many in this part of Ireland's southwest that isn't green with this old David Brown tractor spinning hay.

At one point a joke was made that if the farmer was in a modern tractor he would have more comforts, including a comfy seat and air conditioning but...of course he has the best air conditioning going - no windows!

Anyway, on we went to photograph the ruins nearby and further afield on a day of photography in the Irish countryside.

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.

This post marks Panoramic Ireland's 500th blog post here on panoramicirelanc.com.

A year after treatment for cancer and I am still posting of photographic adventures throughout Ireland.

The image above is of Cork, the River Lee at night and Saint Finbarre's Cathedral. I photographed this fine scene for Eater, the world's most popular food website as part of their Where to eat in 2020 and Cork was one of the few cities in Europe to be on the list. Have a look at the images and Cork article here.

Cork's famous bridge across the River Lee, one of many, seen here on a calm reflective autumn day.

The bridge has two names, Daly's Bridge is the official title but it is mostly known to Corconians as the Shakey Bridge.

The bridge is due for refurbishment, they will remove it and carry out repairs to replace it late in 2019.

One of the world's best known publications, The New York Times, has recently visited Cork - a city in Ireland's southwest whose inhabitants often refer to as The Real Capital.

How do I know this? Well Panoramic Ireland (that's me - hello) photographed the charismatic small city for the 36 Hours in Cork feature.

36 Hours in Cork will be published in the New York Times on Thursday 14th December 2017. Find it online or buy it in print, and if you do can you send me a copy?

Check out the NYT's Instagram post below, and don't forget to follow me over there on IG, as it says in the post I'm @panoramicireland

Where in the world is @nytimestravel? The photographer Darren McLoughlin captured this scene while on assignment for a story in this week’s issue. Where do you think he was when he took this picture? (There’s a hint in his handle: @panoramicireland.) #🌍🔍

A post shared by The New York Times (@nytimes) on Dec 11, 2017 at 9:24am PST

I've been busy over the past few weeks, first with a trip to London to photograph Marillion at the Royal Albert Hall and then a photography assignment in Cork, Ireland's southern city.

Here on my Instagram feed you can see one of the behind the scenes images from the photography assignment that took me to the friendly city.

Good morning from Cork. The sun has risen over the River Lee and it's a better day than of late. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #architecture #natgeotravel #travelblog #travelgram #lifeofadventure #Irish #oneplus #vsco #vscocam #natgeo #earthpix #natgeolandscape #bbctravel #weather #instatravel #instagood #instadaily #vscotravel #adventurevisuals #architecture_lovers #journey #urbanadventure #cork #cityscape #ireland #urbanvisuals #reflections #discoverireland #onassignment #sunrise_and_sunsets

A post shared by @panoramicireland on Oct 25, 2017 at 1:34am PDT

Of course there will be more images to follow, especially once the article for which I was photographing is published.

Cobh, a port town in Cork Harbour is best known to the world as the last port of call for RMS Titanic, the ill-fated luxury liner that sank on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic in 1912.

It is now best known to over 140,000 cruise visitors per year who disembark from 69 vessels as the pretty seaside town that is close to some of Ireland's best sights. It has recently been voted amongst the best cruise destinations in Europe, coming in only behind Amsterdam.

If you are visiting Cobh or Cork on a cruise or other style of holiday then let Panoramic Ireland, that's me, show you the best places to see and photograph with one of our photography tours. 

A return to County Cork took me to it's beautifully varied coastline that I have previously mentioned here.

Unlike on that previous occasion the weather was not cloudy and moody but bright and colourful highlighting the bright greens found in the littoral landscape.