The coast of Ireland is perfect for landscape or seascape photography, and perfect for relaxation too.

Here, a stormy Atlantic sunset over County Kerry's Blasket Islands makes you just want to stop and watch. Which is what we did on a photo tour to Ireland's most westerly peninsula, Dingle.

Light is important in photography, especially in landscape photography.

I have written about the difference in light and its effects on the look and feel of a landscape image here.

The two images in this post is from one of my favourite places in Ireland, the west coast - taken two nights apart.

For over 10 years now Panoramic Ireland's famous Dublin Photo Tours have been taking locals and visitors alike around Dublin's famous and not so famous sights.

Yesterday was no exception with RM in from Austin, Texas. We headed off in the afternoon to explore some of the city's interesting places.

The weather was fine, and it was my first full tour after having had chemotherapy for cancer last week so I wasn't sure what to expect from my own ability.

Landscape photography is an interesting pursuit, sometimes you end up with blue skies and sunny conditions and sometimes the moody, dramatic image as seen here.

Weather does play a factor, here we had the drama of an Irish sky, a little bit of blue but mostly diffuse light and really quite suitable to the subject matter in this case. Rugged, blocky rocks and a waterfall that cascades into the sea - in fact it's the Atlantic Ocean crashing here upon the shore.

It has been a sad old year, 2019. News broke in 2018 that Google Plus, the much derided social network, would close in April 2019.

January also saw me diagnosed with cancer, have a tumour removed and in March receive chemotherapy.

Both of these things have it seems coincided.

Sunset from one of my favourite vantage points, looking west towards the setting sun.

It has been a difficult year so far, 2019, a diagnosis of cancer in January, an operation to remove a large tumour and this week, at the end of March, chemotherapy.

At each stage as throughout the past 20 years, photography has been a big part of my life.

Polarising filters, also known as polarisers or circular polarisers are essential filters in any photographer's kit.

Usually in the form of a screw-in filter, polarisers block out some polarised light allowing only light travelling in one direction to pass through the filter to reach the sensor.

Simply, we use polarisers for one reason - to reduce glare or reflected light from objects or subjects. 

Dublin is a fine city of wide avenues and cobbled streets lined with pubs.

Famed for its nightlife the world over, Dublin has more pubs than any other county or city in Ireland.

With approximately 750 pubs, that figure was a lot more in the past, Dublin's pubs are often cited by tourists and visitors to the city as one of the key reasons to visit Ireland.

Here, people enjoying an evening out in Temple Bar stand outside the most photographed pub in Ireland, The Temple Bar. 

Panoramic Ireland made a return visit to the Antrim Coast this week saw me leading a photography workshop to capture the landscapes and seascapes of this geologic region of Ireland that includes the Causeway Coast, home to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Giant's Causeway.

Approximately 8m in height, Glenariff waterfall is located deep in its own valley in the Glens of Antrim, easy to find by the sound of its thunderous roar and along a wooden walkway that takes you along the edge and across the steep, narrow, damp valley.

The West of Ireland - what does it conjure up in your imagination?

For me, the imagination is real, a place I visit and explore and enjoy and live in often. Those wide open spaces, rugged mountains of weathered rock just holding their own against the creeping boglands that cover the region.

This is a scene that conveys that western image, the bogland looking russety and the mountains just as I described above, ancient and just protruding enough to catch low cloud seemingly wisping across the gentle slopes.