Shelter from the elements is often provided by the canopy of a woodland, but when you have a fine old stone bridge it gives even more than shelter from rain and wind, it provides shade and a frame to set the scene.

The small river was fast flowing and deeper than my wellies in places, rocky and clear but under the bridge there was a small area to set up my tripod away from the riverine vibrations.

Photographing in the Irish countryside doesn't always mean the famous locations, many parts of Ireland are scenic and perfect for improving your photographic techniques.

Join me on an online photography session to learn how to photograph better and learn how to organise and edit your images.

Find out more here: https://panoramicireland.com/photography-workshops-ireland/online-photography-class-tutorial-professional-photographer

Ireland's Wicklow Mountains are amongst the most visited in Ireland; situated just a short drive south of Dublin the Wicklow Mountains offer access to expansive landscapes like in this panorama overlooking Lough Tay.

I have written about Wicklow before, especially Glendalough and also indeed of Lough Tay.

This lake is also known as the Guinness Lake, the estate in which it sits used to be owned by the famous Guinness family and has recently been sold.

It looks exceptional on a fine, sunny day with no wind and a big blue sky above filled with white clouds but usually this lake is choppy with the strong windy gusts sweeping across the treeless mountains.

This part of Ireland is also out of bounds for now, the movement restrictions placed across the country due to Coronavirus / COVID-19 mean that few people have legitimate reason to visit this remote area.

Help to keep Panoramic Ireland going during the current crisis, each week bringing you more images and scenes from Ireland, you can donate a small amount below and my current goal is to reach enough to buy a microphone to record my podcast and other material. It also helps to keep the website going, there is no advertising on Panoramic Ireland.

As we're all stuck indoors, it's time to look through old images - travel through the archives, not the backroads of Ireland.

And here is a collage of images from Ireland, featuring cows and flowers and sheep; sunsets and trees.

These are just a few of my favourite images taken over the years, more to follow as I travel through folders on hard drives rather than the backroads of Ireland.

Stop by and ask for images of your favourite places in Ireland, use the contact page or button on the page to send in your requests.

The Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi said that ‘The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.'

And sitting on the banks of this fine remote Irish mountain stream (small river), I was reminded of these very words as I photographed the scene after a recent photography workshop in Ireland's fine springtime countryside.

For 30 minutes I enjoyed my own solitude, gazing on the fast flow of the fresh water and felt in awe of the scenery just here in front of me.

I'm sure that the river banks must have been full of wildlife but I couldn't hear much over the constant sound of the flowing water.

Youghal, Dungarvan and Wicklow Town have all cancelled their parades for Saint Patrick's Day 2020 due to Coronavirus fears.

And it looks like more Saint Patrick's Day events might be cancelled. Indeed, now Cork City has cancelled their parade along with Dublin.

I'm not an expert in virus epidemiology and I don't have access to all of the information about COVID-19 so I'll leave it up to you to decide if banning or restricting events is a good idea or not.

If you are in Ireland why not still enjoy yourself, if you are looking for things to do to avoid the crowds why not take up a solitary pursuit such as fishing or better still photography.

Join me for a crowd-free private photography workshop in Ireland this year where we will likely only be joined by herds of cows or droves of donkeys or maybe even a pine marten and kits.

For over a decade Panoramic Ireland's photo tours have been providing inspiration, training and enjoyment to photographers beginners and advanced throughout Ireland

Dublin's famous Long Room Library has also been closed as of today, March 10th so why not check it out in Panoramic Ireland's 360-degree panorama here.

The Irish coastline is a spectacular mix of landscapes - from coastal villages to sandy beaches to rocky coast.

Panoramic Ireland's photography workshops have always covered the coast of Ireland and 2020 is no exception, join us on a photography workshop in one of these fine places to photograph blue hour and more:

Copper Coast, Waterford

Galway & Mayo

Clare

Dingle & Co. Kerry

Antrim Coast & Giant's Causeway

Dublin's Coast

Cork

Donegal

Sligo

The Irish coastline is full of variation with long sandy beaches, rocky inlets and geological formations in a compact area.

And that makes Ireland a perfect place for coastal landscape photography.

Here the rocks are carboniferous limestone, in layers that have been long eroded by the wave action of the Atlantic.

We set up our cameras and tripods on the cold winter afternoon, hoping for some sunlight but actually in this case the overcast weather worked better.

I was at this point only a few weeks away from having an operation to remove a cancerous tumour, and during that time it was scenes like this that kept me motivated in my treatment and recovery.

I'm almost a year post-cancer; I'm still photographing, I'm still leading photography workshops and tours in Ireland and you can book a private photography session with me through the site here at Panoramic Ireland.

Send me an email to ask about photo workshops in your area of Ireland.

Some snow in the Irish mountains, I knew that winter wasn't over yet back in January.

After quite an adventure where the roads were snowbound today, having to reverse down a mountain side as progress was non-grippy, slippy and, in the end, impossible.

In fact the car ahead of me had already run into troubles on the steep incline, there were patches of compacted snow and ice across the road, particularly where sunlight hadn't reached over the past few days, after all I was climbing up the northern slopes of the mountains.

Ah, the notoriously bad weather in Ireland. Well there's a reputation that the Irish climate is unsuitable for photography. But it's not all true.

Sure there are stormy days, rainy days and grey sky days. But there are plenty of blue sky days, sunny days, calm days and even on those bad days there is always something to photograph.

It has been a foggy few days here and I have been photographing in some new locations, while I'm working on the images here is one, the picture above, of a fabulously foggy day in the Irish countryside taken during summer.

This post marks Panoramic Ireland's 500th blog post here on panoramicirelanc.com.

A year after treatment for cancer and I am still posting of photographic adventures throughout Ireland.

The image above is of Cork, the River Lee at night and Saint Finbarre's Cathedral. I photographed this fine scene for Eater, the world's most popular food website as part of their Where to eat in 2020 and Cork was one of the few cities in Europe to be on the list. Have a look at the images and Cork article here.