Ireland is currently (July 18th 2021) in the grip of a heatwave, one that has seen high temperatures all over the island including Northern Ireland's highest recorded temperature of 31.2C.

There are few breezes and little cloud or rain, the beaches are packed and tourist hotspots are literally that - hotspots, in more than one way.

So instead of photographing in the famous places it's time to head to the lesser known parts of the Irish countryside.

Here I found a small, lush and green woodland. Even in the dry heat of summer 2021 this place still holds on to moisture and the bright green colour associated with Ireland.

Perfect for landscape photography and for some forest bathing or shinrin-yoku.

To escape the crowds and experience the hidden places in Ireland, join Panoramic Ireland for a private photography tour in the Irish countryside.

Ireland is a green country, except when it snows and even in winter (February in the image above) that green still shows in the fields and woodlands of the Irish countryside.

Here, in a fine little woodland of beech, ash and oak a cascading stream flows over rocks as the low rays of the winter sun brightens riparian scene of mosses, ferns and fallen leaves.

Photography in Ireland isn't just a summer interest, the country has many beautiful scenes to capture throughout the year.

Few autumn landscape scenes can be more alluring to the photographer than a woodland stream with waterfall.

Here in Tollymore, one of Northern Ireland's most scenic forest parks, these elements combine beautifully at the beginning of autumn as water falls between the stepping stones on the River Shimna under a canopy of bright green gently beginning to fade towards the reds, yellows and browns of autumn.

No wonder then that the producers of Game of Thrones, HBO, chose this location to film some of the famous TV show, Northern Ireland being home to most of the filming.

And no wonder it is a place that Panoramic Ireland visits often, when travel restarts why not join me at the famous forest park or along the coast of County Down close by.

The mightiest tree in the forest, an Irish woodland.

A recent visit through an Irish woodland saw me find and photograph the mightiest tree in the forest, pictured here.

It can't be done, to cut down this tree with a herring - I thought to myself.

Well, I did find a shrubbery before finishing up on my quest to photograph this fine, green place.

I do like photographing in Ireland in winter, the countryside is mostly empty and the weather can be fine.

Here it was a foggy day with little chance of a break in the cloud overhead so instead of heading for a big wide open scene we headed for a good little woodland where we could make use of the ethereal atmosphere that fog so often gives.

The beech trees were covered in almost luminous, bright green moss and the forest floor carpeted in red/brown beech leaves, and in between all of that the fog permeated the whole place.

No landscape photographer's spring catalogue would be complete without images of bluebells hyacinthoides non-scripta carpeting a woodland floor.

Here on our photography workshop that also dealt with photographing in inclement weather, as we photographed streams and forests so too did we concentrate on the colour in front of us.

While they didn't carpet every square inch of the beech woodland floor, they still looked incredible at the end of May amongst the lush green grass and ferns of the Irish countryside. And that path, encouraging us further into the woods.

Forests contain some of the best landscape photography opportunities and Ireland's forests while not extensive, do contain many enticing scenes from moss-covered trees to bluebells in late spring.

Join me in one of Ireland's characterful woodlands for a day of landscape photography - for more use the contact page or send me an email.

I went for a walk in the woods in the west of Ireland recently, a great evening with low light shining through the trees.

The only sounds were those of the camera shutter and echoey footsteps as I walked along the stony paths with a background soundtrack of forest birds.