One of my favourite Irish locations is no longer a secret place, my own County Antrim's Dark Hedges.

Known to us locally as Bregagh Road the Dark Hedges have seen a lot of visitors in recent years due to the influx of Game of Thrones fans from around the world.

This avenue of beech trees has become arguably Ireland's most photographed road, I've written about it before here on Panoramic Ireland of course but this is one of my favourites from 2006, long before this scenic road became famous and had hardly any visitors.

Join me on a photography tour of the Antrim Coast, a place I know well, to learn how to make better travel photographs here at the Dark Hedges and along the amazing Causeway Coast.

Recently while leading another photo tour to my own part of Ireland, County Antrim, we stopped off at the Dark Hedges.

Choosing a morning before all of the groups arrived we had the famous avenue of beech trees pretty much to ourselves as S.S. visiting from California photographed Bregagh Road on this, his first visit to Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway is a place that I have photographed often.

Read more about the history, mythology and geology of the unique coastal geographic feature in one of my previous posts here - it's an interesting read.

This is a door that I have photographed often, having featured in my first book Portrait of Armagh.

It is the entrance door to Saint Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh, Ireland's ecclesiastic capital.

The snow that fell during the Beast from the East and Storm Emma was quite surprising, unlike anything in recent years and it added to the character of this area seen here, the flakes so big they almost obliterate the view of the architecture itself.

Join me for a photography tour of Armagh here.

Street photography comes in all styles, shapes and sizes.

Here during the current snow storm to hit Ireland, known as Storm Emma and the Beast from the East, a man shielded by an umbrella walks up the steep, snow-covered Dawson Street in Armagh, Ireland's ecclesiastic capital.

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?

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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A recent photography workshop saw me at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Giant's Causeway on the Antrim Coast in my own Northern Ireland.

It was a stormy day, the previous day saw a lot of rainfall although we did get many images even with the pouring rain, and continuing in the same way this morning started out windy as well but dry.

You can see some of the stormy scenes here of waves pounding this small section of the Giant's Causeway and its distinctive basalt columns.

I have written about the Giant's Causeway here before on Panoramic Ireland.

Join Panoramic Ireland, that's me, on a photography tour to the Giant's Causeway. You know how to contact me by now!

On a recent photography workshop to my own part of Ireland, the Antrim Coast, we stopped on our way between photographing waterfalls and caves to photograph the scene stretching before us across the sea of Moyle towards Scotland.

This part of Ireland is closest to Scotland, approximately 12 miles of North Atlantic separating Ballycastle from the Mull of Kintyre.

Here we are overlooking the islands of Islay and Jura, the peaked mountains on the horizon are the Paps of Jura.