Weather plays a big part in outdoor photography, here the evening was cloudy and getting dark after a decent amount of sunlight during the day.

With little hope for sunlight we instead hoped for some interesting clouds and we weren't disappointed. There was plenty of movement and gaps in the cloud cover.

Blue hour came a little early but was well received.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph in Ireland's West and anywhere else in the Irish countryside.

A storm rolls in from the northwest, across the North Atlantic towards the Sea of Moyle and in the distance the islands of the west of Scotland - Islay and Jura amongst others.

In the foreground sits Rathlin Island, one of the largest islands off the coast of Ireland.

The last warm colour of the evening's daylight fades as deep cloud fills the sky and rain obscures the horizon.

The Sea of Moyle sits between the northern part of Antrim, known as Moyle and stretches across to Scotland at the Mull of Kintyre. It forms part of the North Channel, that part of the Irish Sea north of the Isle of Man to the north coast of Northern Ireland, where the Irish Sea meets the open Atlantic again.

Interestingly the North Channel was the scene of the first success by the United States Navy under the command of John Paul Jones and his ship the USS Ranger against the HMS Drake in 1778. A battle almost took place in Carrickfergus before both ships met again a few days later in the East Antrim town on the 24th of April. Jones and his reluctant crew, in it for the money but not glory, successfully defeated HMS Drake after blasting the sails and masts to slow it down. The British ship had superior numbers but was poorly crewed and its guns were not in good working order.

John Paul Jones was from Scotland and along with Commodore John Barry from Wexford in Ireland is considered a founding father of the United States Navy.

The Sea of Moyle, as seen in the above image, was the location of one of the three places where the Children of King Lir were banished to live as swans for 300-years by their evil stepmother - a famous story in Irish mythology.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph the scenes, seascapes and landscapes of the Antrim Coast, Wicklow, Galway and all points in between.

I have written about Croagh Patrick many times here on Panoramic Ireland, most recently with the story of a brocken spectre panorama.

And here is a view from the other side of this majestic peak situated out on the Atlantic Coast of County Mayo in Ireland's west.

Sunset is a magical time in photography, along with sunrise it makes up the best portion of the day for landscape photography.

Here, on the edge of the Atlantic, on Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way is sunset over the Aran Islands with a red-orange glow.

To learn more about photography during the current Coronavirus / COVID-19 quarantine, why not take a personal online photography workshop with me any day of the week, any time of day to suit your timezone via Google Hangouts, Zoom etc.

Contact me to find out more - sessions from 45 mins to 1 hr 15 mins.

Learn how to use Lightroom, Photoshop or other editing software and manage your image collection as well as photography concepts such as depth of field or sunset photography and post processing.

Learn from a professional photographer who has photographed for the biggest names in worldwide publishing.

Today, 17th March, is the feast day of Ireland's patron saint (one of three actually) Saint Patrick and it has been marked with a doodle on Google's search pages of Ireland's Cliffs of Moher.

I know that the Cliffs of Moher are one of the most famous and iconic places in Ireland but I do find it interesting that Saint Patrick never visited the cliffs, nor did he actually visit County Clare.

According to local tradition in County Clare, Saint Patrick blessed the county from across the River Shannon before heading to the north of Ireland.

It's just an observation and I have added my own sunset image from the Cliffs of Moher above.

Dublin is a place of colour and charm, here the setting sun brightens up the sky over the River Liffey.

On the photography workshop we experimented with silhouettes of the famous skyline from this part of Dublin.

The colours and dark outlines of the city's buildings captured the atmosphere of the evening in the Irish capital.

Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph Dublin on one of our Dublin Photo Tours.

The longer days of the year are on their way again, we are now more than 1/10th of the way through 2020 and Panoramic Ireland is running photography tours and workshops to Ireland's beautiful Dingle Peninsula.

Here in the image above, the sun begins to set on the Atlantic, on Ireland's most westerly peninsula with the Blasket Islands lying just offshore.

County Kerry is a favourite location for our photography tours and workshops in Ireland and Dingle is one of the most popular places in Ireland.

Join Panoramic Ireland in Dingle or Dublin for a photography tour in 2020. To find out more, Contact us or use the booking form below.

The Sperrins are Northern Ireland's most extensive upland area, the mountains are very low reaching only 678m at Sawel with very little prominence.

Here they are seen at sunset with bright golden winter sunlight under a fine sky.

This is an isolated area, often cut off by winter snows and with almost no public transport but few people live in the Sperrins.

The sun sets on another day, another solar year passes, the days get longer from now on - Ireland and the northern hemisphere pass the the winter solstice.

In Ireland the winter solstice has long been an important point of the year, Ireland's most famous monument at Newgrange is aligned with sunrise on the winter solstice (December 21/22) - read more here.

Reflected in the western beach Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way greets the colourful sunset, beaming from sheeny sands.

Happy Christmas from Ireland.

It's almost the end of 2019, the decade and while there is no snow for Christmas in Ireland, here is a Christmassy / winter scene from Ireland of stone circles and snow at sunset.

Enjoy the rest of the 2019 and Happy New Year!

If you are travelling to Ireland in 2020 join a photography tour in Dublin, Wicklow, Antrim, Connemara or elsewhere. Contact me to find out more.