A year through my lens in Fermanagh & Omagh.
A Year Through My Lens: Omagh and Fermanagh 2024-2025
As an Omagh native, being asked by Fermanagh and Omagh District Council to photograph our area over a year has been a great experience and given me an opportunity opportunity to explore what is on my doorstep.
We're so privileged to live in an area of such outstanding natural beauty, and a vibrant area that has great cultural heritage and traditions. It gave me the opportunity to explore the scenic areas which I either hadn't visited for years, have always been on my to-do list, or some surprisingly that I didn't know about.
On my list were -Marble Arch Caves, Cuilcagh Mountain, Lough Navar, Ardhowen Arts Centre, Strule Arts Centre, Gortin Glens Forest Park, the Connect Centres in Omagh and Enniskillen, Enniskillen Castle.
Meeting council staff throughout the year gave me real appreciation for the work that goes on behind the scenes - maintaining our landscapes, organizing events, keeping everything running. And the locals I met along the way were always ready with a story or to point me toward somewhere I should photograph.
What really struck me was how the light changes everything. The same landscape looks completely different depending on the season and time of day. Spring mornings, summer's long golden evenings, autumn's rich light making the forests glow, winter's sharp low light creating dramatic shadows across the mountains - it reminded me that landscape photography is about capturing a moment in time that won't happen the same way again.
Even after all my years photographing this area, it's easy to take for granted what's on your doorstep. This year forced me to slow down and really look at what is around me, it's been a year of rediscovering home.
