Some photographs are carefully planned. Others come down to being in the right place when nature decides to put on a show.
I captured “Stick Man” on Salthill Promenade during a late-summer thunderstorm—a shot I had been hoping to make for several years. As lightning flashed over Galway Bay, the coastline and Salthill’s lights came together in a scene that lasted only seconds. A long exposure allowed me to capture that fleeting moment.
The 30-second exposure smoothed the water around the rocks, while the lightning froze the spray directly beneath the strike. The result was an almost surreal contrast: a calm, silky sea set against the raw energy of the storm.
When I first showed the image to friends, someone noticed that the main lightning bolt looked remarkably like a stick man walking across Galway and out into Galway Bay. The name stuck.
Winning the Coastal Landscape category in the Clean Coasts Love Your Coast 2026 competition was wonderful recognition for a photograph that began with a simple plan: wait for the storm and hope lightning struck in exactly the right place.
Adrian Nolan – Solas Photography Club Member