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.

It may have been swelteringly hot throughout the rest of Europe this summer, but here in Ireland the heatwave consisted of a week or so of hot weather. 

For much of July 2022 the weather has been colder, wetter and windier than usual and on this occasion we had lots of trouble photographing the coastline along Ireland's famed Wild Atlantic Way.

In fairness, Dublin's Phoenix Park did see 33C in 2022, the second highest temperature recorded in Ireland after the record 33.3C in Kilkenny set in 1887.

I'm not complaining, the stormy weather was much more interesting for photography than sunny, warm and hazy heatwave conditions would have given; crashing waves showing the power of the Atlantic as it meets the geological landscape of these cliffs.

Indeed these cliffs as you see them rise steeply for 100 to 120m above the deep blue ocean below, the rocks here are amongst Ireland's oldest, dating to the Pre-Cambrian.

Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph in Ireland's majestic, stormy wild west.

Amongst the most popular places to visit in Donegal and indeed in the whole of Ireland and in particular the 2,500km Wild Atlantic Way that stretches from Donegal's border with Derry right down to Kinsale in Cork, Slieve League's impressive sloping sea cliffs are inspiring.

The impressive cliffs and uninterrupted Atlantic views of Slieve League are located approximately one hour's drive west of Donegal Town in the south west of Ireland's most northerly county, Donegal.

On my previous visit to these cliffs that rise to about 600 metres off the Atlantic Ocean the weather was bright and golden with beautiful light striking the facets of grey rock and green grass.

On this occasion, summer 2021, it was warm but overcast so there was no direct, golden sunshine light. Still, at least the Atlantic weather was sympathetic to our photographic pursuits and there was plenty of colour as you can see in this image.

There's something about the smell of the coast - a fresh Atlantic Ocean breeze, sunshine and recently passed rain.

And it's the smell of nature after rain that will be very familiar to anyone who spends much time outdoors, even in the urban environment, indeed a typical Irish town will have that particular post-pluvial odour caused by a mix of geosmin from gardens, parks and hedges and ozone from concrete and tarmac.

Of course the smell of the countryside, fields and forests the same.

And that smell has a name, Petrichor which comes from the Greek petros for stone and ichor which was the blood of the gods.

I have written about Slieve League or Sliabh Liag before, Ireland's highest mainland coastal cliffs.

This is one of Ireland's finest landscapes with its indented, steep cliffs constantly battered by the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of metres below.

Bright, golden light catches each of the rocky indents.

Join me, in 2021 and 2022, to photograph in Ireland's most scenic locations.

The sky above the west of Ireland, in particular Connemara, is more impressive than those of the rest of Ireland.

Big, open blue skies and stormy skies stretching for miles are the likely scenes awaiting the photographer and visitor alike.

Panoramic Ireland's photography workshops run all year round in Connemara, in Dublin and throughout Ireland.

Contact me today to find out more about the places and options for 2021.

Sometimes it's just as simple as this, the sun goes down and you're in the right location.

Here, the Atlantic and the sunset fast approaches. The sun appears from behind a thick band of cloud just before it sets in the west on the autumn equinox when day and night are of equal length.

The days have of course been getting shorter since the summer solstice but here at the autumn equinox summer truly leaves us in Ireland and the shorter days are balanced out by longer nights.

The sun will of course rise in the east again on the following morning but we will see less and less of Earth's lifegiver until December 21st when the day length reaches its shortest.

Join Panoramic Ireland on a photography workshop, in person or virtually, in Ireland during 2020 and 2021.

I wrote a few weeks ago about that magical moment on top of Croagh Patrick with a wide open panorama and brocken spectre - an atmospheric phenomenon.

You can read about that here, this was on that same fine climb with the plains of Mayo spread out below, the long stony path leading up into the cloud line and the landscape that awaits beyond.

For me photography is about capturing moments and creating a sense of place - Ireland really is my place, from the western landscapes to urban Dublin.

And with my cancer journey over the past two years it has been places and moments like this that keeps spirits high, sometimes reminiscing and sometimes getting out into the countryside to photograph.

Now little more than half an outline of a shipwrecked boat, the rotting planks that make up Bad Eddie's Boat, marooned on a Donegal beach since 1977, may soon become a more lasting figure if locals can raise enough funds to recreate the tourist attraction as a stainless steel work of art.

Overlooked by the long abandoned Óstán Gweedore, the monolithic hotel perched above the beach in Bunbeg, Bad Eddie's Boat is to be surveyed by a team from Queen's University in Belfast with the intention of recreating the structure as Ireland's first piece of submersed beach sculpture.

Seen here in 2014, the sea has not been kind to Bad Eddie's Boat. Eddie brought the French-built ship ashore here for repairs in 1977 and it has remained here ever since, providing interest to locals, visitors and artists alike.

Bono and Clannad recorded a video here for their famous track In a Lifetime back in 1986.

Photographing seascapes in Ireland is never boring. The varied geology of the Irish coast makes it interesting to say the least.

Here along the Wild Atlantic Way many rocks are evident, sedimentary layers are visible inclining out of the Atlantic while behind igneous rocks form the foreshore.

The rough sheep grazing land stretching uphill is dotted with rocks.

More seascapes can be found here with information on Panoramic Ireland's coastal photography workshops.