Crepuscular rays shining from behind late evening clouds in the west of Ireland

Towards sunset or sunrise as the angle of sunlight is low in the sky, rays shining across the sky illuminating dust in the atmosphere create crepuscular rays, a series of parallel beams of light that appear to converge on or indeed emerge from the sun.

The upper rays seen here, beaming across the sky are crepuscular rays.

The beauty of landscapes, it's not just the famous places that should attract the photographer's attention.

In fact, the hidden places are what makes Ireland an amazing landscape photography destination.

Those famous places are without doubt, scenically stunning - the Giant's Causeway in my own native county for instance, the Dingle Peninsula - Ireland's most westerly point, both of these places are amazingly beautiful and amongst the most scenic in the world. Ireland has no shortage of world-class scenic locations but most of them are not well known.

Bright and characterful sunset sunlight on Ireland's Atlantic Ocean.

This image comes from the western edge of the Emerald Isle as the late evening sunlight fades behind rain-bearing clouds to give dramatic lighting on the ocean's surface.

As we waited for the same sunlight to strike the Cliffs of Moher we turned our cameras toward the west and were not disappointed.

Join me on a photography day course at Northern Ireland's fine Giant's Causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Learn more about when to use various settings on your camera - Av / Tv or S / M and how to choose which settings given the conditions.

Learn how to use filters, specifically for coastal landscapes and how to plan for the weather.

The schedule is varied depending on the season, weather on the day and due to other factors but we will organise the day to suit each of these elements.

Sunsets are often bright and colourful in Ireland, and on this occasion it was one of the most impressive that I have photographed.

Here, during a photography workshop covering sunset landscapes in the west of Ireland we encountered this scene with colourful clouds and open blue sky along with an orange sun.

Killarney is one of Ireland's most scenic places, here the famous lakes and mountains just outside of town are looking great at sunset on a cloudy day.

The Beauty of Sunset in Dublin

I often get asked what the weather is like in Dublin or in Ireland.

It's difficult to predict, the weather, but one thing is for sure - the weather here is a lot better than you might think, particularly for the photographer.

Photography in the West of Ireland from a Panoramic Ireland Photo Tour

It has been a busy few weeks here at panoramicireland.com, we have covered Ireland's largest music festival Electric Picnic (more to come on that) and also have been busy photographing Ireland's landscapes while leading photography tours in the west of the country.

Here is an image from this week's visit to Ireland's west, a region of lakes and mountains sometimes sunny weather but often it looks like in this image and don't you think it's inviting?

Each day's sunset is different, there are no two sunsets the same even in the same location.

Here is a case in point, a few days ago I photographed the sunset here in the west of Ireland. It was a bright evening with some cloud and plenty of blue sky - see image below and this link.

Last night's colourful sunset saw me clambering (and falling) over stone walls in pursuit of the colourful sky in the west of Ireland.

From this week's forecast I knew that if the conditions looked right then it would be worth the effort to photograph the sunset, the forecast for today was for better and sunnier conditions but Met Eireann like many forecasting services around the world, are often not accurate in the slightest and that indeed proved right once again.