Sometimes the early morning just gives more than you expect.

Making the effort to get out early for sunrise makes a lot of sense, especially on the east coast of Ireland.

On this occasion I knew the tide would be out giving the opportunity to get a wet sand foreshore that will reflect the sunrise sky's brightness and vivid colours such as here in this image.

What is harder to predict is the actual sunrise, but it is always worth making the effort to get up and get out with camera ahead of the arrival of a new day.

What we look for in sunrise skies are some high level clouds, blue sky and a clear horizon. That allows the early morning sunlight to shine across the sky and landscape catching the edges of those clouds above and any buildings down here on the ground.

On this morning the perfect combination - just look at that colour!

It doesn't have to be epic, just appropriate and the sunrise will make it beautiful.

A recent photography workshop took me to Dublin Bay where we photographed the bright sunrise sky.

The morning's forecast was meant to be for good weather and it didn't disappoint, the pinks and oranges shine across the cloud-filled sky and reflect off the surface of the calm Irish Sea.

Setting up our tripods, we waited as the light changed from darkness through the blue hour, golden hour and into daylight - photographing all the while.

This is one of my favourite images of 2017 taken at Dublin's famous Forty Foot swimming spot.

To join me on a photography tour of Dublin and its bay contact me.

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.

A recent photography workshop saw us finish up for sunset at a famous Irish location but on the way we stopped here to capture this rural scene of green fields and sheep-dotted mountain ridges sidelighted by the low summer evening sun.

I have been spending time photographing and leading photography workshops recently in Dingle, Ireland's most westerly peninsula in County Kerry.

Here is an image of the Atlantic, its waves crashing up over ancient rocks under a stormy sky.

Cobh, a port town in Cork Harbour is best known to the world as the last port of call for RMS Titanic, the ill-fated luxury liner that sank on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic in 1912.

It is now best known to over 140,000 cruise visitors per year who disembark from 69 vessels as the pretty seaside town that is close to some of Ireland's best sights. It has recently been voted amongst the best cruise destinations in Europe, coming in only behind Amsterdam.

If you are visiting Cobh or Cork on a cruise or other style of holiday then let Panoramic Ireland, that's me, show you the best places to see and photograph with one of our photography tours. 

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.

Grass clings to the rocky outcropping just offshore like it has done for countless millennia.

After the sun has set and all have gone home, I have this section of coast to myself with nothing more than the sounds of seabirds settling in for the night and crashing waves across the stony foreshore.

Evening in Dublin as the stormy post-sunset light slowly turns to night via storm clouds spreading across the sky over the Irish capital's River Liffey and its modern structures - The Samuel Beckett Bridge, Convention Centre and others.

This is a place that I have photographed often but it never looks the same twice.

To join Panoramic Ireland, that's me, on a photography tour of Dublin and learn how to make panoramic images like this then find out more here.

You never know what to expect as an outdoor photographer here in Ireland.

After a three day photography tour in the west of Ireland I was finishing up and heading home through the midlands and close to sunset I spotted a great stormy sky.