Now readers who have been following my journey for a while will know I have a soft spot for Kerry when it comes to my landscape photography destinations of choice, perhaps it’s the sheer beauty of the area that does it for me, perhaps it is the jagged cliffs, the preside beaches m the wild Atlantic waves, the relentless wind, incredible light and also that it faces West so there is always the chance for some sunset shots. Or perhaps it is a combination of all of the above plus more. One thing for certain is that it always delivers, and it’s a location that I regularly travel to, however to my surprise, it has been months since I was last there, Last September in fact, when I had the pleasure of hosting World Class Photographers, Mads, Peter Iversen, Michael Shainblum and Nigel Danson for a few days of incredible conditions right in the middle of storm Agnes. It should be no surprise that the next time I visit is for some storm action, not right in the middle of it like before, but instead the day after. This gives it a chance to lose the sideways rain, but it also means that the wind and more importantly the waves will remain.

My location of choice for this shoot is one that I hadn’t brought you to before, well at least not to the exact spot anyway, The last time I was here was 4 years ago when I took the hike over the cliffs to visit a stunning sea stack that sits proudly in the bay. An Searrach is an icon of the area, and when you have the promise of massive waves crashing, then it is almost a no-brainer to at least give it a go. So that’s exactly what I did.

My trip was filled with almost all four seasons in just one day as I drove through Killarney and onto the Dingle Peninsula itself, and as I rounded each bend my excitement continued to build. There is a caveat to that of course as with weather this changeable I could either have moody skies or even clear skies and as I arrived it seemed the latter was going to be the order of the day. This I thought would mean I was going to shoot some mono high contrast images as trying to deal with the harsh light would mean that I wouldn’t have much colour in the scene, plus I was going to be bringing out the big gun for this shoot, My Sigma 150-600 which has been a great tool for many a wave shoot before.

What also became apparent was that while some incredible waves were crashing against the shot, they were only doing just that, crashing on the shore, there were little to no waves hitting the stack, but they were crashing between my vantage point and it. All wasn’t lost tho as using this lens would allow me to fill the frame and use compression to maximise the power and size, but only once I could get down as low as possible for them to appear larger in the frame.

I travelled light for my short walk from the Van, mainly because I knew there wouldn’t be much point in bringing my bag as the Sigma 150-600 would be the only lens I would use, and after taking my first steps on the stones shore, I quickly thanked myself for this decision. The waves were coming in think, fast and with incredible power, so much power in fact, that when I placed my video camera on its tripod on the stones, it was almost immediately swallowed up by a powerful wave that not only reached it but surrounded it as it arrived and then also as it almost dragged it back out to sea. A close call for sure, but undeterred I pushed on to see what shots I could bag.

Now using a lens like this has its challenges, not only due to its size and extra weight but also when it comes to composition and shutter speed. I would need a fast shutter to freeze the water and when zoomed in to 600mm the slightest adjustment could mean losing the subject from the frame, so I had to carefully compose my shots. Additionally at an aperture of f6.1 when extended to 600mm I am slightly restricted with regards to the amount of light I can let in, this was where the clear skies played its trump card, as it allowed me to get up to as fast as a 1/5000 second shutter speed. Yes, it was that bright.

I had spotted some birds milling around the stack and I hoped to have some of them in my shots. Adding birds is a great way to show scale at this focal length and while I do manage to grab a few, they were quite low in the scene and were almost always blocked out by the monstrous waves as they rose in front of me. The swell from storm Kathleen had been at 8.2m the day previous, however were not at a paltry 4.1m, not to be sniffed at on any day mind you, they were still some of the bigger waves that were remaining after the storm.

The tide was now also coming in which added to my urgency, so rather than continue along the shore I chose to head back to my starting point, which was at the bottom of a very old and ruined slipway, it still allowed me to get low, but also gave me the safety of a few seconds should some large waves decided they were going to be me a free shower. While I was there a Ukrainian Family was exploring the beach and while the father thought it was a good idea to go to the water to clean his hand, one of those aforementioned waves arrived and almost wiped him out. I was recording in that direction when it happened, so you can see exactly what I mean by how powerful and unexpected these waves can be. This is a good time for me to mention m once again that you should always give the ocean the respect it deserves, never take anything for granted and always keep one eye on the waves that are further out, they will give you an idea of what’s to come, and you don’t run the risk of being swept away. Turning your back on waves is like turning your back on a Lion or Tiger, and you never want to do that.

My attention now turned to trying to mix it up a bit, so I opted to switch my compositions into vertical mode, made all the easier by the built-in collar on the lens that allows you to just twist your camera between each orientation and keep more or less the same composition. Vertical would allow me to frame the shot with the stack at the top and then allow more of the rolling and crashing waves to fill the bottom part of the image. This worked however I found that when it came to editing I opted to go for 1:1 crops as the waves were just appearing as a rolling soup of white after they lost their form form crashed further out. Nonetheless, these images were some of my favourites from the day. the shapes that waves form have always been an appealing part of seascape photography for me, no two are ever the same, and the ones that greeted me were no exception. The textures were enhanced by the bright light and when it came to editing them I took the approach of darkening down the scene to leave the waves shining as such in each image.

One of my favourite shutter speeds for seascape photography is 05 seconds and 1/4 and 1/8 can work well also, you just need to assess the speed of the waves to try and match the speed to their movement, to enable you to keep texture but also add motion. So next it was time to try and see what I could do. However as mentioned from the outset I travelled bagless, so I needed to go back up to the van to get my filters, this short walk would mean that I could be back in the action again quickly, however upon reaching the van I could see that the wave action was starting to calm down, so I was then able to utilise one of the many advantages having a camper van for photography offers, having the ability to shoot from the van.

My parking spot, while higher up, still gave me a perfect view of the stack, so I slid open the side window, put my camera and Sigma 150-600 on the tripod and sat back taking shots and video. it was a perfect option and one I am always grateful to have.

My trip to Kinard was done and I was excited to get back home again to edit my shots, but my trip wasn’t over, in fact, it was only just beginning, I hadn’t travelled this far just for one shoot after all and I was on the Dingle Peninsula, so of course I had to go shoot, it would have been rude not to.

You can see where I got to in my upcoming videos and blogs, I’d love for you to join me.

You can see the images I shot below and watch the video on my YouTube Channel.

Thanks for reading and your continued support

Darren