Dublin Zoo

I was down in Dublin Zoo on Saturday to get some image’s of the new baby Rhino for the Zoo publications. She is about 3 weeks old now and running wild around her in-closure, so much so that her mother can’t take much more and they are put in for a few hours so the mother can relax.

While down in the Zoo I still love going over to the tigers and always come away with a few more images to add to my vast collection now. It was early on Saturday morning and they had just finished their breakfast of a full chicken and pigs head.  They then just sat down in the morning sunshine and relaxed.

More images from the Zoo can be found by selecting the Link :-   Animals

Cork at June Bank Holiday

I was down in Cork at the June Bank Holiday weekend to shoot the Cork City Marathon on the Monday. With such a long drive and be at the start line for 7:30 in the morning, I went down on Sunday instead. This way I could do a few images around Old Head of Kinsale at sunset before going to the hotel for the night.This image above was taken down around Lispatrick with Courtmacsherry Bay in the background. It was a funny sort of day with sun shine all day but just as the sun was setting a band of clouds rolled in and that is it. However I did manage to get a couple of interesting images and will post some more later.

Sheep Haven at night

On our way back to the hotel I stopped and took this image looking across Sheep Haven to Horn Head. With a 30 second exposure and strong winds I was surprised that the image came out just fine and looking at the high-res images all is ok to produce a large print. After the shoot we headed back to the hotel for a pint of the black stuff and a well earned pint if I do say so myself.

PS :- The image looks a bit dark in the web browser due to the colour space used and I am not going to start changing my output at this stage.

Mulroy Bay

After a dull start to the day at 5 o’clock in the morning the cloud started to break up and the sun came out to play just before we started to drive back to the hotel for some breakfast. I found a road which lead down to this little harbour looking out over Mulroy Bay. A little bit of work was done to the image to bring it this stage. I think the lower saturation levels and a old photo look about it makes for one a my best images from the trip to Donegal.

Donegal Trip

I am just back from my 3 day Donegal trip to Downies, Rosguil Peninsula. Again wonderful wheather and loads of full memory cards (10 gig worth). I was with six members of the Navan Camera Club. A lot of driving was done over the few days and I interduced a couple of the members to the 5 o’clock sunrise. The image above was taken on the road down from Fanad Head to Portsalon looking out over Lough Swilly and the Inishowen Peninsula. More to follow if I can get the time to process let alone look at the images.

Lough Conn & Nephin B&W

This is the first of the B&W conversion form the Viewpoints trip to North Mayo. The difference here is that this was taken on the way home after myself, Carsten and Peter parted company. I was running out of memory card space but had to stop and take a few images. The light was wonderfull for black and white photography. The sun was high in the sky and nice contrast from highlight to shadow while using ND Grad filters to keep the sky from blowing out.

Pontoon Boat

On our way home from the early shoot and I mean early, 5 in the morning, from the bridge at Pontoon to get the best light of sunrise for Nephin mountain and Lough Conn, we stopped here and found this boat in the lake (Lough Cullan). As we walked out to the boat we started to get a funny feeling that this as a bad idea as we started to sink in the grass. However I think the wet boots, socks and feet were worth it.

Lough Cullan

The first B&W image to be posted from Lough Cullan. This lake is in the road from Foxford to Pontoon (R318). There is a couple of places for you to stop and walk around. This was the last image taken as I ran out of memory card space. I backup the cards when they are full to a portable storage device (Jobo Giga One), but I still do not format the cards and use them again until back home and have backed up the again.

Rock Pool

Another one from the Viewpoint’s trip. This was taken at Downpatrick Head while waiting for the sunset.

The thing I like about this image is that it’s a simple image but that’s what makes it. Also the colour and light are a big part as I converted it to B&W and the impact was lost, so this will be staying in colour.

Sunset from Mullaghmore

This is the first of many images that will be posted from the few days away with the Viewpoint lads. The image was taken at Mullaghmore Head looking out across Donegal Bay. We got to Mullaghmore about an hour before sunset and travelled around to find the best location for sunset, and I think we found the spot. We had to drive back to our B&B in Crossmolina and  it was around 23:30 when we got there.

Viewpoints

Just back from North Mayo where I was with Carsten Krieger and Peter Cox.
IT was a very productive few days shooting form morning to night that is up at 5:00 for sunset and not returning to the B&B until 23:00. A total of about 22GB of photos to sort through.
So it could to a few days before I will post any of the B&W images but I will try and post some colour before the weekend.

Exhibition in the making

I am in the middle of putting a exhibition together called

“Beachs, Bays, Cliffs and Coves - The Coastline of Ireland”

This will be a collection of my work from the passed 5 years including 2008. I hope to have it ready for 2009-2010 and show the exhibition around Ireland. The exhibition will comprise of 30-50 black and white images from the coastline around Ireland north and south. To go along with the exhibition a book will be published with all the images on display in the exhibition.

Winning Entry

This image was one of the winner’s in the Irish Times Nokia Photo Competition on the Theme ‘Sport’.

The image is about 10-15 years old. I was over in France following the Tour de France bike race for a couple of weeks. At or near the finish line of each stage barriers are put up to keep the people back. I just stuck my head out and took this one shot and pulled my camera back in just as the rider passed. A lucky grab shot that has payed off many years later in the form of a new Nokia N95 phone.

Interview on Linux Photography

Hi Neil,

Thanks for taking some time for an interview. I generally “pick” free software developers but I thought it would be interesting to talk to a photographer who happens to use and know Linux… and does his fine art photography work on a Mac with Lightroom & Photoshop.

For those interested, your image gallery is available at www.nmsphoto.com or blackandwhite.ie and your blog can be found at nmsphoto.wordpress.com

Viewpoints

This is a image from my last outing with Viewpoints to Connemara, Co Galway and Co. Mayo.

Viewpoints

“one location, different interpretations”

Myself, Carsten Krieger and Peter Cox have joined together to form a group call “Viewpoints” with the end result of this project to publish a book.

Several planned trips to the National Parks around Ireland with each of us bringing a different eye and photographic style.
This will be a very interesting, different, next couple of years until the end of the project.

Goto the ‘Blogroll’  to see the personal websites and some wounderful colour images of Ireland from these photographers.

Our next trip is to Co Silgo at the end of April.

Fallduff Beach

Fallduff Beach, Co. Mayo

This is another images taken from the latest photo trip to Westport.
Getting up at about 5:30 in the morning and trying to leave the hotel room without waking the children or wife in the dark is very hard, but we have to struggle for our art ?
Fallduff beach is down at Oldhead, just before Louisburgh on the R335. I was at this location at about 8:30 in the morning but the sun was in the wrong location, just above the top of Croagh Patrick which you can see in the background and the tied was in. So a note to return again during the day. This was done and the above image is the result. The tied was out, so the rocks were visible and the sun was in the right location to give strong side lighting. No clouds of note in the sky except for the one above Croagh Patrick which I think add to the image.

Art Ireland

Me & Patrick from The CanvasWorks (on the right)

The Canvas Works is exhibiting at the Art Ireland Spring Collection from Thursday 27th March to Sunday 30th March. On show will be a stunning range of limited edition canvas prints from a selection of Irish and International artists like David McClelland, Neil McShane and Vicky White. Come and visit us at Stand A5 and get a chance to see our beautiful canvas prints up close and personal.

The above photo shows Patrick from The CanvasWorks and myself at the Art Ireland Spring Collection. This was taken early on Sunday morning. It was great to meet up with Patrick & Lynne and finally put a face to the email contact we have had over the past few months. I have not spoken to Patrick yet to find out how many if any of my work was sold.

Here’s Harry

This is Harry, the newest member of my family.
He is a 2 year old Springer Spaniel which we collected form the Meath Dog Pound in February. He is mad but lovable. Any tips in training him how to walk on a lead as he just goes crazy trying to run from tree to post all the time.

What The Duck

Blacksod Bay

This is the first of the images from my Westport photo shoot last week. It was taken from on top of Mweelin on Achill Island looking east out over Blacksod Bay with The Nephin Beg Mountain range in the background. It was very windy up there so only took a couple of images.

Also this is the first image to be processed using Apple Aperture 2 software. It’s a bit different from Lighroom which I have being using to do the black and white conversions but I am starting to get to grips with it. This is a straight b&w conversion from Aperture with no other work done in Photoshop bar a curves lawyer for the contrast.