Images of Ireland - Landscapes by Irish photographer Peter McCabe

Images of the Irish Landscape from Peter McCabe on Vimeo.

As an Irish landscape photographer, I typically display a limited amount of work on my site www.photoimagery.net. Normally after a shoot, I process the images, upload one or two to the site and send the rest off to four or five stock agencies.

As of late I have been exploring ways of showing more of the images that don't appear on the photoimagery site to the general public. With that in mind, I have decided that over the course of the year to create a number of photographic slideshows and post them to my photographic blog.

After all there is no excuse for not doing it. I like many other Irish landscape photographers are blessed with some of the most dramatic scenery in the world. Throw in the ever changing light and Ireland is a landscape photographers paradise. So why not show the place off.

Irish Landscape - Tree by Moonlight

There is something about winter that makes every landscape photographer excited and possibly slightly insane. This is even more so if you are an Irish landscape photographer. Proper sub zero winters in Ireland, especially when they are topped up with a dollop of snow are rare.

So recently, as the Christmas festivities began the winter really kicked in and temperatures plummeted. For two weeks it remained that way. Roads became ice rinks, mountains became practically impassible and every radio news station advised people against making non essential journeys. Despite the conditions I found myself frequently driving the icy back roads and snowy mountain roads in the pursuit of pictures.

One such journey I made during the cold spell was to a location outside of Donore County Meath. It is a location I have often visited but never photographed. However on this occasion I found myself standing on the steepest of incline with only a torch and the moon guiding the way. Above me a lone tree stood eerily against a backdrop of a moonlit sky. This was the picture I had hoped for.

For this shot I wanted to create an image that would make maximum use of the dramatic sky against the stark outline of the land . I also wanted to capture the movement of the clouds to inject some drama into the scene.

With this in mind and I set an exposure of thirty seconds @F13, and as the clouds began to cover the full moon I pressed the shutter.

The thirty second exposure was just enough to create drama in the sky. But perhaps most importantly it was an effective way of controlling any blown highlights that may have been caused by the full moon.

The lens I used for the shot was the Canon 70-200F4L on a Canon 5DMK11 at ISO 640.

What do you think?