Glenariff forest, the glens of Antrim

Firstly a happy new year to everyone! I hope you all have enjoyed the festive season and are looking forward to what 2009 will bring.

I took the opportunity this week to visit Glenariff forest park in the Glens of Antrim. This area is famous for its glens and waterfalls which really are stunning. I'd been meaning to go here for sometime, so knowing it would be quiet this week I got up early and headed over.

Following the signs the first main waterfall you come to is 'Ess-na-Larach' which is a huge thin waterfall that looks to drop at least 40 feet in two sections. This waterfall is quite deep in the glen which means that the light level is low. This leads to another issue - I like to shoot waterfalls at around 1 to 2 seconds. Anymore than that and the water just looks like a huge blown out blob with no detail at all. Even whacking the ISO up to 400 and dropping the aperture to F9 only yielded shutter speed of 11 seconds! Far to slow!

I decided to move on to see what else there was along the route as only two large waterfalls are shown and named on the fixed maps that are dotted around the forest. There are many other smaller waterfalls, one in particular is really spectacular (shown left) and I'm sure this must have a name! If anyone out there knows then please let me know.

I had the same issue here with low light all though not as bad as before. This image was shot at 1.5 seconds at F11, ISO 400.

There are many other small waterfalls along here although access to some are impossible without risking a broken neck due to the height of some of the walkways of the ground!


The last one I visited is called 'Ess-na-Crub' which really is spectacular and has excellent access off the walkway to get up close and personal!

This waterfall (shown right) consists of three main shafts of water with lots of little streams and trickles which make this one very photogenic. On days where there has been alot of rain I believe this one is really transformed into something completely different, so well worth another visit on one of these type of days!


Anyone interested in seeing the rest of the shots can see them on the website at www.chasethelight.co.uk.

Thanks for listening.