Pots of gold they say, that's what you will find at the end of a rainbow.

I'm not so sure, I have photographed many rainbows over the years and upon inspection have never found any gold - perhaps those pesky leprechauns got there before me.

Here, the round tower and small church of the monastic city at Glendalough are seen above the fast flowing river and underneath the rainbow. These stones must have seen plenty of rainbows and rainy weather in their almost 1,000 years in their current positions.

Rainbows can only occur when the sun is located behind the observer, when the sun is low in the sky and when there is rain or mist in the direction of view. The colours are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Sunlight enters droplets of water in the atmosphere and is reflected back, undergoing refraction as it enters and leaves the water.

Anyway, for a photographer a rainbow is a little like gold in itself, find a rainbow over any scene and it is instantly improved and if you move around to find a new angle the rainbow will be accommodating in its desire to fit neatly into the subject in front of you as seen here on Croagh Patrick in County Mayo.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, on a photography workshop in Ireland when we can travel again (in 2021) and in the meantime check back for more images, stories and news from Ireland.

The myth that Ireland suffers from bad weather year round, especially outside of the summer months, is definitely not true.

Autumn and Winter in Ireland can be full of fine, clear and bright weather, just like in this image from the spectacular coastline. Low tide exposes golden sands as a small stream slowly trickles towards the steady motion of small waves.

This coastline is full of sea stacks and crags and while it looks peaceful here it can be stormy too.

Join Panoramic Ireland for a private photography workshop in Ireland from the Causeway Coast to the Copper Coast or anywhere else.

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.

Ireland is usually seen as the Emerald Isle, with its abundance of green landscapes and old buildings.

Weather plays a big part in the mood of the Irish countryside, and often the conditions make it difficult to photograph those stereotypical, iconic scenes.

Soft scenes like this, with waves washing gently over pebbles below a grey sky - most of the green here seen in the colour of the ocean, make up a large part of the landscape photographer's collection in Ireland.

For when the weather isn't quite a s good as it should be.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to learn how to photograph coastal landscape scenes like these.

A fine day over part of Ireland today, and a lot of rain too ahead of Storm Ellen which will bring strong winds to the west and south of the island.

I was in both parts, rain and sun. I've had my first CT scan of 2020 and bloods taken for tumour marker tests - again the first of this year as COVID-19 interrupted cancer checkup services.

So after somewhat of a damp day I was glad to see some bright, warm sunshine and stopped to photograph this scene of a laneway leading across the fields past these fine ash trees as the sun gets lower in the sky creating a starburst.

It made me wonder, on this day of contemplation, was I the only person to stop and photograph this scene? Several cars passed, a cyclist as well but no-one slowed down to look at what I was photographing.

Ireland has seen more than its fair share of stormy weather this summer, as I write we have thunderstorms and heavy rain with very warm temperatures.

This weather of course gives rise to rainbows, this one seen here shining over an old abbey building dating to the 12th century.

These stones have stood here for 800 years, the rainbow lasted mere minutes. 

It got me wondering, how many rainbows has this old building in the Irish countryside seen?

Now there's a thought, but even without an answer it was still a fine sight.

I have written about rainbows here on panoramicireland.com before, here are a few of my favourites: 

https://panoramicireland.com/blog-ireland-guide/croagh-patrick-pilgrimage-brocken-spectre-ringed-glory-irish-mountain

https://panoramicireland.com/photo-tours-blog/rainbow-portobello-dublin

https://panoramicireland.com/miscellaneous-blog-category/stormy-day-weather-brings-delights-ardglass-co-down-northern-ireland

Some snow in the Irish mountains, I knew that winter wasn't over yet back in January.

After quite an adventure where the roads were snowbound today, having to reverse down a mountain side as progress was non-grippy, slippy and, in the end, impossible.

In fact the car ahead of me had already run into troubles on the steep incline, there were patches of compacted snow and ice across the road, particularly where sunlight hadn't reached over the past few days, after all I was climbing up the northern slopes of the mountains.

Today, February 1st, is historically regarded as being the first day of spring here in Ireland, spring is known as Imbolc in ancient Ireland.

February 1st is also Saint Brigid's Day, Saint Brigid is one of Ireland's three patron saints along with Saint Patrick and Saint Columcille.

Interestingly, the dandelion is associated traditionally with Saint Brigid as it flowered closest to the festival so that is what I have posted here, a bumblebee on a dandelion in Ireland.

Ah, the notoriously bad weather in Ireland. Well there's a reputation that the Irish climate is unsuitable for photography. But it's not all true.

Sure there are stormy days, rainy days and grey sky days. But there are plenty of blue sky days, sunny days, calm days and even on those bad days there is always something to photograph.

It has been a foggy few days here and I have been photographing in some new locations, while I'm working on the images here is one, the picture above, of a fabulously foggy day in the Irish countryside taken during summer.

I do like photographing in Ireland in winter, the countryside is mostly empty and the weather can be fine.

Here it was a foggy day with little chance of a break in the cloud overhead so instead of heading for a big wide open scene we headed for a good little woodland where we could make use of the ethereal atmosphere that fog so often gives.

The beech trees were covered in almost luminous, bright green moss and the forest floor carpeted in red/brown beech leaves, and in between all of that the fog permeated the whole place.