And yet it is how Ireland often is, not the bright sunshine and blue sky of typical postcard images. The landscape is sympathtic to the soft weather of an Irish day.
There's a poetry to the landscape in such conditions as here in Donegal and although I typically head for woodlands in grey weather, I do still enjoy photographing the open landscape with the distant grey of mountains melding in with the grey of the sky.
And with the late afternoon sun was dipping just below that ridge, the perfect time for a starburst.
Simply put, reflectance is defined as a "measure of the ability of a surface to reflect light or other electromagnetic radiation".
While the polariser hasn't changed the amount of light leaving the surface of the an object, in this case bracken on the hillside, it has remained the same - but the polariser has prevented some of that light from reaching the lens and sensor.
In this case, the striking green landscape of Ireland's Wicklow Mountains, we can easily see the difference between the polarised and non-polarised image.