Scouting
I had been to Lough Talt before… I say that, I had driven around it. Technically I never explored it. Lough Talt is a lovely, quiet lake situated in Sligo. Kathryn had seen someone post a photo on Facebook of a little wooden boat tied up on the shore somewhere. When we arrived, we parked and started walking along the edge of the lake. Quite soon, I noticed a little tree on an island and took note that it was causing reflections on the lake. We would be back to try and utilise this tree another day.
We kept walking around, pausing every so often to take an image or two to test some different compositions. As we walked we came across a fair few sheep who seemed to want nothing to do with us. We began to think that the boat we were looking for wasn’t on this side of the lake. As a farmer and his dog started ushering the sheep across the hill we were next to we thought it might be best to turn around and head back. The sun was setting and we still wanted to try and find the boat.
On the way back there were some amazing colours in the sky in front of us. The colours seemed to get better the closer we got to the car. It was around the time of the full moon and it began to rise. I couldn’t miss the opportunity for an image. I tried to frame something using the path as a leading line. I also wanted to pick up reflections of the colour in the lake. As the lake was so smooth it looked mirror like.
Moon Rise at Lough Talt – 8mm, f/2.8, ISO 100 at 1/200 secondsSearch for the Boat
Seeing as we didn’t see an sign of a boat tied up on the side of the lake we had searched, we decided to search the other side. However, this search would be from the car as the road followed the other side of the lake. We drove by somewhat slowly so we could look for evidence of the boat or boats. About three quarters of the way around the lake, we pulled in as we could see a little jetty in the lake.
In total, there was actually 3 or 4 boats near enough to each other. 3 were pulled onto the small beach to the side, easily accessible from the road. The 4th boat was tied up and floating in the lake. Exactly what we were looking for. Perfect! As it was getting dark, there was only time for a few test shots – I tried different angles and different lenses. The 8mm fisheye seemed the best to me. This might change on a different day when there is more colour and cloud in the sky. We did what we wanted, found the boat. This meant that we could come back whenever we wanted.
Row Boat at Lough Talt – 8mm, f/2.8, ISO 100 at 1/10 secondsIf you have any like my work or want to see what I’ve been up to, please check out and like/follow my website, my 500px, my Facebook, my Instagram and my Twitter.
