Watch: Stunning new timelapse video of Donegal opens up incredible vistas

Donegal is richly blessed with phenomenal landscapes, seascapes and nightscapes when the weather plays ball. Now a new timelapse video of the county by Ethereal Light Photography captures this perfectly and throws a whole new light on how we might look at some of our spectacular vistas.

This new film by Martin Critchley and Sharron Schwartz comprises 10,500 individual photographs taken over five years in all seasons to capture and showcase the stunning beauty and varied landscapes of Donegal, a part of Ireland often dubbed 'the forgotten county'.

A timelapse is not a video; it speeds up the passage of time and uniquely conveys dynamism in the landscape which can’t be captured in quite the same way by video: clouds scurrying across the sky; the tide creeping in; sand being eroded by a river; sunrise, sunset and moonset; and the passage of the Milky Way across the heavens.

It's obvious a lot of time and effort went into the new production and according to Martin their quest to get the best shots provided more than a fair share of adventure and unusual situations for Sharron and himself!

"Producing this film was challenging as our county is one of the windiest and wettest parts of Europe, and great patience is required to obtain the sequence of shots you want. Many a time we set our alarm for stupid o’clock, only to return home empty-handed hours later, as the weather report was wide of the mark.

"In winter, we often responded to an alert for Northern Lights activity and dashed out, only to find the skies too cloudy to see this remarkable phenomenon. On several occasions, we scaled an icy Mount Errigal in crampons only to find that the sequence we shot was disappointing, knowing we’d have to wait another season for the snow to return to try again.

"The final sequence of the sun rolling down a mountainside in the Derryveagh Mountains like a fiery marble took multiple attempts over three years to capture.

"Our coastline is stupendous and it gets magnificent storms, but the wind is not the photographer’s friend, and obtaining a sequence of the iconic cottage Malin Head with the gigantic waves thundering ashore proved near impossible in gale force winds with a zoom lens. Our Land Rover, in which we camp out, was literally rocking on its wheels!"

This is undoubtedly a labour of love and requires a call to above and beyond the call of duty.

"Still, it’s been enormous fun travelling the length and breadth of our county to make this film. Staying up all night and eating Sharron’s homemade Cornish pasties as we watched the Milky Way slide across the heavens from the rocky and remote beach at Crohy Head; spending the night alone in the solitude of the mountains in our tent; or standing waist-deep in water capturing the pyrotechnics of dawn whilst being serenaded by hundreds of birds, will remain indelibly stamped on our memories.

"Sharron will never forget the time she descended Errigal, ecstatic in the knowledge that we had finally bagged some amazing shots at twilight of the snow-frosted Derryveaghs sweeping down to a mirror-still Dunlewey Lough, only to walk headlong into a ditch not far from the car park. In the dark, she had fallen up to her waist in stinking liquid bog and Martin had to pull her out. Fortunately, the camera equipment was protected by her backpack, but she had to strip off to her knickers for the drive home - luckily, we weren’t stopped by the gardaí or we might have had some explaining to do!"

Ethereal Light Photography is based near Ramelton and provides timelapses for TV companies as well as running photo tours and workshops.