I check the weather forecast once a day looking for conditions favourable to photography. If there are conditions forecast that will suit an image that I have in mind I pay more attention and check the updates more often, and if there aren't I pay less attention. So it was with complete surprise when I looked out the window and saw thick fog outside my house when I was expecting instead several days of rain. The first thing I did was check the tide and on finding that it was high tide in about half an hour I made a quick dash for Salthill. On checking a previous blog post I learnt that

I wasn't sure what was going to be at the end of my journey as I drove towards Levally Lough in County Mayo. Firstly I hadn't visited the location beforehand to check its suitability (I'd just picked a likely spot on Google Street View) and secondly I had no way of knowing what the conditions were going to be like until I got there. A blanket of fog was forecast to cover the entire country, but would it be thick fog or more misty? I planned to capture Nephin Mountain reflected in Levally Lough. If thick fog prevailed then maybe the mountain would be poking out above the fog, which would

If you take a look back through my blog posts you will see that I have attempted to photograph this limestone abutment in the middle of the river Corrib twice before. What I hadn't realised is that I had been waiting for 2 years to have another go. Essentially every time fog was forecast over Galway, at the very least I would get out of bed early to stick my head out the window to check for fog. Most of the time there never was any fog, sometimes there was fog but nowhere near thick enough, and once or twice I'd drive to the location to find that conditions weren't quite right. On this

I arrived at Streedagh Point for the dawn as I'd marked out a point on top of the dunes from where there is a great view of the mountain range - nicely coated in snow - that Benbulbin belongs to. However the light was completely flat and wasn't going to improve for hours judging by the thick blanket of cloud over Sligo. So I decided to move to a lower point where I could possibly use alluvium to capture a reflection of the mountain range instead. Ultimately it was a wasted hour though. From there I went north to Gleniff Horseshoe where I'd marked out a spot from which can be seen the

In my last post I said that I'd have to wait for another foggy morning to have another go at photographing the Corrib Viaduct. I didn't have long to wait. I made an impromptu dash to Woodquay after the school run and had about an hour to get what I needed. From the previous visit I knew where to set up my camera and also that I wanted to use a longer focal length. However, when I was able to compare what I'd captured that morning to what I'd previously captured, I could see that the longer focal length had the effect of bringing background elements in closer to the subject, making it

I'd just gotten myself a new shutter release remote control and was waiting for an opportunity to try it out. Happily I got my chance on a Sunday morning with a few hours of lovely thick fog over Galway. I headed down to Woodquay where the stone supports that used to hold the Corrib Viaduct are situated. They are interesting structures in the middle of the river that used to hold the Galway to Clifden railway line. There are three of these pillars but unfortunately the more photogenic ones (the ones with an arch in the centre) are situated on the opposite and harder to access side of the

Stood on the shore of Derryclare Lough it was immediately obvious that none of the conditions I was in need of were going to happen. I gave it time but wasn't long in concluding that I wasn't going to get the shot that I was after. I decided to take a look around and when I rounded a huge mound I happened upon a kissing gate on a partly submerged path. I knew that the path was there as I'd seen photographs of it previously but in its current state it would make for an excellent long exposure image. I praised my good fortune and quickly set up my camera. I took a few shots using the 50mm