Iceberg near Nuugatsiaq, Baffin Bay, Greenland, 2009.
Was digging through my unpublished images and stumbled across some surprises – and here’s one. This iceberg was photographed near Nuugaatsiaq, Baffin Bay, Greenland, during a Greenpeace expedition in 2009.
Supermoon moonrise over Galway Bay and the Burren, August 2022. Buy print/license image
The harvest supermoon rising over the Burren, Co Clare, and Galway Bay Ireland. Images made a month ago by lucky chance. We hadn’t paid attention to when moonrise was, but had walked down to the shore for the last of the sun’s rays on our first night in Connemara. As the light faded, a strange pale dome reared up above the ancient limestone hills of the Burren, above Black Head. As it rose, the moon it turned yellow, then a deep orange. And as it kissed the mountains goodbye, and day became night its shimmering reflection appear on the bay’s calm waters of the bay.
Read More »Supermoon Moonrise over Galway Bay and the Burren
Images from a month or so ago – Gravel cycling in the Western Algarve, Portugal – round trip from Portugal’s south coast, the west, and back again, passing through the Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina (Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park) in the Algarve, Portugal. The beach is Praia de Barriga.
Gravel cycling in the Western Algarve, Portugal – Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina – Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park.
Read More »Vanishing Point: Gravel cycling in the Western Algarve
At the river’s edge. After a May afternoon of tempestuous squalls, the sun sets, leaving a blaze behind the forest. The wind was gone, and a lone river cot swung idly on its mooring line, surrounded by the reflected fire. There’s a peculiar form of silence that envelopes the river after sunset. Most birds have gone quiet, except for mallards laughing raucously in the distance.
When the wind blows on the river, the surface of the water stretches thin. Now, with the wind gone, it turns viscous and languid. Nervous water striders zig-zag across the water’s tight skin, mindful of the trout that every twenty or thirty seconds, leap from the water into the air, in search of supper.
Gravel ride between dawn and sunrise, between the sea and the sky, where the Pyrenees touch the Mediterranean on the Côte Vermeille, France, in sight of Catalonia.
Photographs © Dave Walsh 2021
European shag, or black cormorant, Saltee Islands, off the coast of Co. Wexford, Ireland. This belligerent looking shag was not happy about me climbing down the difficult path to the nearby gannet colony, and made a great show of hissing and expressing its distaste for humans.
In late 2020, I started pulling together a series of bird portraits, images made all over the world, over a long period of time. I believe the beauty, diversity and strangeness of birds is often overlooked, so I wanted to share that with my followers on my Instagram account.
Read More »15 Bird Portraits
Gravel road, Col de Jou, Pyrenees Orientales, France
This is an image I made at the end of 2020 in the Pyrenees, France. I think of this as one of my “cycling photographs” – I wasn’t on my bike when I made this, but I had ridden up this climb earlier in the year, and it’s pretty epic. The image works for me as there’s a convergence of angles, with a curve allowing the road to slip away, unseen.
City square during Covid 19 crisis. Placa de Barcelona, Sant Cugat del Valles, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
The 17th century Vauban-improved Castell de Bellaguardia or Fort de Bellegarde at La Perthus, on the Mediterranean border through the Pyrenees, between France and Spain.
On the AP7/E15 Motorway between Spain and France, January 2021
Late afternoon sunlight touches a treetop in the Massif de Canigou, Pyrenees Orientales, France. View large on my portfolio site.
Photographing trees and forests – I always find this difficult. How to make any sense of the beautiful organic chaos without just re-creating something in a dull, or cliched way? How to express the feeling of being out in the woods to someone who doesn’t know the place you’ve been?
Bruxelles est Charlie
On Sunday, January 11th 2015, I joined 20,000 other residents of Brussels of all creed, origin and colour for a peaceful march in the name of tolerance and freedom of speech, following the appalling carnage carried out in Paris – starting with the Charlie Hebdo killings. Here’s the images.
Read More »Bruxelles est Charlie: photos
Dusk in Cadaques, Catalonia, Spain
Happy New Year! Here’s a photo I made in Cadaqués, Catalonia, earlier this week. I hope your path in 2015 leads you to exciting places and fruitful experiences!
We almost bumped into Ms. Moose on the way back from Electric Peak – she, and her offspring, Junior, were foraging on the banks of Glen Creek. We came within a few metres of them before stopping still, and backing off a bit. The two moose took off out of the water, and onto the trail ahead of us. We gave them a few minutes to get ahead, then moved slowly along the path. After 50m or so, we spotted Ms. M at the other side of the narrow creek, alone. Junior was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly she took off, and made to head us off on the path. We retreated, and ended up the path, farther back then when we had first encountered. She followed us, quickly but not aggressively, with a sense of purpose and authority, and didn’t get too close. When we reached open country, she escorted us no further. After a short pause, she made a quick turn and galloped away down the path. After a few minutes, we followed, even more tentatively than before. Neither Ms. Moose or Junior were anywhere to be seen; the path then opened out into flat, sagebrush country, with willow bushes on the right. We kept a close watch, but we didn’t see the moose family again.
Black bear, on the Blacktail Plateau Drive in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA. We came across this black bear munching on Bearberry Honeysuckle (Lonicera involucrata – aka twinberry) early one morning. Although we sat there for several minutes watching the bear consume breakfast, we were completely ignored until it decided that it eaten all it could reach, and crossed the dirt road, giving us one straight glare before heading into the bushes in search of seconds.
Off the coast of southeast Ireland lie the two small Saltee Islands. Their simple, low-slung landscapes, four or five kilometres of the Wexford fishing village of Kilmore Quay belie their layers of history, folklore and bizarre stories. On approach, there are few warnings of the extent of the islands’ abundant wildlife, but more than 220 species of birds live, nest, or migrate through the Saltees, including gannets, fulmars, kittiwakes, puffins, shearwaters, razorbills and guillemots, all completely unfussed by human visitors. Curious grey seals eat fish scraps from the hands of fishermen, and stalk daytrippers who walk the cliffs – their big doe eyes staring up plaintively from the azure waters below.
Nothing is ordinary here. So I didn’t write anything ordinary.
Read More »A Micronation Once Again: The Saltee Islands, Wexford
To celebrate the launch of the Cold Edge exhibition of my polar photography in Dublin, on September 13, I’ve created a beautiful 60-page eponymous book, The Cold Edge, via Blurb – print and iPad version. I’ve brought together some of what I hope are ethereal, emotional photographs of the unforgiving wilderness, wild animals and blue icebergs question our romantic relationship with remote, harsh and pristine environments. Images that resonate with a quiet tension; all may not be right in the Garden of Eden.
Read More »The Cold Edge: The Book
Niall O’Leary and the team at Millennium Images in London, have created an online portfolio of my Arctic and Antarctic images under the banner of “The Cold Edge“. You can see the selection of images here, or read on for more:
Read More »The Cold Edge: Millennium Images Portfolio
Two Arctic Terns fight off a Long Tailed Skua by a blue iceberg in Kongsfjord, near the Arctic scientific research base of Ny-Alesund, Svalbard. Another picture that’s evaded discovery for over a year – I love how the battle between the birds lends scale to the improbable blue of the iceberg. You can view more of my iceberg images here »
© 2010 Dave Walsh – All Rights Reserved
Arctic Tern, sterna paradisea, hovering near the dog yard Ny Alesund, Svalbard. Arctic terns migrate more than any other species bird – up to 35,000km per year for some birds, as the travel to Antarctica and back, and can enjoy two polar summers. The terns nest in the tundra in the scientific research centre of Ny Alesund, where they lay eggs, and tend to attack passersby in self-defence.
Read More »Arctic Tern, Angelic
