Two friendly Irish donkeys in the Irish countryside, a field of green and yellow under a drumlin.

The donkey, Equus asinus would have been a common sight in Ireland before the age of the tractor, now a rare enough treat to spot these friendly creatures although I have photographed and written about them before here on Panoramic Ireland.

The drumlin is the hill in the background with cows, a drumlin (Irish word used in geomorphology) is a hill formed by glacial action - the ice moving along flat ground and sculpting it through mechanical action.

We may be looking through the archives but here is one that never fails to make me laugh.

As I was explaining depth of field on a photography workshop with JMcC from Ontario, Canada this donkey popped up and crashed the shot and perfectly illustrated the concept of depth of field and selective focus.

To learn more about photography during the current Coronavirus quarantine, why not take a personal online photography workshop with me any day of the week, any time of day to suit your location via Google Hangouts, Zoom etc.

Contact me to find out more - sessions from 45 mins to 1 hr 15 mins. Learn how to use Lightroom, Photoshop or other editing software and manage your image collection as well as photography concepts such as depth of field.

Panoramic Ireland's photo tours often cover locations that are well known, from the Cliffs of Moher to the Giant's Causeway via Donegal's Slieve League but despite visiting these places many times throughout the year.

Here is one such occasion, a characterful sight of donkeys in the Burren, the limestone area close to the Cliffs of Moher.

It's no secret that Ireland is a scenic place, very often visitors are drawn to the big open landscapes, the famous places such as the Cliffs of Moher, Dingle or the Giant's Causeway.

But there are many fine places to be found in other parts of the Emerald Isle.

On my travels around the back roads of Ireland, I was looking for an old graveyard beside a river.

I have written about Irish donkeys before, I'm sure you know how to search for that article - it's easy so go ahead and if you can't find then ask me how.

Here, from a recent photography tour in Ireland's west, this time in County Galway where my residential photography tours are based (from two days to a week, typically a four day tour) are these two fine looking donkeys, a sight so common and characteristic of the west of Ireland yet not easy to find as they are no longer a typical farm animal.

No journey through the west of Ireland can be complete without seeing one of the most characterful sights of the Irish countryside, the Irish Donkey.

Here on a recent photo tour by Panoramic Ireland, we sought out horses and donkeys.

It was a hot day and in a field of energetic donkeys this one stood, resting momentarily with sunshine and shadow.

During the 19th century and for much of the last century donkeys played a vital role in rural life, doing most of the heavy work on farms before mechanisation particularly on those farms where horses were too large for the small fields or expensive to keep.

Now there are few working donkeys in Ireland but there are many neglected Irish donkeys, as a result the Irish Donkey Sanctuary looks for suitable places all over Ireland to rehouse these long-eared friendly creatures.

And thankfully so, the Irish donkey is an essential component of rural life.

So keep an eye out for the long ears sticking up over a stone wall or the loud braying sounding throughout the countryside.

Why not join me on a photography tour in the west of Ireland?