June 2008

Something is strange the sun is shining, it’s hot, and the sea is the kind of colour you normally associate with the Maldives. Even my leg is swollen with some blood sucking insect hanging out it.
No I am not in the tropics but Donegal!
I am based near the village of Dunfanaghay for a week of photography working a list of locations I want to capture for stock agencies and for personal work. So 4a.m early risings and snapping until 11p.m. are the order of the day.
Pounded by Atlantic storms, the coastline of Donegal is a photographers dream. Soaring cliffs and secluded bays are to be found all over the county. High on my list of subjects to photograph is one of Donegal’s sea arches.

HHseastack Sea Arches are photogenic at the best of times. However throw in some choppy seas, wonderful light and you have a landscape that begs to be photographed. The sea arch I’m here to photograph is a thirty-minute trek across bog and farmland, to a location that many people know about but few have seen.
On arrival conditions are perfect – infact it is almost a shame to take the camera out of the bag. A bottle of vino and my good wife beside me would be more fun. Instead I am grappling with the legs of a tripod wondering if the composition I have chosen is the best possible.
This shot is as easy as it gets. Mother nature has done all the hard work. All I have to do is wait for the sun to drop. Twenty minutes later and with the sun dropping behind Tory Island I make my first exposures as the cliff face turns a beautiful golden colour.
A moment like this is why I love photography.

Nature’s elements combining to create a moment of beauty that sends a tingle down the spine. It’s a feeling that is hard to explain. One thing that is not hard to explain is the well
fed blood sucking tick hanging out of my leg.

I am off to seek out a doctor to remove the little bugger.