Glendalough

Not being a full time Landscape Photographers means you have to make do with the weather on the day you decide to venture out with the camera.....

A couple of weeks ago now, ( the middle of December 2018 ) I took the Monday off work and planned to go to Glendalough. A place I have being to many times but always come away with different images apart for the now standard view of The Upper lake. ( They have even positioned a post for you to rest your camera on to take the photo ).

Glendalough ( Irish: Gleann Dá Loch ) meaning "Valley of two lakes" is a glacial valley in County Wicklow, Ireland, renowned for an Early Medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by St Kevin. 

And on this day the clouds were low and rain was forecast for the afternoon. My plan was to walk down to The Miners Village and up through the valley to the foot bridge across the river ( which you can just about see in the image above ). It started with just the clouds when I parked up the car and set off on foot towards The Upper Lake. I didn't even make it to The Miners Village which is a walk of about 2.5 km. I was having so much fun along the shoreline of the lake that it took me over 2 hours to walk 2 km down the trail.

When I got out from the cover of the trees the rain was starting to fall and this was going to be the case for the rest of the day. So I change my plan and walked back towards the car ( only 1.5 hours this time ) to keep shelter for the rain under the trees. And that was it for the day, the forecast was right. I garbed a hot cup of coffee and finished the rest of my lunch in the car as it started to rain very heavy. There was not going to be wide vista images today, so I shot to the conditions on the day. It was a challenge with only having a 14mm lens. I know I have to get another lens.....

Again using the soft low light and combining this with the 10 stop ND filter I was able to do some long exposure on the Poulanass waterfall.  The name Poulanass is taken from the Irish ‘Poll an Eas’ which means ‘hole of the waterfall’. I stayed down river from the main large waterfall and concentrated on the flowing water around the large rocks were you start the Poulaness Walk. 

To finish off the day and get back home to avoid the crazy Dublin City traffic I wanted to get one more image and it's one I was after for awhile now. It's hard to capture during the nice days as to many people around ( a tourist hot spot ). However today, I had the place to myself apart for the 3 Ladies in the coffee shop. When the rain finally stopped I started to look for a composition with the trees scattered around the seating area close to the car-park. Walking around with the camera in my hand looking for that one composition.....

After 20mins or so I finally got the image I was after. Soft defused winter light, no tourists around, perfect weather conditions ! You have to keep reminding yourself to just get out and forget about the weather and enjoy the day whatever that will be. Something will catch you eye.

And finally a small selection of images taken with the phone to document the trip to Glendalough.