Ireland Wild Atlantic Way workshop 2024

A couple of weeks ago I was driving down to Holyhead to take the ferry over to Dublin for what would be my fourth time in Ireland. To say that the weather in Ireland can be changeable would be a total understatement! In past years we’ve had rain and storms of all sorts of magnitudes, but there’s usually a patch of decent light just around the corner after all the inclement stuff passes through. This years trip started off really well. We stayed in a comfortable self catering cottage on the Fanad Headland, and this gives us relatively quick access to some brilliant locations, meaning it’s not too much of a drive to reach a good spot for sunrise.

The weather on that first day was almost too nice. There was a pretty good sunrise at Fanad Head, though with low winds the sea was a bit calm for our liking. It seems a bit odd to be wishing for heavy winds while out with the camera. In most of the locations I tend to visit, wind is a real pain and I hate it! Here though, on one of the most northerly points of Ireland, stuck out on a piece of rock jutting into the Atlantic, it’s absolutely essential for injecting some menace and mood into your images. The shot above is from another visit to Fanad, later in the week. The light maybe wasn’t as nice as our earlier attempt, but the dark skies and angry swell of the sea almost made up for it I think.

We started the second day at another nearby location, and our first visit to photograph one of the many spectacular sea arches to be found along The northern headlands section of the Wild Atlantic Way coastal route. This location and Fanad Head are both great locations at either end of the day, and also at different points in the tide. Therefore we usually revisit both these areas again later in the week. This also makes it possible to try out some different compositions as well. The above image was shot on our second morning, and with a high tide. Unfortunately, a bank of cloud was blocking off the best of the light that day.

In comparison, the above two images were shot later in the week, when sunrise coincided with low tide. The image with the boulder (which some of you who were on last years workshop might recognise) is in completely the opposite direction to the view of the arch and I think it makes a worthwhile composition in its own right. We were so lucky that morning to be able to shoot the nuclear, pre-sunrise colours, before quickly turning 180 degrees to capture the first rays of sunlight filtering through and on to the side of the arch. What a morning! One of the difficulties of running a workshop along the coast here, is that some of the very best locations are quite a distance apart. However, they are so good that it’s difficult to leave them out. Malin Head for instance, is stuck out on its own peninsula. It’s probably less than five miles from Fanad Head as the crow flies. Unfortunately, we have to drive and there’s quite a bit of sea that gets in the way. We made the two hour drive to Malin Head on the Thursday (I think), and the weather didn’t look particularly good that day. This has to be one of the most dramatic coastal locations I’ve ever visited though, so I’m not sure it could ever really look boring, even in poor light. As it happened, we were very lucky again. There was a good swell on the sea, which just like last year was battering the sea stacks and swirling around inside the amphitheatre of rock, aptly named ‘Hells Hole’. Just when we thought it couldn’t get much better, the sun started to break through the cloud at sunset. Not quite enough to light up the foreground, but great for adding a bit of interest in the sky over the main stack. Having a whole six days in Ireland works really well. Many of the workshops I see are usually three or four days. Because of the transient nature of the weather here, it’s brilliant that we have enough time to revisit locations if better conditions are present, or have a steadier day (processing images) if the weather is bad. As I also like to learn more about every area I photograph, it also means we can explore the odd new location here and there. I managed to look at another couple of very good areas on this trip, and I can’t wait to return to them again next year. Both locations are sea arches, again, but they are pretty spectacular! The surrounding areas are also full of potential. We had a quick look at the area above in the middle of the day, then visited another location before re-visiting at sunset. Again we were very lucky to get some nice soft light on the sea stack just before sunset. Although I missed the shot due to being blasted by rain showers, one of our group managed to capture a rainbow which formed over the stack for probably no more than a couple of minutes. This was another brilliant evening.