Published February 25, 2026 in Stories
The furnace
One in a hundred
Once again, the forecast was wrong. I always check forecast, neither for rain nor sunshine but to give me an idea of which types of clouds could be over our heads on any particular morning. This, Met Eireann gets right, most of the time. There was to be 100% coverage in middle and high altitude which was telling me there would be not much of a sunrise. Though, from past experience and with a good bit of luck, there could be a hole in the cloud cover, enough of an opening to give us some fabulous glows in the higher clouds. It's quite rare, but it happens. One in a hundred sunrises, give or take. And it did. A quick look outside told me I had better get going to catch yet another spectacular Burren sunrise!
There was enough time to grab tripod and camera but still, I forgot a lamp torch which would undoubtedly have proven very useful. Thankfully as I live only a quick drive away of some of my favorite spots, I manage to know my way around in the dark. With time, I've come to love repeat visits and familiarity with my surroundings: I need to feel the landscape to do it justice! On this occasion I didn’t drive too far, it would have to be 'the lone tree with a bird nest', in the heart of the Burren lowlands. Familiarity gives an advantage of setting up in very little time: knowing the place, the tree, the nicely shaped stones and grykes splitting the clints, the gnarly shrubs, the tormented roots.
I was really sorry to not have a lamp torch! I usually would have my phone to shoot a few short movies when light is at its best (to be able to accurately reproduce what I saw post processing - a camera RAW file has many surprises, one of them being an overall dullness which needs to be adjusted), but it wouldn't work too well as a torch to lit up foreground. In fact, it didn't. I anxiously waited for enough light to focus the lens elements, thinking there was all this good light I couldn't shoot with!
During this time you can take your attention off the camera set up and look around for compositions. It was quite frosty and many little stones, herbs and shrubs had this little added frosty texture looking so great on camera. It would be a shame to miss out on more compositions and successful images.
The waiting game started. And then, fire ignited.
Mauve subsided, red and orange came in. Mostly red at first. The contrast between ground and sky was significant, I reduced the range with a graduated filter. As the background was increasingly on fire, I chose to focus the lens on the tree to bring out more of the red glow and less of the overexposure on those background details. Even if it meant losing a bit of focus in the foreground, which can be recovered post production as I did here, or by what is called 'focus stacking': merging several images with different points of focus into one image with a perfect focus throughout.
This light lasted a long while in fairness, only to finally clear once the sun made its appearance above the horizon. There was plenty of time to try different compositions which is always a bonus!
I wasn't sure of this photograph at first, the ground was very dark (it was still twilight) and the sky fiery red, I feared it wouldn't work. I find it raw and powerful, this image has real drama. I am quite happy with that morning spent in the Burren, it is always a great experience even in winter when it is quieter than any other time of the year, particularly in the spring when orchids bloom and birds chirp in cacophony!
Following on related topics, some visual pages to bring you deeper into the Burren Light & Land project.