After photographing a concert in Dublin this week, I headed out through the city centre to photograph some more before making my way home.

It was a cold evening and dark by the time I was along the River Liffey, in the distance I could see the Convention Centre and Samuel Beckett bridge lit up in green for Saint Patrick's Day, closer by, I could see Dublin's famous Custom House, a late-18th century Georgian building fronting the river.

Of course, I didn't have the usual tools of the landscape and long-exposure photographer, in this case a tripod. The tripod is obviously not useful for concert photography and not permitted anyhow in the pit area.

I have written about Torc Waterfall in County Kerry before, my last visit was during the winter on a trip to the Kingdom that saw me photograph snow on the mountains and visit some of the finest sections of Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way.

Here, what is probably Ireland's most photographed waterfall, Torc cascades from behind a natural green curtain of foliage, notably brighter than in the winter image featuring only the darker shades of evergreen holly.

Ireland has seen some weather in the past few weeks of summer 2021. A heatwave covered the island in a thick layer of warm air with temperatures regularly in the high 20s Celsius, even reaching 31.4C.

Then, the inevitable rainy weather where now, a week later, we are seeing rain and wind and unseasonably cold weather of 14 to 16 degrees Celsius.

Yet it's not all doom and gloom, the weather often gives landscape photographers a fine spectacle at sunset.

That's what we got tonight as a full day of rain cleared to give a cloudy sunset with spreading rays of orangey-red light across the sky. Quite an experience, initially we saw the rays of sunshine lighting up the landscape so turned to find the view obscured somewhat as we were photographing from behind a tall hedge; after spending some time and effort climbing through hawthorns and elder to get a clearer view of the final burst of colour in the sky and were not disappointed.

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There's something about the smell of the coast - a fresh Atlantic Ocean breeze, sunshine and recently passed rain.

And it's the smell of nature after rain that will be very familiar to anyone who spends much time outdoors, even in the urban environment, indeed a typical Irish town will have that particular post-pluvial odour caused by a mix of geosmin from gardens, parks and hedges and ozone from concrete and tarmac.

Of course the smell of the countryside, fields and forests the same.

And that smell has a name, Petrichor which comes from the Greek petros for stone and ichor which was the blood of the gods.

I have written about castles before, namely my exploration of Barrymore Castle in Castlelyons, and Cahir Castle in County Tipperary that recently played host to Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Adam Driver and Jodie Comer for the filming of Ridley Scott's The Last Duel.

Ireland is awash with castles but many are, unfortunately, barely more than a single stone.

This is a two part image, in the lower-middle incoming waves meld into bluey-green and white bands over the course of the exposure and to the bottom returning water ripples remain consistent, in the top half of the image slow-moving white and grey clouds barely move against the azure sky.

In long exposure photography we are looking to use movement in at least one part of the image, here that is in the bottom half more so than the top.

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I have written about Slieve League or Sliabh Liag before, Ireland's highest mainland coastal cliffs.

This is one of Ireland's finest landscapes with its indented, steep cliffs constantly battered by the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of metres below.

Bright, golden light catches each of the rocky indents.

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Water falls over the waterfall, that's what a waterfall does; but sometimes in dry conditions, here during summer, it loses its scale.

In full flow, the waterfall fills this rockface with a powerful force of continuously falling water, flowing fast from the deep rock pool below.

Where water doesn't regularly flow vegetation can be found, green mats of bryophytes and bunches of ferns - sometimes tucked away in niches behind the falls as seen in the images above and below.

In full flow waterfalls are difficult to photograph, often generating a spray that can mist a camera lens in less than a second. Below the same waterfall with much more flow as autumn ends.

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Of course trees don't just give us large canopies of leaves and branches, they often provide some of the finest flowers such as these cherry blossoms.

This image is from outside of the hospital where I received chemotherapy two years ago, the dark wood of the cherry and those delicate pinky-white petals make for a fine display and one that I was glad to stop and admire given the events of the time.

Cherry trees are native to Ireland, but not the ones seen here. The two varieties are wild cherry Prunus avium and bird cherry Prunus padus, and are mostly found growing wild in the west of Ireland and the midlands.

Like my previous post, this is one of trees providing shelter for animals but trees of course don't just provide shelter on cold and stormy days, as seen here on hot summer days too.

It was a hot day in Kilkenny, one of those fine June days when Ireland is awash with colour and the smell of warmth as temperatures hit the high 20s Celsius.

Stopping by the ruins of an old church we spotted the unfolding scene of horses chasing cows away from the shade of this tree.

Like a scene from a Western film we watched the riderless horses, with their sheeny-sweaty musculature, rounding up the relaxing cattle and herding them off into the large field before returning to the shady coolness under the protective canopy.

Lesser Celandine Ficaria verna is a bright, colourful spring flower in the Irish countryside that often carpets woodlands, riverbanks and lower hedgerows between March and May; with its heart-shaped leaves and bright glossy yellow petals it is amongst the first flashes of colour after the long dark months of the Irish winter.

One of the Irish countryside's stars of spring, Lesser Celandine is famous for its sun-worshipping flowers that open in sunshine but rapidly close when in shade.

There is a Flower, the Lesser Celandine,

That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain;

And, the first moment that the sun may shine,

Bright as the sun himself, 'tis out again!

 

William Wordsworth, THE SMALL CELANDINE from Poems Volume II 1815