You gain a lake, you lose a lake

Photographer Hu O'Reilly takes us through a day in the life of his quest to record and photograph all 365 lakes in County Cavan...

A new day working on the Lakes Of Cavan project and I'm set for a trek in West Cavan. Cameras are packed and I've worked out a route from my OS maps and Google maps. Hoping to add a few more lakes to my collection - I've over 200 lakes photographed so far and I'll need a good few more over the coming months to get to the magical number of 365.

Today's journey is up the easterly side of Cuilcagh mountain, along a rough trail, past some curious sheep and over a few gates, through a small forest and to the top. I leave the path and head for the summit of the nearest peak, which is just a couple of hundred metres away. It's wet and marshy underfoot and I'm glad I wore old trousers and my hiking boots. When I eventually slog my way to the top I'm met by the disappointing sight of a dried-up lake bed with nothing more than a few puddles. Looks like I might have to make this trip again in the coming months and, hopefully, the lake will be full again. That's not a thought I'm overly upset by as it's a fine walk and good for the soul.

The landscape is surreal and looks like it's from another planet. Hard to believe I'm in Cavan. I can't walk much further as it's getting wetter and more difficult, so I send my drone up to survey the locality and find other lakes in the area. I find a picturesque 'lake' which is marked on my maps but without being named in any of them. Is it a lake? It's definitely bigger than some lakes named on maps around the county. I take some drone photographs of it and also of Lough Cam which is nearby and with a view of Cuilcagh Mountain peak in the background. I began this trek hoping to photograph two lakes. The result is one lake photographed, one 'possible lake' photographed and one lake to return to in the coming months.

While driving around the many lakes nearby I stop beside Bellaboy Lough. Chatting to a friendly gent living by the shoreline, he tells me the man who owns the field wouldn't mind me going down to the water's edge to take some photographs. The surface is still, and the gentle warm sunlight on the trees on the far side is reflected like a mirror by the lake. The sound of birds chirping and insects humming add to the beauty of the moment, on a nice September afternoon.

As I drive along another country road, I see many small groups of swans swimming on the Coologe Lough. As I've already photographed swans on several lakes, I'm eager for something extra to add to this shot. Then I pass cattle grazing on a field on the lakeshore, so I pull my car in and grab my cameras. From the ditch and with my long lens I can get a nice shot of a swan on the lake, nicely framed by the cattle in the foreground. I shoot a few angles of this and although the afternoon light is not my favourite, I think I've got another photo in the bag. Time to pack up and head for home, after a successful and enjoyable shoot.

The next job is editing, processing and filing the photographs, and beginning to research and plan my next shoot day. Not sure where I'll be next week- it will depend on the weather forecast among other things. I'm happy with today's work, and I'm around 10 lakes closer to completing the Lakes of Cavan project.

In this monthly column, professional photographer Hu O'Reilly updates us on his challenge to capture all 365 lakes in County Cavan for a book and exhibition. You can follow him on Intsagram also @lakesofcavan