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I wanted to share another image with you today from my trip to Donegal from September. This time a panoramic, one of several I took during my six day trip. This is Mount Errigal, or simply Errigal (Irish: An Earagail, possibly meaning “oratory”). It is a 751 metres (2,464 ft) mountain near Gweedore in County Donegal. It is the tallest peak of the Derryveagh Mountains, the tallest peak in County Donegal, and the 76th tallest peak in Ireland. Errigal is also the most southern, steepest and highest of the mountain chain, called the “Seven Sisters” by locals. (source Wiki)
I was traveling to the Poison Glen and as I was driving I was fascinated watching the landscape change constantly as the clouds swept across the sky overhead. Every so often the sun would peek through the clouds and cast a warm glow on some new part of the landscape. Mount Errigal was on the way to the Poison Glen and so I passed it during this constantly changing light. Being from the east coast of Ireland mountains form somewhat of a curiosity for me. The east coast of Ireland is very sheltered and has very few mountain ranges and none of a height to compete with this or indeed many others along the north and west coast of Ireland. So what else could I do but stop!
This scene I felt really needed ‘breadth’ and therefore a panoramic was the only chose, but what was I to do? The landscape was changing too swiftly and so my normal methodical approach to shooting a panoramic using a Tripod just would not suit. So I shot a handheld panoramic, something I had toyed with before but this was the first time I had tried it for ‘real’. What you see here is 4 landscape orientated imaged stitched together and the cropped to a 4:1 ratio.
I don’t produce a lot of Black & White imagery. In fact I produced just 3 last year. Hey what can I say, we live in a colour world! However from time to time, and I seem to say this every time I produce one; some images just scream B&W at me. And… yes you guessed it, this was one of those images. I felt the Black & White brought the Landscape down to its basic forms; the texture of the cloud covered sky, the undulating landscape, and of course the focus of the image; the beautiful sunlight upon that dominating mountain peak.
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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
Exposure: 1/160
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 80mm
ISO Speed: 125
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