Peaceful

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.

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.

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

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.

A night view of the Gap of Dunloe, illuminated by moonlight. Snow sits on the mountains as the winter weather of 2010 retreats at last

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 lone tree is a magnet for local photographers. and was particularly beautiful on this evening. The red light on the clouds is not sunrise, but streetlights from the nearby village.

Made on a moonlit night, ground fog fills the valley, eerily lit by light from a farmhouse. The constellation of Orion is visible in the sky with the snow-covered Macgillycuddy's Reeks in the background.

A lone figure lights the way to the monastery on the peak of Skellig Michael on a calm night.

Made during my trip to visit the Bull Rock Lighthouse in early Summer, 2010. This image was made on the way down from the old fog signal station and shows the illuminated lighthouse against the empty sea beyond.
As this is a night image, the exposure was long and thus the waves and clouds are completely smoothed out, creating a timeless look.

This photograph was made in the evening after the lantern had come on in the lighthouse. The open door is very inviting - lighthouses were always very hospitable places. Unfortunately, since automation more often than not the doors are barred as there's no one present. When work is ongoing, for a brief time some of that old hospitality comes back to life.

Being mainly famous for its 6th century monastery, the dramatic island of Skellig Michael also boasts two lighthouses built in 1830. This image was made of the lower lighthouse from the road to the upper (which was discontinued and abandoned in 1870).
Made shortly after moonrise, the image shows the light in its new guise. Just a couple of weeks before this image was made, the old fresnel lantern was decommissioned and a modern LED lantern mounted on the balcony. In a large print, this new light can be seen illuminated. It has great advantages in cost of operation, but unfortunately means that the rest of the lighthouse complex is surplus to requirements and will be closed up. The end of an era, but on this trip I was fortunate enough to enjoy the hospitality of the lighthouse for possibly the last time ever.
This is one of my favourite images of recent times. I love the line of the road leading down to the light, and even more the evidence of nature's relentless assault in the cracked and damaged walls, and the overgrown road itself.