Nocturnes

The pre-dawn light illuminates the lower monk's garden on Skellig Michael. The Small Skellig and the mountains of Kerry lie in the background.

The Small Oratory on Skellig emits a welcoming glow under the stars with the Kerry coast and Small Skellig in the background.

This image was made about an hour after sunset. The last vestiges of colour are visible in the sky over the horizon, but the cool blue of night pervades the scene.
The causeway stretches out ahead with the foreground hexagons wet from spray. The thirty second exposure has left the waves a blur.

One of my favourite nocturnes, this was made late at night at Long Strand. The light on the horizon is Galley Head Lighthouse. The Milky Way dominates the sky, and the light on the rocks in the foreground is a portable studio light I brought along. As there was no moon, without that, there would be no light on the foreground.

Photographing from Hag's Head for the first time, I discovered this canyon at exactly the right moment. The moon was just rising through the slot - a circumstance I couldn't have planned better.

I love shooting nocturnes - night landscapes. The night sky is a very beautiful thing, and is underappreciated as so many of us live in cities where light pollution hides all but the brightest stars.
Combining the beauty of a dark sky with a dramatic landscape is a real joy for me. So, here's this photograph of the Skellig islands from Valentia island at the tip of the Ring of Kerry. The constellation of Orion dominates the sky above Bray Head while moonlit clouds scud across the frame. The Great Nebula of Orion, M42, is just visible at the end of Orion's Sword.

The winter stars rise above the monastery of Skellig Michael on a calm night.

This image was made at Newfoundland Bay on Killarney's Upper Lake. Looking back east to Torc Mountain with the glow from Killarney on the horizon, the Plough (or Big Dipper if you're from the other side of the Atlantic) hangs in the sky overhead like a question mark.

An Searrach (The Foal) is a sea stack just outside Dingle Harbour. Visible from the Conor Pass, I'd been meaning to find a good vantage point for it since I first saw it some years ago. Just recently while returning from business in Dingle town shortly after sunset, and in miserable weather I found this spot. Made with a long lens over 30 seconds, I believe it captures the mood of the scene very well.

This image shows the Little Samphire Island lighthouse as a crescent moon sets behind it.

The constellation of the Plough hangs above the mountains of Allihies on the Beara Peninsula in this image, made under moonlight.

This view of Puffin Island and the Skelligs is one of my favourite in the country. On this evening, I was driven away from one shooting location due to rain, and was getting ready to pack it in for the night. However, I decided to swing past this location to see if conditions were different.
As you can see, the rain had moved on and the moon was just peeking out from the clouds behind me to illuminate the foreground - well worth the diversion!

This image was made on a beautiful still evening - one of a very few we got in the late summer of 2008!
It captures the peace and serenity of this wonderful location - St. Finbar's Oratory on the island in Lough Gougane Barra. About an hour after sunset, night was closing in. There had been a wedding in the oratory earlier, and so the door was open and the lights on. Ribbons and other decoration can be clearly made out through the door in a large print.

Welcoming light spills out of some of the beehive huts that make up the Skellig Michael monastery on a calm night.