I don't know if you've ever been to Donegal or the west coast of Ireland, but in my experience the kitchen is always the centre of the house. You're a visitor and a guest when you're taken into the living room and you'll be treated with courtesy and warmth, but you're a true friend when you're taken into the kitchen and handed a mug of tea.

This is the third shot from the old house in Donegal. It only exists because of the magic of Lightroom.

I only had about 30 minutes to explore the house and I'd got distracted by the amount of things to photograph. As a result I didn't pay as much attention to the camera settings as I should have and it cost me badly.

I did consider what I wanted and decided to try and keep everything in focus. I also decided I wanted long exposures to make sure all the ambient light would work and the colours would filter through (the living room picture for example).

What I didn't consider was the impact of trying to use f/22 in such a dark environment on a camera with an automatic shutter speed of 30 seconds. Being too wrapped up in seeing what I could see, I didn't actually consider what the camera was seeing and only later did I discover that a lot of pictures were simply too dark.

I always said this blog was about me learning to take pictures. This was a lesson I could have done without...