On a recent landscape photography workshop in Ireland's west we encountered a beautifully bright and colourful sunset at the coast of County Mayo.

I'm not a big believer in always having the latest gear, honestly even for professional photographers it is not necessary to have the latest iteration of your chosen camera system.

Of course keeping up with technology is important and can give advantages over previous versions, especially in the digital age. But it is possible to create world class imagery with ten-year old digital cameras.

So when my phone stopped working suddenly on a recent photography workshop it was necessary to get a replacement. As it turns out this was the second HTC phone that I have owned to suddenly stop working, with no warning. Not good.

Movement can add to a landscape and travel image, if it is in context and adds to the final image.

During a recent photography workshop we stopped to photograph a woodland scene with thin, straight, tall beech trees growing from a moss-covered wet hummocky floor providing the interest, a path meandering that leads the eye.

Sunrise on this morning's photography workshop on Dublin's beautiful bay.

The weather forecast was not favourable but was preferable to the following morning's forecast and other recent mornings where rain and heavily overcast conditions create conditions not of interest to the landscape photographer.

Sometimes it is easy to think of landscape photography in terms of the right light, the golden raking sunshine illuminating the countryside in front of the lens.

And it is true that landscapes with lighting like this are without doubt impressive and beautiful.

Another evening in Dublin and another amazing sunset as crepuscular rays from the low sun spread out from behind dramatic clouds suspended over the River Liffey as it flows through the centre.

It seemed on this occasion that the evening was going to be overcast and boring, but as is often the case with evening weather the sun's rays burst through the clouds and blue sky became visible.

And the sun sets on another day, another Saint Patrick's Day in this case.

To anyone I was chatting to earlier, here is the finished sunset image. 

It's true, the sun does shine in Ireland, unfortunately it is not always that way when planning a day of photography.

Summer in Ireland. It wasn't really tangible in 2015.

Most places in Ireland recorded a wetter, duller and colder summer (June, July and August) than usual.

This evening's image shows the level of water in the lake during a colourful and characterful sunset in the west of Ireland. Rainy at sunset, unlike this last sunset but with the same colours.

The summer is well and truly underway here in Ireland, only no-one told the weather. Cold, wet and lacking in sunshine, with high winds all making it seem autumnal more than summery.

July is nearly over and it's still possible to smell peat fires burning in the villages and towns of rural Ireland, people carry jackets, gloves and hats; sandals have been relegated to the foreign holiday packing list.

Yet there is something happening very soon that will lift the spirits of at least 40,000 of the country's residents; Electric Picnic - a three day festival of music and arts is taking place as usual this year at Stradbally in Co. Laois from 4th - 6th September. The end of the summer and the end of the festival season.