Baltimore Beacon, Co. Cork

Locally it's known as Lot's Wife, and once you hear that you can't unsee it. That tapered white form with the red ball on top, planted on the rocks, staring out to sea forever.

Baltimore Beacon has stood on this headland since the early 1800s, a navigation marker for vessels approaching the harbour. I've photographed it many times over the years but always wanted to do something different with it. On this particular day I had a tilt-shift lens, which lets you physically angle the plane of focus relative to the sensor. Instead of everything sharp front to back, you get a narrow corridor of sharpness cutting through the scene at whatever angle you choose.

So that's what I did. The zone of focus runs from the rocks in the immediate foreground, through the beacon itself, and on to Sherkin Island in the distance. Everything either side falls into blur. The effect is subtle but it makes the image feel a little strange, a little unexpected. Your eye follows that corridor almost without realising it, and you find yourself looking more carefully at what's in focus because so much else isn't.

Warm directional light gave the white stonework real dimension and picked out the texture of the rocks. High cloud kept breaking apart and reforming, so I had maybe a ten-minute window where the light was consistent enough to work with. That was enough!