June 2010

With evening closing in I turn left off the R335 between Delphi and and Louisburgh and navigate the small meandering roads of south Mayo. I find myself over looking the beach at the impossible to pronounce Trawleekachoolia near Lackakeely.

In front of me lies a golden beach and the Atlantic ocean. Behind me Mweelrea basques in golden evening light. To describe the location as beautiful would be something of an understatment.

It is hard to believe that a few weeks earlier, I stood at the same spot, soaked to the skin whilst almost deafened by a howling wind.

Isolated and wild this remote part of Ireland takes the full brunt of passing Atlantic storms. The only reminder of those wild days are the small twisted and malformed weather beaten trees.

After scurrying across the beach, and with the sun casting a warm glow across the landscape I find myself weaving between dunes looking for a compositon. All the time trying not to leave any foot prints in locations I might photograph.

After numerous attempts, I finally settle on a composition that I believe captures the beauty of the location, the shape and textures of the dunes, the ocean and distant hills.

As always before I even press the shutter, auto pilot kicks in and I run through my usual pre click ritual. Checking grads are aligned , making sure the camera is level, exposure check, and finally wondering if the composition works at all. The last point being the most important.

It is all too easy in this digital age to turn up and run and shoot at a location. I can’t help but smile when people say to me they photographed the same location and took loads of shots, but got “nothing like your shot”. Looking at their work it becomes obvious that the important things like composition have been give no consideration. Composition above all else is most important.

Ok, enough rambling. After capturing the above image,that depicts the location. I head out further along the beach to the headland that over looks the shoreline.

From there, Mweelrea stood illuminated by a band of sunshine whilst its summit lay hidden by a layer of cloud that was tumbling in. With a 17-40mm lens mounted to the camera and a 3stop graduated Neutral density filter in place I work quickly in the rapidly changing light. Shooting a number of images at different shutter speeds I am most happy with the image below. Here a shutter speed of 1/15th and an aperture of F13 combined with the composition have captured an image of subtle contrasts.

As the last light of day fading into night, and with the taste of sea on my lips, thoughts of a cold beer in Gaynors bar in Leenane were first and fore most in my mind. Too strong a temptation to resist and with enough images to be content with I relent and make for the car along the shore.

Walking bare foot along the cool sand, I could not stop myself from endlessly stopping and lifting the camera to the eye, observing the beautiful dusky sky mixing with the retreating tide.

As the sun set and after taking numerous other images, the image I am happiest with was the last one of the night. The image below is a mysterious West of Ireland seascape.

To capture this image and create the soft water effect, I used the slowest shutter speed I could get. To do that I set the ISO value on the camera to 50, attached two Singh Ray graduated neutral desnity filters to the lens, and set an aperture of F13.

With cable release in hand and as the tide rolled in then out I tripped the shutter, and listened to the silence. Thity seconds later the shutter closed, and I was off in the hope of catching last orders.

That journy back to the car took longer than I thought!

Delaying that cool beer was it worth it?