This was taken yesterday morning at Barna Quay. Whilst taking it, I was speaking to a local man. He took me for a West Connemara man, before I told him that I was actually from Wales. I was surprised by how pleased I was by his assumption. I mean, I'm very proud of being Welsh and have never pretended to be otherwise, but it's nice to think that I've settled into the area to such a degree that a Galwegian thought that I was from the same county. I was never mistaken for a Dubliner in the nearly 6 years that I lived there. I guess feeling at home in Galway must be starting to show.

So you spy something that you'd like to photograph. You do the recce, working out your angle, where the sun's going to be, which lens and filter you're going to use, and so on. Then you turn up on the day to find that, actually, your plan's not going to work at all, and you end up shooting something completely different; and either end up with something better, or nothing at all. The former is what happened with these images. The first was taken in Spiddal. I'd actually planned to shoot from the other side of the quay, facing in from the sea. I was planning on the sun illuminating the

When I first saw this diving platform it was so cold on Salthill promenade that tears were streaming down my face. As I neared the diving platform I saw a man standing under an awning, soaking wet and in a pair of shorts, windmilling his arms. Referring to the water incredulously I asked "Have you just been in there?", he replied "No, this is how I always look"! Stupid question really but I would have thought that a dip in the water at that time of year would kill you. On my return visits I've come to realise that a quick dip in the water is popular with the locals. I saw a man strip to

I set off in my car for a lake that I saw on my map that I thought might be good to photograph. I took a wrong turn and ended up in Na Forbacha. So I parked by Padraicins pub and took a walk along the beach. On my way back I stopped to take this shot. I had my gear set up and was waiting for the sun to pop out from behind the clouds to light up the foreground, when I turned to find that tide had come in and my way back to the car was under water! I quickly scooped up my gear and legged it. I didn't actually know that I had this shot until I downloaded the memory card after shooting