The sun sets on another day, another solar year passes, the days get longer from now on - Ireland and the northern hemisphere pass the the winter solstice.

In Ireland the winter solstice has long been an important point of the year, Ireland's most famous monument at Newgrange is aligned with sunrise on the winter solstice (December 21/22) - read more here.

Reflected in the western beach Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way greets the colourful sunset, beaming from sheeny sands.

What to photograph in Ireland when the weather isn't good? 

That's a question I get asked a lot, and it isn't difficult to answer. There is always a fine scene to photograph in any locality on any day.

On this occasion as the rain began to fall, it was this lake in the west of Ireland, the soft and rugged contours of the region and its conifer forest reflecting in the calm lake waters.

We've had snow so far this winter in Ireland, here's a post from earlier this month at the start of December 2019 of snow in the Irish mountains.

But it looks like it will be a snow-free Christmas on the Emerald Isle.

So, here's an image from this week, a few days before Christmas from the west of Ireland.

Ireland doesn't get a lot of snow but when it does it is a sight for sore eyes. Here the mountains of the west of Ireland sit icy white above the golden colours of the bogland landscape.

I have written about snow a lot before here on Panoramic Ireland, here are some more articles.

Dublin's Samuel Beckett Bridge was installed in 2009, it celebrates 10 years this year of spanning the River Liffey and is dedicated to the Nobel Prize for Literature winning writer and playwright, Samuel Beckett.

Interestingly the architect of the Samuel Beckett Bridge Santiago Calatrava has already designed a bridge for Dublin dedicated to another of the city's famous writers, James Joyce.

Despite assurances from all of the self-proclaimed experts on long range weather forecasting in Ireland, summer 2019 has not been as good as 2018 and is on par with 2017 as having been grey, windy, rainy, grey, windy, rainy...

It has at least been warm, but for photography it has been challenging. The winds, while not hurricane strength have nonetheless been constant in their presence and changeable in their direction and speed.

In other words, tripod-toppling weather.

Here is one from a tour in the west of Ireland, as the sun's rays shone through the thick, fast-moving cloud onto the choppy harbour waters of the Atlantic. The greens of the fields aglow with stormy light.

Kilkenny is known as Ireland's Medieval City and is a charming place, located 90 minutes from Dublin it is also very easy to visit.

Seen here is one of the small city's main sights - it's imposing castle sitting above the River Nore.

Panoramic Ireland has recently written a guide, online and with a PDF to download covering Kilkenny City and its scenic county.

Find the PDF here: https://panoramicireland.com/images/PDFs/Panoramic-Ireland-Kilkenny-Guide.pdf

And the online version here: https://panoramicireland.com/guide-to-ireland/irish-travel-guide/kilkenny

Low visibility is a common problem in Ireland, landscape photography usually requires long, clear uninterrupted views so on this occasion we headed away from the big views and looked instead for scenes that suited the weather.

Here, we stopped on one of Panoramic Ireland's photography workshops in the Irish countryside to photograph sheep under a grey sky but a colourful landscape.

Lush green of late spring in Ireland both in the fields and the hedges, broken by bright orange-yellow flowers of gorse and white flowers of hawthorn.

I've been photographing bluebells for twenty years now, but I only recently realised that I have few posts here on Panoramic Ireland on bluebells.

Here a mixture of architecture and landscape in the Irish countryside as bluebells grow amongst ferns on the woodland floor below the old stone bridge.

The blue hour and golden hour that both occur every morning and evening are rightly considered by landscape photographers to be the best times of day to capture scenic landscapes.

Lasting for a short time either side of sunrise and sunset the ephemeral light is soft and colourful, sympathetic to the natural landscapes.