Black Pawn With Rainbow

A self portrait of sorts, taken while driving back from my inlaws' place near Gorey. My wife had left that morning to get to work, so I had a couple of passengers for a change: the wean and Lola in the back and Helen in the front. The weather has moved firmly into Autumn now and I noticed we were driving into a large slate-grey raincloud.

When I said that I might like to pull in and photograph the unusual light Helen laughed, asking me what was unusual about such clouds, etc. She's right of course, though part of what I love about Ireland is these dramatic shifts of light and shade. I've seen them thousands of times but they are always somehow brand new and striking.

Then I noticed the rainbow. Again, not at all unusual, but one of the clearest and strongest I've seen in some time, so pull in I did. I was going to sidestep my tiny shadow-pawn, then quickly realised that it was exactly what I wanted: a little needle or counter, a human scale, earthy and earthed.