Sidelighting, sunshine and shadow in the mountains from this week's visit to the wild landscapes of the West of Ireland.

We have had very fine weather this week in Ireland, with Sunday being the hottest day of 2023 so far.

I headed through the wide open spaces of Connemara to meet ES and JS who had arrived from the US, we met on location for an early morning photography workshop on photographing panoramic images.

And where better to photograph panoramas than here in the wide, wild west.

Both ES and JS are keen photographers although neither had made panoramas before. So for the morning here we made panorama after panorama.

First off the warm morning sidelighting and shadows on craggy mountains.

To learn how to photograph panoramas using your current camera including how to choose a location, camera settings and post-processing using multiple software contact me here at Panoramic Ireland.

Sidelighting in Ireland's Wicklow Mountains.

The scenic wilderness of the Wicklow mountain landscape is quite unlike anywhere else in Ireland, especially when combined with unusual cloud and weather patterns.

Here, sidelighting from late evening sunshine breaks through high cloud and illuminates the remote valleys.

2023 is a good year to visit Ireland, join Panoramic Ireland to photograph in Wicklow as well as Connemara, Dingle and Antrim's Giant's Causeway.

Sometimes, particularly when moving folders between drives, Lightroom will show only the folder with images in the left hand pane without regard to actual folder hierarchy on the drive.

Read on for more on how to keep Lightroom tidy as you like it.

See the image here, the folders 2008-01-28, 2017-08-29 and 2018-01-07 are all located in folders based on year, so 2008, 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Panoramic Ireland's Dublin Photo Tours don't stop during the winter, we enjoy photographing all year round in Dublin and throughout Ireland.

Just have a look through the Blog section for more.

Here from one of our photography workshops in Dublin this week, the colours of the Convention Centre set to those of the Irish Tricolour - Green, White and Orange.

And of course, this time of year is a good point to think about buying a voucher for friends and family to use throughout the year.

I usually do prefer to work with colour images, for more than 99% of the photographs that I make they are in colour.

But every so often I do enjoy a good black and white image such as here in this landscape image of a tumbledown cottage amongst the mountain scenery from the west of Ireland.

Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph scenes like this from the Atlantic fringe of Ireland - photography tours and workshops operate all year round.

The heatwave that has finally hit Ireland has now ended, with thunderstorms over the country.

Temperatures exceeded 31C this week but as of Sunday night thunder and lightning is now the dominant weather.

Here, lightning over one of Ireland's many fine church buildings.

Adobe Lightroom Classic is full of shortcuts and learning them all can be slightly overwhelming.

Here is one shortcut that is useful, well two maybe.

Exporting photos from Lightroom is one of the most repeated tasks and speeding up that process can make a project quicker.

There are a few ways to get to the export dialog in Lightroom:

There are currently plenty of challenges with visiting Ireland, the country is now the most expensive in Europe for the cost of living, hotels are charging astronomical rates and the recent car hire challenges are being reported almost daily in the international press.

And of course that's assuming you can get here, flights are relatively cheap but with many cancelled flights in and out of Ireland and huge delays at Dublin Airport the difficulties are real.

While all of the above is true, there can be no doubt that Ireland is one of the most beautiful countries to see and to photograph.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph in the Irish countryside such as here at these fine stone circles - Beaghmore, Co. Tyrone, one of my favourite places to photograph.

I have written about arriving in Ireland before, both by sea and by air.

There is no doubt that arriving into Dublin, despite all the recent issues with international travel, is one of the scenic experiences of any airport in the world.

Here is Lambay Island, a small island off the north Dublin coast, the headland of Howth seen in the distance jutting into the Irish Sea with Rogerstown and Malahide Estuaries.

Looking south over County Dublin and the city's airport, note the sand and sediment being transported by the Irish Sea's waves along the coast.

Book your trip to Dublin.

Today 28th of May 2021, the Irish Government announced the next phases of Ireland's reopening post-covid.

This includes the return of international travel on the 19th of July, which as Father Ted fans will know is also the day in history when Galway was liberated from the Indians, Marathon became Snickers and of course the ice age ended.

The 19th of July will see visitors from the EU able to return to Ireland which has had the most severe lockdown in Europe, and then at some point beyond that travellers from outside the region will be able to visit- from the USA, Canada etc. If fully vaccinated, recovered from COVID-19 / Coronavirus or with a negative test then no quarantine will be necessary.

Panoramic Ireland's photography tours and workshops are bookable from now through all of 2021, so plan ahead and check availability for your visit to Dublin, Galway, Cork, Antrim Coast and anywhere else in Ireland.