It's been a busy few weeks here for me in Ireland, and with Earth Day I wanted to post an image that shows some of the beauty of the world around us.

Bumblebee Bombus enjoying fresh rosemary flowers Rosmarinus officianalis on a warm spring day in Ireland.

I wrote in my last post yesterday that the long cold winter days are behind us as warm temperatures have finally arrived in mid-April 2018.

The bees, of many types, visited flowers throughout the long, sunny day and I captured some on camera as they went about their busy buzzing.

Snow - it's been a snowy winter here in Ireland.

As I've written before, and will no doubt again, it doesn't snow as much as you might think in Ireland but when it does snow it doesn't stick for very long.

The little stream, of no particular renown, continues tumbling down the slope towards the sea as it has done for thousands of years.

Here, in the shaded valley carved over time by the action of water continuously flowing and falling, we find lots of mosses, lichens and bryophytes.

Competition time! Win a Kilkenny Photo Tour with Panoramic Ireland Photo Tours!

To be in with a chance of winning a private photography tour of Kilkenny (3.5hrs) in the city just visit our Instagram page and follow us, comment on this post and let us know who you would like to share this experience with, who would you spend a few hours in Ireland's Medieval City with?

If you don't use Instagram then see number 3 below.

So here is how to do it again:

1: Follow @panoramicireland on Instagram.

2: Comment on this post with the name of who you would most like to visit Kilkenny with.

3: If you don't use Instagram then just send me an email here through the site with your answer - who would you spend time with in Kilkenny?

Good luck, winners will be drawn on the 1st of May 2018 and notified via this website and by email.

A colourful day in Kilkenny, to celebrate my latest New York Times piece. . . . . . . . . . #travelgram #wildernessculture #neverstopexploring #kilkenny #beautifuldestinations #adventureculture #earthpix #nakedplanet #bbctravel #natgeotravel #medieval #naturelovers #travelblog #ic_architecture #AdventureVisuals #folkarchitecture #panoramicireland #vsco #lifeofadventure #vscocam #vscotravel #tripadvisor #ireland #hikingadventures #livefolk #creativefolk #goldenhour #thecreatorclass #exploremore #magiclight

A post shared by @ panoramicireland on Apr 3, 2018 at 3:13pm PDT

Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway is a place that I have photographed often.

Read more about the history, mythology and geology of the unique coastal geographic feature in one of my previous posts here - it's an interesting read.

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.

The coastline of Ireland comes in many different forms - the sandy beaches with turquoise waters, rocky headlands and coves, pebbles and stones. All of these elements make up the ever changing and ever beautiful coast of the Emerald Isle.

Here I made this image from a visit to the north coast, the rocky peaks just offshore look a little like a film set especially when seen against the post-sunset sky with its pinks and oranges fading into blue.

I have added a little post-processing to give a more mystical, moody feel to this seascape.

Join me on a photography tour and learn how to make images like these, from €220 for a private one-to-one workshop.

Here in this west of Ireland sunset is one of my favourite images from 2017, as seen in my YouTube video here.

For over ten years I have been organising photography workshops and tours here in Ireland.

The sunset image is one of the most lambasted, often cited as a hackneyed subject matter in photography but actually, photographed correctly (like here from this Panoramic Ireland photography workshop), the sunset can be enticing, mesmerising, one of two potential perfect moments in a 24 hour period for lighting and colour.

Learn how to photograph the sunset in any conditions on a private photography workshop by contacting me here.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, for a photography tour and workshop in the west of Ireland to learn how to photograph scenes like this.

The Blue Hour is a classic time of day for landscape photographers to photograph. There are in fact two blue hours and both don't necessarily last for an hour.

The first blue hour precedes sunrise and the second of the day comes after sunset; wrapped inside the day there is also the golden hour that we will talk about separately.

During the evening blue hour - light is fading, the sun has set and we lose the direct brightness from our light-giving star.

Red light passes through Earth's atmosphere and further into space, while blue light with its shorter wavelength gets trapped and scattered, and bounces around to create a blue coloured period we call the Blue Hour.