Copper Coast, County Waterford

A View Found by Following the Coast

This photograph was made during a week-long trip along the south coast of Ireland in August 2020. It was my first time exploring this part of the country, travelling without a fixed list of photographs I needed to capture and allowing the journey itself to determine where I went.

Earlier that day I had visited Annestown and was continuing west along the coast road. I found myself watching for the brown road signs marking places of interest, treating each one as a possible reason to pull over and explore.

An Unplanned Stop at Tankardstown

Near Bunmahon, I found somewhere convenient to stop beside the old Tankardstown Mine. I spent a little time photographing the remains of the mine, but the old industrial structures weren’t really holding my interest.

Across the road, though, I had a feeling the sea couldn’t be very far away.

The conditions made me think there was a good chance of encountering midges and other insects. After an uncomfortable experience with them previously, I’d recently bought a midge net. I put it over my head, felt slightly ridiculous, picked up my tripod and went looking for the coast.

Through the Nettles to the Coast

Between me and the view was dense green vegetation, in places around five feet high. I couldn’t see what was waiting on the other side.

Holding my tripod above the growth, I pushed my way through, parting the weeds as I went and getting my hands and arms stung by nettles along the way.

Eventually the vegetation opened enough for me to see the sea below. Looking to my left, I spotted a sea stack sitting just offshore from the main cliff edge. I moved further left until I came to an opening and stopped.

In front of me was the scene in this photograph.

A Simple Photograph

The coastline gave me the composition. From the foreground, the shape of the cliffs created a natural leading line past the sea stack and along the coast into the distance.

There wasn’t a complicated plan behind the photograph. I set up the tripod and made a relatively simple landscape exposure at 42mm, using ISO 100, f/10 and a 1.3-second shutter speed. The 1.3-second exposure softened the movement of the water while retaining the character and texture of the coastline.

I made the photograph at 17:33, still several hours before sunset. This wasn’t a location I’d researched for golden hour or a sunset I’d waited for. It was simply something I’d discovered while travelling.

Once I had the shot, I packed up and moved on, continuing west along the coast.

Part of a Week of Discovery

That journey would eventually take me into County Kerry, where later in the same week I would photograph the Milky Way at Bunaw.

Looking back, the Copper Coast photograph reminds me of a different part of that trip: stopping without really knowing what I would find, pushing through the vegetation simply because I suspected there might be a view beyond it, and discovering a photograph I hadn’t gone looking for.

Sometimes the photograph is the destination. On this occasion, it was something I found along the way.