Golfer and photographer Cian O’Regan combined his interests recently when he captured some pretty unique shots of Cork Golf Club. Unusually the shots were taken in the middle of the night, something that doesn’t happen too often.
“The idea of taking pictures of golf courses at night first popped into my head a year ago when taking pictures one evening down in Cork Golf Club. It was nothing more than an after-thought, I wondered what the place would look like at night. I never took it any further until I went down during lockdown after the travel radius was increased to 5km and captured the images of the 5th, 6th and 7th.”
The quarry holes in Cork are the oldest part of the course, reclaiming the limestone quarry that dates back well over 200 years. The 6th and 7th in Cork closely align with two of the original holes that date back to 1899. Planning and timing were essential to a successful shoot, and the results were exceptional with five great shots. The International Space Station features in one picture of the 5th green, while the stars are the focal point in a shot of the 6th green.
“My biggest concern about this shot was the composition of the photo. Even though I was shooting using a really wide-angle lens, I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to be able to get the North Star and the 6th green in the same shot. I knew that the hole is pointed roughly South to North when walking from teebox to green, but I did look up the course on Google Maps before heading down to figure out what my heading would be, to figure out where the North Star would be positioned over the green and house that overlooks the quarry.”
The response from Cork golfers has been very positive with many ordering prints from Cian. It’s certainly a unique view of well known areas of the golf club.
“I really like how these photos are making both myself and other people who might be lifelong members of Cork – who have probably played the course a thousand times over – see the place in a new light. Combined with some beautiful drone imagery that’s been shot at the club recently to show off changes that have been made to the course over the winter months, it’s always nice to be able to show off the course from a different perspective – whether it’s taken 300 feet above the course during the day or from the ground at 1am!”
And Cian is planning for more night-time golf shoots, combining his passions. As soon as the current travel restrictions are lifted he plans to contact a few courses with a view to capturing some more unique shots.
“I have some pretty cool ideas about capturing some cool Milky Way shots this summer to include some of Ireland’s most famous golfing landmarks under the stars. I’ll be posting them all on my new website www.cianoregan.com which I’m just about to launch where people can be mounted and framed prints of these photos and many more.”
Cork Golf News 