Glen Beach, St. Finian's Bay, Kerry

Not a soul on the beach. February in Kerry, mist sitting heavy on Bolus Head, the mountains behind reduced to grey shapes dissolving into nothing. I'd driven out to St. Finian's Bay that morning with no great expectations and the strong suspicion I should have stayed in the car.

But you go anyway. You always go anyway.

The wet sand at Glen Beach was reflecting what little light there was, and the Atlantic had gone remarkably quiet. No dramatic surf, just long gentle rollers sliding across the sand and pulling back again. I used a long exposure to let the water soften into smooth bands across the foreground, while the dark rock in the lower frame held everything in place. Bolus Head was barely visible, a dark form fading into the mist behind the bay.

No golden light, no big sky. Fog and sand and water on a grey afternoon, and somehow this has been one of my most consistently popular photographs over the years. I think the calm in it is genuine. You can feel the weight of that mist just by looking at it, and the silence that comes with it. That's what I wanted to hold onto!