As I write this the clock is about to turn past midnight and into Monday 25th December 2017, Christmas Day.

I have been working hard on many projects this year, currently on my best of images - my personal favourites from the past twelve months.

Here is one of my favourites, a setting sun lowering through the sky over Northern Ireland - rays shining across the green countryside and high into the bright blue sky.

Your support throughout this year, and previous years has made all of this possible and I look forward to continuing into 2018, chatting on social media, via emails and indeed meeting you on tours here in Ireland.

To book a photo tour, one-to-one photographic advice and mentoring session from anywhere in the world or to buy one of my prints please use the contact form in the top menu.

It's hard at times to get a good location for sunset photography on the east coast of Ireland.

The further north and south out of Dublin that you go there become possibilities but Dublin south to Wicklow affords no opportunity to photograph sunset from the coast.

This is, however, overlooking the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains with the Irish Sea in the foreground.

Along with a series of images that I took in January of this year, 2017 this is one of my favourites and makes it into my "best of 2017".

Hazy light partially obscures the mountains, notable among them the outline of one of Ireland's most famous, Wicklow's Sugarloaf while sunlight shoots across the cloud-filled blue sky.

It's a beauty, don't you think?

I'm currently working on my favourite images from the year 2017. This year has seen a lot of variety in my photographic subjects, from images of fine dining to music festivals, landscapes and animals. A little of everything that makes Ireland what it is.

This image is from January, the opposite end of the year from now - December, yet it looks like it could be from high summer.

These interesting ferns, seen here growing from a wall, are very common in Ireland and often grow in limestone rich rocks. Underneath, a carpet of mosses add a real soft feel to the hard man-made wall that divides private from public property; nature as we know respects little that humans put in its way.

We're now rightly through December and on our way to the end of 2017.

At the start of the year I posted about my last foray of 2016 along laneways in rural Ireland here.

At the end of autumn, just a few weeks ago I was exploring another lane, this time in Northern Ireland.

The resulting images are both very different but both convey the same idea - what lies ahead on the journey.

The differences for me between the black and white last lane of 2016 and this, last lane of autumn are massive. My journey has taken me to three commissions by the biggest name in world publishing - The New York Times, working on travel articles as a photographer.

I have of course worked for many other famous names in travel including Easyjet, Ritz-Carlton and Ireland's Irish Times and the UK's Sunday Times.

Continue with me on my journey in 2018 as I explore more of Ireland, follow me on social media or sign up for my newsletter.

Send me an email if you have any questions and I look forward to seeing some of you on one of my photography tours and workshops in Ireland.

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/panoramicireland/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/travelimages

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IrishImagesByPanoramicIreland/

Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+DarrenMcLoughlin

Photography and Ireland. It doesn't always involve snow, not even in the mountains.

As I looked out to green fields and sunny blue skies on the mountain slopes today, not a drop of the white blanket to be seen, it seemed a far way away from this image where, during a photography workshop on how to photograph snowy landscapes we made our way up the mountain - its road snow-covered and icy, at one point it was almost impossible to make it up the ever-steepening slopes.

Along the way DK and I had plenty of landscapes to photograph. I explained how to photograph the often bright snow to gain the best from any weather conditions, afterwards we warmed up and had a short session on how to edit images in Lightroom.

Why would you want to take a photography tour / workshop / experience with me, I hear you ask.

During a recent photography workshop on Ireland's coast (see here for more information) we stopped to find a small cave at low tide.

It wasn't a famous or large cave but it did have a certain character to it with intense sunshine coming in from one side.

Photography workshops and tours in Ireland are not just about the typical landscapes and scenes, although I do cover these on my experiences, but it's more about the journey.

The green fields of Ireland, looking lush green on a December day with snow-covered mountains.

Ireland doesn't receive a lot of snow, given that Dublin lies on the same latitude as Edmonton in Canada and northern Donegal is almost parallel with Moscow.

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

The Irish name for a round tower Cloigtheach  literally means bell house and they indeed functioned as bell towers, it's a logical construction with the high tower being visible from miles around, as a way-point guide for pilgrims and other travellers. Also sound travels further from a height and therefore the monastery - round towers are almost always associated with important churches and monasteries - would have been heard from quite a distance too, especially inside valleys where the sound of ringing bells coming from above the tree canopy would have been impressive.

Autumn is of course well known as a colourful time of year and without doubt Ireland has many colourful places in September, October and November - the three months traditionally associated with autumn here at this latitude.

On this occasion, a small river in spate with water flowing over salmon weirs, captured on a photography workshop in the Irish countryside.