I captured this image over a decade ago, and until recently, I thought it was lost due to a computer hard drive malfunction. I was reminded of its existence after meeting with a friend who had it as the wallpaper on their phone. They were full of praise, and after I left my friend, I began reminiscing about when I first uploaded the image to Facebook and the many likes, comments, and shares it received. I started to wish I had printed at least one copy. Why did I never print my most popular image? I decided I would try to find out if there was any copy of it left; it seemed worth the effort. After searching through the deeper recesses of some USB drives, disk drives, and external hard drives, I found it.
The photograph is of a winter sun setting over Glandore Bay and Union Hall as they slowly disappear beneath an encroaching blanket of winter sea fog. It was taken from near where I was living in Knockarudane on November 19, 2011. At the time, I was fortunate enough to be living on a hill just to the east of Glandore, with a kitchen window over the sink that offered a view making even the washing up a pleasant experience. On this particular day, I could just see the fog out to sea, with a tiny view of an island peeking out above it. Indeed, I had seen the fog earlier in the day, but it had been much farther out to sea. Now it was much closer, but crucially, it was low and thin, allowing the highest parts of the land to escape its cover. This was enough of a distraction to ditch the washing up, grab the tripod and camera, and start climbing up the hill.
The sight that greeted me as I came over the brow of the hill was better than I had hoped. The lower parts of the bay were completely covered by the fog, which was gaining in height and spreading so that it streamed over some of the smaller hills surrounding the bay, like the fumaroles of some magic potion overflowing the edges of a cauldron.
I think I spent a good two hours taking photographs that day in conditions that were perfect. The light was fabulous, and I really wish that I still had all the images I took that day, as I'm sure there were others that would have been worthy of showing. I'm just lucky and grateful that I have this one.