Ireland XIX (Twelve Pines, Ireland)

The second stop on our trek across Connemara was a blend of planning and happenstance; I knew of the location I'd intended to work at, but had somehow misplaced it on the map (as in I placed it in the wrong place)...but fortune was in our favour, as it happened to be right by the road only a couple of loch's further down the road!

Twelve Pines is the official name of the island, but it has a lot more than 12 pine trees on it; setting that aside, it was quite striking to see across the narrow loch, with the Connemara mountains rising behind it. The first set of images Ingrid and I made worked with the shoreline directly opposite the island, looking towards the mountains.

Concealed from the nearby highway by a low hill, it was a luxury for Ingrid and I to be able to work at a slower pace, and refine both the pose and camera angle as needed before making the photographs...quite a contrast to many of our sessions in central Ireland where quick and efficient was the name of the game.

After working on the shoreline, Ingrid and I headed out onto the island, with visions of lovely stands of trees in our mind's eye...only to discover almost all the island was head-high with ferns and other underbrush. Only in a couple of locations were open enough for me to see more than a couple of feet in front of me. Fortunately, one of these vistas looked through a stand of trees, just perfect for Ingrid to pose against. In colour, it worked, but I took a chance on seeing how it turned out in infrared, and the luminous ferns surrounding the equally luminous Ingrid seemed too perfect to pass up.

The last set of images on the island were by far my favorite in that location - on a high point, a tree had fallen, and emerged from the surrounding ferns like a bridge - and it was just stable enough for Ingrid to work upon (it moved slightly, but only when provoked). With Ingrid posing on the tree, I managed (with some struggle, because of the high underbrush) to find a camera position that placed her against the stand of trees and the mountains behind; we worked through a couple of different poses, and I progressively removed more and more of the ferns between her and I, finally achieving what I felt was the best image of the session.