In early January my wife and I decided to get away for a few days to relax before the new work year started. We headed to a nice relaxing retreat in Co. Wexford, and while the trip was mostly for a holiday, of course we snuck in some photography time! The last time we were in Wexford we had visited the beautiful and famous Hook Lighthouse in the south of the county, but we had done so at noon during the summer, so the light was a bit flat. This time we aimed to visit it at sunset, to capture it in better light. So we set off on the drive down the peninsula towards hook head and its namesake lighthouse. We were not disappointed.

The drive from Wexford town to Hook Head is pretty spectacular. The first part is a bit dull but once you start to get a glimpse of the coast, it just gets better and better. We were driving into the setting sun the whole time, so it was quite special. The roads weren’t great mind you, and our car is getting a bit old with less than great suspension, so it was a bit of a bumpy ride. It was more than worth it for the scenery, though. I did my best to film the trip on my iPhone using the black magic app and recording in Apple Log. The results were pretty dramatic!

We reached the lighthouse about an hour before sunset. The sun was already fairly low on the horizon and the whole area was bathed in a beautiful warm glow. The first thing I did was do a quick reccie to find the best angles and get a feel for the place. I was a little wary of tripping on the rocks in the fading light, but it was still pretty visible, and there were still plenty of people around. I took a few shots of the lighthouse and the sea and the rocks before the cold got the better of me.

Now, when I say it was cold, I’m underselling it. It was the second of January, and while the actual temperate was something like 1 or 2 degrees Celsius, the cold breeze coming off the sea made it feel like -7 (according to my weather app).

We headed inside to the cafe and visitor centre for a hot chocolate to warm up while we waited for the actual sunset. Once we had defrosted a bit, and it was approaching the time for the actual sunset, we headed back out to get some more shots. As we walked back towards the front of the lighthouse by the sea, there was an amazing scene with the sun just touching the horizon behind an old camper van, and this was causing a kind of flare. It was very dramatic and one of my favourite shots of the trip.

Back by the shoreline, I was focussed on the sun hitting the horizon and capturing the foreground rocks against the sea.

And then the sun was gone and we were into blue hour. Once again I took some shots of the lighthouse as the light changed again. The colours were beautiful and the blues and purples really changed the scene. The lighthouse itself is a pretty impressive structure. It’s stood there for hundreds of years, and is the oldest working lighthouse in the world. It’s also apparently one of the most dangerous areas of ocean in the world, with the convergence of multiple different seas creating dangerous currents. If you’re ever visiting the area I strongly suggest visiting the lighthouse. It really is impressive.

As we were leaving I got a few more shots. With the sun now down the stars were coming out and you could see the crescent moon peeking out behind the lighthouse. It was now so cold it hurt, so we didn’t hang around for long, but my favourite shots of this set was the one I caught with my iPhone just before getting into the car. It looks particularly cool in HDR as a wallpaper on my phone. The HDR makes it look like the light is actually on!

The following morning we decided to try and catch the sunrise. Actually, it wasn’t really that difficult, as our hotel room looked out over the estuary of the river Slaney, and the sun would rise right in front of us. So it wasn’t much of an effort! The area is close to a bird sanctuary so there is a lot of wildlife here, and as the sun began to rise, we were greeted with a spectacular display from the birds nesting on the far bank. I managed to catch this on video as well as lots of photos but the ones below are my favourite. It was a beautiful sunrise and it was a treat to be able to capture it without having to travel far (basically out onto the balcony!)

That was the bulk of the “photography” side of our trip. We did go into Wexford town and I took some photos of the boats onto the harbour but nothing too exciting. Although, one of the curious things about Wexford town is that the train runs down the harbour, right on the harbour, so there’s literally train tracks right down where you would walk.

We also visited Curracloe beach, which was made famous for being the location where they filmed the landing scene in Saving Private Ryan. It’s a massive beach and the sand goes on for what seems like miles. I can see why they used it for the movie. While we were there a bunch of very hardy old ladies got in for a swim (bearing in mind temperatures were close to zero) so fair play to them!

And that was pretty much it for the trip. We spent the rest of the time relaxing in the hotel and enjoying the ambience and the very nice food. Big shoutout to the staff of the Ferrycarriag hotel, they’re so friendly and professional, and it’s a really great spot to relax and recharge. I would definitely recommend it. (This is not sponsored or anything, I just wanted to give them credit for a great stay.)

Technical Details

For the technical details of these images. All were taken (except for iPhone photos) on a Canon R6 Mark II and 24-105mm lens. Most were processed using my Film LUX classic Lightroom presets.

Photographing Sunset and Sunrise in Wexford. Capturing Hook Lighthouse at Sunset

Technical Details