Photography and Ireland. It doesn't always involve snow, not even in the mountains.

As I looked out to green fields and sunny blue skies on the mountain slopes today, not a drop of the white blanket to be seen, it seemed a far way away from this image where, during a photography workshop on how to photograph snowy landscapes we made our way up the mountain - its road snow-covered and icy, at one point it was almost impossible to make it up the ever-steepening slopes.

Along the way DK and I had plenty of landscapes to photograph. I explained how to photograph the often bright snow to gain the best from any weather conditions, afterwards we warmed up and had a short session on how to edit images in Lightroom.

Why would you want to take a photography tour / workshop / experience with me, I hear you ask.

During a recent photography workshop on Ireland's coast (see here for more information) we stopped to find a small cave at low tide.

It wasn't a famous or large cave but it did have a certain character to it with intense sunshine coming in from one side.

Photography workshops and tours in Ireland are not just about the typical landscapes and scenes, although I do cover these on my experiences, but it's more about the journey.

Fraoch mór is the Irish name for heather, Calluna vulgaris and it can be found over large parts of the Irish landscape.

It is also known as ling and it prefers acidic, boggy soils that cover the upland areas of Ireland. These are places that often, at first glance, appear barren with vast open tracts of treeless ground with only heath in view as far as the eye can see. But when the heather is flowering the uplands are filled with the sounds of bees busy collecting pollen. From April to August, before the pale purple colour bursts across the Irish countryside, ground nesting birds such as skylarks can be seen and heard hovering overhead.

After a day when the weather was supposed to have been better, the evening's stormy sky changed to bright golden sunshine at sunset.

But only for a brief moment or two.

This image is of that sunset light, the embedded post below is of the stormy sky just before sunset and after the day's rain had ceased.

That's how the Irish weather goes, it's difficult to say if the weather will be good or bad but there is always going to be something worthwhile for the photographer.

I always leave for the day with a plan for landscape photography, and adapt according to the weather and other factors.

To learn how to photograph in any conditions such as these or these contact me using the contact page.

I found this old stone bridge recently, having photographed the valley in which it sits I climbed down off the road, slipping most of the way on the steep incline that was boggy and wet.

Thankfully the ground was soft.

Cobh, a port town in Cork Harbour is best known to the world as the last port of call for RMS Titanic, the ill-fated luxury liner that sank on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic in 1912.

It is now best known to over 140,000 cruise visitors per year who disembark from 69 vessels as the pretty seaside town that is close to some of Ireland's best sights. It has recently been voted amongst the best cruise destinations in Europe, coming in only behind Amsterdam.

If you are visiting Cobh or Cork on a cruise or other style of holiday then let Panoramic Ireland, that's me, show you the best places to see and photograph with one of our photography tours. 

One of the southwest of Ireland's most iconic buildings, Ross Castle is a tower house or fortified dwelling dating from the late 1400s and is typical of the architecture of the period - wealthy and powerful families lived in such defensive structures.

Seen here after sunset as the blue hour approaches, clouds race across the sky and the waters of the river run calm to give a good, but not perfect, reflection with its bright artificial lights.

A recent photography tour in the west of Ireland encompassed several sunrises but of these this was the most impressive.

I have written about Northern Ireland's locations associated with Saint Patrick in this post and since it is Ireland's national saint's day once again, that's the 17th March for those of you who don't know, why not show off some more locations with links to the snake-banishing, shamrock-wielding Welshman who became a hit in his adopted country Ireland.

And where better to include, other than the spectacular Croagh Patrick mentioned here, Dublin's Saint Patrick's cathedral, a well in Tipperary, and Cashel also known as Patrick's Rock in Irish.

Wicklow in the morning, this is without doubt one of my favourite images.

Working on assignment for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel magazine I had the task to capture representative scenes of Ireland - landscapes, green, classic Dublin buildings.