It's well and truly that time of year again, Autumn is here in Ireland with clear blue skies and changing leaf colours.

That of course means colour, lots of it, as seen in this image.

A lone sycamore tree stands guard over the small stream as it flows through an empty landscape under a bright and colourful sky with white clouds and sheep grazing on grass nearby.

Of course we have heard a lot recently about a more famous lone sycamore, the one cut down at Sycamore Gap along Hadrian's Wall in England.

We enjoyed bright sunshine at the end of September here in Ireland's uplands as sheep grazed all around. 

Traditionally the start of August marks the begining of autumn in Ireland, meteorologically though September begins the season.

I have written before that October is one of my favourite months in Ireland and is definitely a time you should consider visiting the Emerald Isle.

Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph Ireland at its best in October, May and the rest of the year.

If you can't travel to Ireland, consider helping to keep Panoramic Ireland going by donating to cover the costs of maintaining the site and travelling through Ireland.

Ireland's fine scenery, as in a recent post looks as good in grey and cloudy weather as in sunshine and blue skies.

A case in point, here in the northwest, in County Donegal this landscape of granite mountains covered in a soft, boggy carpet with just delicate highlights and shadows across the empty scene.

This, a glaciated valley features steep sides hundreds of metres in height.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph landscapes like these.

I often get asked about photography and visiting Ireland, one of the most common questions is "What is there to photograph when the weather isn't good?"

Well even in summer, like here in this image, the weather can be grey and often rainy but it's still scenic.

And yet it is how Ireland often is, not the bright sunshine and blue sky of typical postcard images. The landscape is sympathtic to the soft weather of an Irish day.

There's a poetry to the landscape in such conditions as here in Donegal and although I typically head for woodlands in grey weather, I do still enjoy photographing the open landscape with the distant grey of mountains melding in with the grey of the sky.

Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph in the Irish landscape throughout the year.

Beautiful golden light in the Mourne Mountains, County Down, as the recent cold weather comes to an end.

Ireland has in recent weeks seen days with low temperatures, as low as -9C - winter is well and truly here. 

But now, in a quick change, we have reached 11C - a change in some places of 12 degrees in 24 hours, 20 degrees in less than a week.

Autumn is upon us here in Ireland, we have passed the autumn equinox and now the length of daylight is shorter than night.

Last week I was photographing in County Roscommon at the inaugural Night and Day Festival which featured Irish and international artists - more to come on that soon.

This week I have been photographing in some woodlands in the Irish countryside, the weather was a little challenging but the workshop with NS from Virginia, a first time visitor to Ireland, went well as we covered long exposure photography and how to photograph colourful scenes.

Here we left the woodland to photograph along a wide, fast-flowing river to another section of colourful woods on the opposite bank. This is a scene that looks best in the autumn months.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph Ireland's rivers, woodlands and countryside in autumn, winter, spring and summer.

This ash tree marks a little high point, a prominence at the entrance to a small enclosure, beside the ruins of an old stone thatched cottage.

Only a few of the foundation stones remain here, the cottage long since tumbled but this impressive ash, estimated to be 140 years old, still stands and was probably a young tree when the house was still occupied.

I have written about ash trees, known as fuinseog in Irish, before here on panoramicireland.com especially in reference to the disease that is currently making its way through the Irish countryside to destroy one of the most valued and characterful species on the island.

This poor ash might not see out its natural 300-400 year lifespan and end up like so many, a dendritic dead fossil of a once thriving ecosystem.

The Mourne Mountains are the highest and most dramatic mountains in Northern Ireland.

The Mournes sit some 35 miles south of Belfast and visible from parts of the city, most notably those views served as inspiration to CS Lewis for Narnia in his famous tales.

Composed mainly of granite the Mourne Mountains are rugged and peaky, crossed by many paths and surrounded by lush green countryside as seen here.

And of course, the Mournes are the subject of a famous song by Percy French called Mountains of Mourne.

The whole town of London stood there to look on

But for all his great powers, he's wishful like me

To be back where the dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea

Here in the image below, Slieve Donard at the highest point in the Mournes at 853m as the dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea under a sky filled with sunrays that would inspire any writer or musician, or indeed photographer.

Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph in the scenic landscapes of the Mourne Mountains and County Down.

The west of Ireland is one of Panoramic Ireland's favourite places to photograph, often the coast is preferred but sometimes, in cloudy conditions, the valleys of the ancient mountains are more scenic.

Here, in County Mayo, sunshine moves through the valley from the steep, rocky sides to the lakey valley floor.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph in the west of Ireland.

The weather has been marvellous over the past week in Ireland, although some cold air has arrived to bring frost but at least no snow.

Here, on a journey through one of Ireland's most scenic counties - Tipperary, I drove along the scenic road to a famous viewpoint known as The Vee to photograph the view of the Galty or Galtee Mountains.

The Galty Mountains reach a height of 917.9m and are Ireland's highest inland mountain range, most of the country's highest peaks are much closer to the coast.

Panoramic Ireland is working on a project featuring the area, if you want to see more of this region of Ireland send me an email.

For the first time in a while I ventured back to one of my favourite locations for landscape photography today.

And, although the prevailing conditions were cloudy and windy, for a moment late afternoon sunshine broke through to illuminate the mountain ridge and enhance the red hues of the bracken and heather covered landscape.

Seven sheep are just visible, grazing the meagre mountainside.

Even in winter, in late January, the weather was mild with temperatures of 11C.