The Photographers of Inisherin
We begin this adventure on a dreary Sunday evening, I am heading to limerick to meet up with my wingman Diarmuid and we are finally going to visit a location that we both had wanted to visit for a long time. We had planned to head there a month or so ago and it was supposed to be the inaugural trip in my new van, alas it didn’t happen but now it was.
A quick stop at the side of the road to join my weekly premiere on YouTube was needed, I do enjoy having a conversation with everyone during each video and of course, answering any questions or having the laughs which happen more often than not, if you haven’t joined me for one of my premieres, I love for you to do so, they are every Sunday at 5 pm GMT on my Youtube Channel.
Arriving in limerick after 6 we hit the road, it was going to be 3 hours from there through some stunning scenery, alas as it was night now we wouldn’t get to see any. The roads after Galway turned into rural roads, filled with many blind corners and undulating hills, nonetheless, we crossed the bridge at Achill sound and entered the island. Our final destination was going to be a stunning isolated beach called Keem Bay. This location is situated at the bottom of a very large cliff, and in fact, has the 3rd highest sea cliff in Europe there Croaghaun at 687m (2,254 feet) with incredible views all around. We parked up the vans and opened a welcome beer and settled in for the night, and thought about what adventures lay ahead.
Awaking at 6 am it was clear that we need not rush to wake up, we had thick clouds all around and there was no chance of light breaking through onto this incredible beach below. From our vantage point, we could see far off into the distance also; unfortunately, this wasn’t going to reveal any gaps in the cloud either. A late start was the plan now, so we cooked off breakfast with an incredible view, had a warm cuppa and chilled out. Shortly after we had a surprise visitor, Norm Mcclusky, a professional landscape photographer based out of Kenmare. Norm is a great guy, had featured as a guest on my podcast and also gets a mention in my Beara Location guide, he was currently on a trip in what can only be described as the Bellagio of campervans, so we spent a while chatting with him and enjoyed a Nespresso, yes that’s right, there was a machine in his camper!
It is now finally time to head down to photograph this stunning beach, a beach that looks like it belongs in the tropics, the crystal clear waters and pristine stands make it a popular location for many to visit while they are on Achill island. It has also just been made even more famous by featuring in the critically acclaimed movie, The Banshees Of Inisherin. A tale about friends, loss and with many twists, all surrounded by the stunning backdrop of Ireland. Keem bay has a lone house that sits right on the beach and this house was used as a key location for the storyline of the movie, it you haven’t seen it I would recommend it if you have then you know exactly what happened in this house. It was the inspiration for the title of this blog and also the corresponding video on my Youtube channel
Now we have intermittent rain for the day while on location so we hoped that it would at least abate long enough for us to grab some shots. This however couldn’t have been further from reality, leaving the van to take the short walk, it began, a fine mist rain that made it a huge challenge to shoot in, you would only have moments to take a shot before having to cover up the lens once more. Wiping and cleaning in between each shot was essential to avoid splotches on every shot.
My first composition was of some unusual patterns and colours in the sand from the outflow of a mountain stream, there was dark sand intertwined with the golden sand of the beach and this immediately drew me in to try and capture some abstract image, I framed up my shot in the brief moment of no rain and then headed off across the beach towards the now infamous cottage that lies feet from the shore.
The incoming waves were beautiful to watch, the water was crystal clear and the sand was pristine, so I attempted to frame up some shots, all the while having to cover my lens and wipe clean before every shutter exposure. it was then that a huge disaster could have potentially stuck, I turned around to see Diarmuid walk along the beach and heard a bang, it was my camera, it had fallen over, which I still don’t know how, as I have a habit of sticking my tripod legs deep into the sand for stability, all colour drained from my face as I could see my camera face first in the sand with a wave fast approaching, I grabbed it and retreated higher on the beach to inspect. Surprisingly there was no damage at all, I was expecting my filters to be cracked as they were on the front of my lens and would have taken the full force, but thankfully all that was needed was a quick clean in a nearby rockpool, a dry off and I was back in action.
The rain would continue to fall and when we had a brief burst of light I quickly returned to the scene of the fall and composed some more shots, to see if I could catch some of the incredible colours that the scene presented. I also decided to try some long exposure shots here as there were some stones at the edge of the wave line that looked great in the scene, thankfully none of these stones were there when the camera fell as I was going to lose a filter if they were.
It was now time to explore further and I spotted a stunning natural S-Curve formed by the stream that runs down from the mountain above, this frames the scene beautifully, so I managed to grab a couple of shots before once again being soaked by more rain. I was happy however that I found this spot and of course happy that I was able to grab the shots with a fully functioning camera.
It was time to head back to the van now, the rock pool that had acted as my filter bath would now be part of the photograph as when the wind died down and the rain stopped it would present a flat scene right in front of the famous house, allowing me to catch a reflection of the house within it. Thankfully I had a very brief window when both the wind and rain stopped to drop the camera down low, and grab the shot before being once again subjected to more wind and rain.
As we took the short walk back up the hill, I had to of course jump in front of the house for a selfie with “Colm’s Cottage” and also myself and Diarmuid had to recreate the poster for the movie with both of us standing on the beach in front of the house, in more or less the same spots that Actors Brendan Gleeson & Colin Farrell had before us. It just had to be done while on location.
Reaching the van, I turned to take what is considered I suppose the quintessential shot, looking out to sea with the cottage in the lower frame, with the golden sand and turquoise clear water in the background, the rain was still coming so it meant I had to be quick and in the end, I was happy with my shots.
Now it was time to decide what location was to be next on our adventure…
You can see the images I managed to capture in the gallery below or watch the adventure on the Youtube video this Sunday at 5pm
