Comment by Gerry Regan on November 2, 2013 at 12:28pm

Ryan, tell us a bit about the circumstances of the shot, how you found it, framed it and captured it. What do you shoot with?

Comment by Irish Homeland Photography on November 2, 2013 at 1:34pm

Right ... I've driven through this part of Connemara countless times (as a resident of Connemara).  One thing about Connemara as a whole -- it never looks quite the same twice.  The sun does vastly different things to the lighting based on the shape, density, and location of the clouds, not to mentioned the extremely high or extremely low angle of the sun depending on the time of year. 

I snapped this image at dawn last winter (January 2013), which means it was close to 9:00 a.m. since the sun rises so late here in winter.  The fog / steam here hovering over the surface of the lough wasn't unexpected.  As I drove deeper into Connemara, however, the conditions changed from one extreme to the other in five-minute increments.  Literally, it was bright and sunny one moment, and five minutes later I'd drive into another stretch where the fog and cloud cover was so dense that you'd swear the sun had gone down.  Back and forth, back and forth for the entire drive.  Of all my drives through the different parts of Connemara, I'd never seen a day quite like this one.

This was shot with a Nikon D90, held in-hand, and with a Sigma 10-20mm lens.

Comment by Lisa Fortin Jackson on November 3, 2013 at 10:26am

Sigma makes nice lenses. I purchased a 14mm fixed for a friend a few months back. Personally, I think the image quality is indistinguishable from the much pricier Nikkors, and much better than the comparable Canon lenses.

Gorgeous, wide angle image, Ryan. Connemara is such a beautiful part of the country. Brilliant capture.

Comment by Irish Homeland Photography on November 3, 2013 at 10:53am

I've had a 50% success rate with Sigma glass, Lisa.  The lens used for this image has been fine.  The zoom lens I had from them turned out to be total junk.  It worked fine for about a year, but then it just got fuzzy on me for no particular reason and had great difficulty in focusing at virtually every focal length.  I scrapped that one a few months ago and went with something similar in a Nikkor.  Hopefully it will give me more than a year!

Comment by Lisa Fortin Jackson on November 3, 2013 at 11:14am

Considering what you must have paid for it, it had better.  This little hobby of ours is certainly not cheap.  I've thought about upgrading to a full-frame more than once, but the cost of replacing all my glass always stops me cold.  I think that next up will be the D800, since it's compatible with DX format lenses.  I'll still be able to shoot while saving up for glass.

Admin Comment by Fran Reddy on November 3, 2013 at 12:46pm

Stunning shot! Just fabulous!

Comment by Irish Homeland Photography on November 3, 2013 at 2:16pm

Thanks, Fran!

Lisa ... I've thought about upgrading to a full-frame body as well, but at this point my next step will likely be something mirrorless like the Sony NEX-7.

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