The Blue Hour is a classic time of day for landscape photographers to photograph. There are in fact two blue hours and both don't necessarily last for an hour.

The first blue hour precedes sunrise and the second of the day comes after sunset; wrapped inside the day there is also the golden hour that we will talk about separately.

During the evening blue hour - light is fading, the sun has set and we lose the direct brightness from our light-giving star.

Red light passes through Earth's atmosphere and further into space, while blue light with its shorter wavelength gets trapped and scattered, and bounces around to create a blue coloured period we call the Blue Hour.

The Antrim Coast is a rugged, beautifully scenic place with the wild Atlantic pounding at its shoreline and islands constantly.

Here Sheep Island, a tiny island of basalt rocks sits close in front of the much larger Rathlin Island composed of basalt overlying chalk - evident in the cliffs as seen in the distance.

I was leading a photography workshop on this coastline, a part of Ireland I know very very well, for more information see here.

It was a windy day but still with blue sky and plenty of clouds as we considered that we were lucky to be on land rather than on the high seas, tripods shaking with the wind it was a time to shelter and photograph handheld.

Beautiful, don't you think?

Another of my favourite images from 2017 came again from Ireland's midland region just like this one here.

Again, after a long day of photographing landscapes we found ourselves in not an ideal position for photographing the sunset, not being the chief objective of our photography workshop.

Here we found this lane that seemed to invite us across its water-filled potholes towards the colour of the evening's setting sun.

The wind was blowing, the usual, bright orange colour filled the horizon and above the blue hour was beginning to start.

This was one of my favourite unexpected scenes of the year.

It is very representative of Ireland, not the famous scenes from our beautiful coastline but the hidden Ireland that I like to find for you on my photography workshops and tours.

To join me on a personalised tour in Ireland, to find scenes like these, contact me using the main menu or use the email address at the top of the page.

This was at the end of a long day's photography workshop covering woodlands and waterfalls, Panoramic Ireland (that's me by the way) run photography workshops and tours for all levels in Ireland from Cork to Galway to Belfast to Dublin.

We were in Ireland's midlands for the best part of the session and sunset wasn't high on our priorities for the day but we happened on this scene and found that post-sunset cloud glow to be very photogenic with this pastoral scene of green fields and cows.

To join me on a photography workshop in Ireland for sunset photography, street photography or architectural photography and everything else as well use the contact page on the main menu above. Send me an email with whatever locations you are interested in and dates when you will be in Ireland.

In the meantime, enjoy this sunset scene, it's relaxing don't you think?

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.

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.

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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.

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.

Sometimes summer in Ireland is just not what you would expect. Well, perhaps it is what you might expect.

Usually our summers are filled with long days, sunshine and cloud with a good deal of rain but much blue sky - like this.

Summer 2017 has so far proved to be a good bit different with many grey days, lingering cloud and reduced sunshine. It has still been warm but all of this provides a challenge to the photographer.

After a day when the weather was supposed to have been better, the evening's stormy sky changed to bright golden sunshine at sunset.

But only for a brief moment or two.

This image is of that sunset light, the embedded post below is of the stormy sky just before sunset and after the day's rain had ceased.

That's how the Irish weather goes, it's difficult to say if the weather will be good or bad but there is always going to be something worthwhile for the photographer.

I always leave for the day with a plan for landscape photography, and adapt according to the weather and other factors.

To learn how to photograph in any conditions such as these or these contact me using the contact page.