South West Kerry is blessed with an abundance of rugged coastline and beautiful beaches and guess what - it is not spoiled by masses of high-rise buildings or sunbathing people.
The clean air and ever changing sky with sun shafts highlighting parts of the scenery is any photographer`s heaven because it gives you so much to take in.
Any time of the year provides a rich variety of subjects, the only disadvantage of winter month - having less day light hours. As a matter of fact a lot of my landscape and coastal images were taken in winter, I think, the light is even more dramatic because the sun is lower than during the rest of the year.
So what do you have to think about before setting out?
Check the weather, sunrise/ sunset time & location and the tide tables.
Take a tripod or monopod and a cable release, which, like the self-timer function on your camera, enables you to take pictures hands-free to reduce camera shake.
Have some place in mind before you leave the house it is best to concentrate on one thing at a time.
Have you packed the right lenses, filters, a spare set of batteries and is there enough capacity on your memory card?
At the location
Use foreground interest for strong composition, apply the rule of thirds for pleasing composition or use lines going into the picture.
Boats or fishing gear add colour and character to coastal landscapes.
Low tide is a good time to capture exposed rocks , patterns in the sand or light reflections in pools of water.
Use neutral density filter if the sky is extremely bright.
Be careful with a straight flat horizon, use a gridded screen or a small spirit level to get the horizontal line straight or crop later on the computer.
In low light situations use long shutter speed of a good few seconds to blur wave movement, also use small aperture and low ISO to create a really smooth effect.
For panorama images take several shots while keeping the camera at the same height and turning at the waist. Stitch in an imaging software later.
On a dull an overcast day don´t despair, instead of doing grand landscape shots look for some abstract details like rocks, rock pools, sand pattern and so on. If there is a harbour nearby go for boat or building structures or nets and lobster pots, there is plenty of material out there.
