Last Light, Lough Leine A long exposure of 5 minutes after sunset on Lough Leine, Killarney National Park. During the exposure the water and clouds blur and you only see the final result once the exposure has completed. My favourite part of long exposure work is the time you have during exposures when you can do nothing else but relax, look around and take it all in !

“Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.” – Ansel Adams This was one of those moments which was fleeting and I knew would never be repeated.  So being there and witnessing it was wonderful but realising I had to make an image that captured it required my full concentration and lessens the ability to just enjoy it a little. The sun behind me was setting and about to drop below high ridge, putting the valley floor into shadow. It was also dropping into a slim sliver of clear sky which I thought could produce some drama on the mountains opposite.  As it did, this razor like cut of light fell on the base of the mountain with the approaching squalls turning the rest of the sky an ominous dark black. Once again I felt I was realising years of contemplating another artists work,  the painter Tim Goulding, who's Mountain Fires paintings , I've long coveted and admired.  This was my mountain fire and it was a glorious sight.

Uragh Stone Circle in the Gleninchaquin Valley on the Beara Peninsula most likely predates the great pyramids in Egypt and similar structures are dotted all around the country. The southwest of Ireland has some of the highest concentrations of megalithic sites in Europe and this location with the Gleninchaquin Waterfall in the background is typically spectacularly scenic.

A lone Hawthorn Tree is backlit by the rising sun on a very unique morning in June. I had been camping out on high ground the previous night and unexpectedly had a very cold night on the mountain as a bizarre front of cold air moved down across the country. Once it was light enough to come down I did and sat in my car warming up as the sun began to rise. I noticed that as a result of the cold air, the light was unusually crisp and clear for a summer morning. I lined up a composition with the tree shading the rising sun and marvelled as the light wrapped around it and made an otherwise difficult exposure work perfectly. These trees are often left standing alone for superstitious reasons by farmers , especially near lying boulders, for fear of bringing a curse from the fairies on them !! Lough Brin sits in a beautiful valley at foothills of the McGillycuddys Reeks mountains in Kerry.

A beautiful location but on an overcast day with very little light, you really only have one option and that is for a long exposure. This is a 3 minute exposure of this iconic little jetty giving a lovely sense of stillness and balance.

Derrycunnihy as viewed from the famous Ladie's View in the Killarney National Park. The more famous view is a little off to the right, but I really loved the layers being revealed by the lingering mist and fog here and also the breaking light behind Mangerton mountain.

I'm surrounding by a wild and dramatic landscape that can sometimes be quite overwhelming and almost too much too photograph ! On mornings like this when a low fog softens the entire landscape and isolates wonderful details it's a great treat to be able to make quieter more reflective images. This is near Derrycunnihy on the Upper Lake in Killarney National Park, taken from a boat after travelling up along the Long Range from Muckross, one of the great water journeys you can do anywhere in Ireland.

After a weeks heavy rain and storms I returned to Killarney National Park's Ross Island to find the levels of the lake had risen so much that all the paths were submerged under water, completely altering the landscape. With careful driving and a pair of waders I enjoyed photographing this area and noticed this piece of driftwood placed perfectly in the reflections. The next day the water levels had dropped significantly and the entire scene looked completely different.

Ross Castle , Lough Leine I will often go to great lengths to exclude buildings and man made structures from my landscape work but everyone now and again they can't be left out. Ross Castle was photographed for my book project PARKLIGHT - Images of Killarney National Park, as it's an iconic part of the built heritage of the park. I didn't want to just photograph the castle though, I wanted to show it within the context of the surrounding landscape and so choose to photograph it from across the lake on a winter's afternoon with the right amount of low light and cloud separating the mountains behind. The little ducks were a bonus !

I have a long held interest in photographing farmland gates and noting the vast range of styles and methods used both today and in years gone by to secure access points to lands. Some are ornate and hark back to days where great pride was taken in owning even a small holding.

One of my favourite trips in this area is to take the small road that runs from Kilgarvan, through the Borlin Valley towards Bantry. At the top of the pass, on remote and rugged bogland sits the ruins of this old cottage which I love to return to and wonder about those who lived here many years ago.

After spending two years photographing in the Killarney National Park I began to shift focus from ' recording ' the dramatic landscape to capturing the very essence and nature of the place and the very special sights you can witness within it. Early morning is always my preference, any time of year and during a particularly long dry spell the water levels on the lake drop to the point where you can walk out to locations rarely accessible. Here I choose to focus on this wonderfully still scene instead of the coming drama ahead as first light hits the Reeks behind.

Skellig Moon II The iconic Skellig Islands , off the west coast of Kerry with an April full moon setting in the morning. The once in a lifetime perfect image that took three years and 16 failed attempts to make is by far the most popular image sold in the gallery. This was made just before sunrise in April at 6.13 am as the moon sits just two degress above the horizon. It is the lowest I have witness the moon setting and is coloured yellow as most of the white light is filtered out as it travels through more atmosphere at that elevation. It was still quite dark so a 1 second exposure was required which gives the breaking wave that blurred effect. I had underexposed slightly to ensure the details of the moon were not blown out and used a hard graduated filter over the lens to make sure and balance the exposure. Often dismissed as a 'photoshopped' image.. I haven't grown tired of explaining it to visitors and reliving that wonderful morning again and again !   Skellig Moon II is an open edition available in three sizes.