Trim Sunset

Here is your Sky Watch Friday image.

Well another week is over and I will leave you with a sunset form the Newtown Abbey trip.

I have to tell you the story behind this image as it nearly had a tragic ending.

I had picked up my new Manfrotto Carbon Fiber tripod that morning and just had to go out and test it. The result of the test? The Newtown Abbey images in the previous posts. I was on my way home when I spotted this location and a possible silhouette could be had. I pulled over and go the tripod and camera out. I was not able to get the sun behind the trees for where i was standing. Now I don’t know about you but a locked gate does not stand in my way in the hunt for that perfect photo.

In this case I had to climb over a 15 foot long gate. What I normally do is climb onto the gate and then lift the camera and tripod over and continue on myself. This time I climbed over the gate. While I was getting down from the gate, the gate and the pillars fell down. They clipped the back of my leg but all I could do was stand there in fits of laughter. Then it just hit me. If I had done what I normally do I would be looking at one smashed up camera and tripod. However I did manage to get the image, put the gate back up and get out of there fast.

Dingle Bay from a boat

Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

I have gone back to the Dingle Bay images for Watery Wednesday as no water in the Newtown Abbey sequence. There is a stream beside the abbey but nothing of interest to photograph.

So this image was taken when the boat was at full speed heading back into the harbour after our trip out to see Fungie the Dolphin. Again I was amazed at how sharp the image was when it was taken hand held on a bobbing boat ( and here’s me going out and buying a carbon fiber tripod ).

I would like to thank all you fellow bloggers for your comments about my images and to the recent followers to my blog. Thank You.

If any of you have questions you would like to ask, please either email them to me or leave a comment and I will return the answer via email.

Dingle Bay from a boat

Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

I have gone back to the Dingle Bay images for Watery Wednesday as no water in the Newtown Abbey sequence. There is a stream beside the abbey but nothing of interest to photograph.

So this image was taken when the boat was at full speed heading back into the harbour after our trip out to see Fungie the Dolphin. Again I was amazed at how sharp the image was when it was taken hand held on a bobbing boat ( and here’s me going out and buying a carbon fiber tripod ).

I would like to thank all you fellow bloggers for your comments about my images and to the recent followers to my blog. Thank You.

If any of you have questions you would like to ask, please either email them to me or leave a comment and I will return the answer via email.

Newtown Abbey 3

Here is your My World image.

And the sequence continues from Newtown Abbey, Trim, Co Meath with the image above.
What we have here is the entrance to the abbey through the gates. I am inside the grounds of the abbey looking out not outside looking in. Confused ? I am.

You walk along the path by the wall and the grave yard in too your left in the image.
I used this composition for a numbers of reasons mainly to block all the European and Local election poster all over the place. The two head stones on the left are blocking some posters as are the trees.

You will have a break from the Abbey tomorrow for Watery Wednesday and a b&w sunset for Sky Watch Friday with a funny story behind that one. So see you then.

Newtown Abbey 2

Here is your Monochrome Maniacs image.

It’s been a while since my last post with Aileni over at Monochrome Maniacs. The way things have worked out I was always traveling back from somewhere and did not get a chance, but that has change now.

So Monochrome Maniacs, here is the second image in a sequence from last friday at Newtown Abbey, Trim, Co Meath. This time I moved a little more to the right and lower down in the tall grass to change the angle of view.

Again we have wonderful side lighting coming in from the setting sun on the right. It has made the tops of the grass stand out nicely.

So stay tuned to this weeks post to see more from this shoot.

Newtown Abbey

Here is your Scenic Sunday image.

After a week of wonderful blue skies and sunshine, we are now back in winter, as it did not stop raining all day Saturday with strong winds. However I did manage to get out for a couple of hours on Friday evening. Nothing like a new piece of equipment to get you motivated. In this case a new tripod.

The image above is of Newtown Abbey, Trim, Co Meath.

After dinner I travelled the short distance to Trim, about 10k, to get some images of the Castle and Abbey. Just as I arrived the clouds arrived and put an end to the wonderful side lighting I was looking for. I got a couple of images and will post during the week. I drove to another location but decided to go back to the Abbey. The sun was setting now and the light was starting to glow. Well, all I can say was that I had some of the most beautiful golden side lighting in a long time with lit up the surface of the rocks in the foreground.

So in the end I got the image I was after, but the moral of this story is “Don’t have that extra potato”.

Inch Beach

Here is your Sky Watch Friday image.

Well it’s Friday again. With the bank holiday on Monday the week flew by and we still have this wonderful blue sky and plenty of sunshine. There are lots of people going around the sun burn marks all over their bodies as we pale skin Irish are not use to the sun.

The above image is Inch Beach, Co Kerry from a while back. We have the Dingle Peninsula on the right and Iveragh Peninsula on the left and looking out towards Dingle Bay. I was surprised to find we had the beach to ourselves. With the tide out and very shallow water it made for a great reflection of the clouds in the sky. No imported clouds here as with all my images, I don’t add or take away anything form the photo just dust spots with the clone brush.

Your comments please on what you add or take away ?

Skerries Harbour

Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

Is this Skerries Harbour shooting into the sun or a well know Irish Icon ( hint you can drink it ) ?

I have not being able to get out much the past few months for some serious landscape photography due to the fact I have being away shooting marathons. I think next trip away is at the end of June. So until then I will be posting a few from the archives.

Skerries Harbour

Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

Is this Skerries Harbour shooting into the sun or a well know Irish Icon ( hint you can drink it ) ?

I have not being able to get out much the past few months for some serious landscape photography due to the fact I have being away shooting marathons. I think next trip away is at the end of June. So until then I will be posting a few from the archives.

Stormy Days

Here is your My World Image.

The funny thing is that we are have one of the best bank holidays weather wise for the number of years. Clear blue sky’s and sunny days with highs of 26 degrees which can’t be said for the weather in the image above.

I got back from Stockholm on Sunday to this wonderful weather. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like taking photos in this sort of weather. So I looked back and found this image I took a while back of a stormy day over on Achill Island. Driving rain and wind, a bit of a difference.

I think that’s it for a while now with the weekends away shooting marathons so normal posting routine will continue from today.

Dingle Bay Pano

Here is your Sky Watch Friday image.

Here is the complete view of the entrance into Dingle Bay from the back of the boat I was on while waiting for Fungie to arrive. You got a close up of the head land on the left in the previous Dingle Bay post.

A quick post tonight as I am packing the bags for Stockholm tomorrow. Have a good weekend all and talk again some time on Sunday.

Fungie

Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

As requested by a few bloggers from the last Watery Wednesday post a image of “Fungie” the Dolphin form Dingle.

For more info on Fungie Click the Link Here

Howth Head 2

Here is your My World image.

We continue the walk around Howth Head. And as I said in the last post, you will see The Bailey Lighthouse. Ok it’s a bit small in this image. The above image was taken along the cliff walk and this path continues along the edge of the cliff towards the lighthouse. I did not get any closer to the lighthouse but will look in the vault to see if I have a better image for you tomorrow. From the lighthouse you continue walking north and will end up in Howth village and harbour.

Howth Head

Here is your Monochrome Maniacs image.

Hot of the press. Just finished looking at the images taken today after a very sunny day here is Dublin. We went for a walk along the cliff walk from the Sutton side of Howth Head. Stopping off at a couple of locations to have lunch and a few photos.

In this image you can just make out a object above the rocks, which was a Coast Guard helicopter on a fly around the east coast. The walk continues along the cliffs on the left all the way around. Just around the corner you will be greeted to a view of The Bailey Lighthouse.

Mallaranny Rocks

Here is your Scenic Sunday image.

This image was taken at the beach in Mallaranny, Co Mayo. You drive through this village on your way over to Achill Island. In this image you see the rocks which make up the best part of the beach when the tide is in. And in my case the tide was fully in. In the background across Clew Bay is Croagh Patrick and the surrounding mountains.

I have a question for you today. Can you tell me why, in your opinion, this image has sold well from my website?

The Silent Valley

Here is your SkyWatch image.

The Silent Valley is located in The Mourne Mountains, Co Down, Northern Ireland, just a short 1.5 hour drive from where I live. I have being to this place many times but have not done the full walk. You can just about make out the path/road at the base of the mountain on the right. This will bring you to another dam between the two reservoirs. I am hoping to get up there some time this year and do the complete walk with the children (probability on their bikes) and hope to get more images of the Mourne Mountains.

Dingle Bay

Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

I’m back, but more about that later. The above image was taken from the back of a boat in Dingle Bay. There is a story behind this which I will explain.

If you have being following my blog, you will know that one thing that I always say is to go back to a location over and over again. Well this is one location I returned back too, 7 years later mind you in this case. Dingle is famous for many things but one in particular is a dolphin called Fungie which pulls in the tourists by the boat load. You can go out on a boat and view Fungie as he does what dolphins do ( puts on a bit of a show ). Seven years ago I went out in such a boat with my then 3 year old daughter to see Fungie. At that stage digital cameras were starting to come on the market but at a price. So I had a Canon EOS 3 film camera with me which could go through a roll of film in 5 seconds.

My daughter was leaning over the edge of the boat and calling Fungie’s name when up he came and swam along side her. She was amazed at this and to this day is Dolphin mad. However I think I stole the show on this boat trip. Why? Well everybody on the boat had one of the small compact film camera at the time which took one shot every hour so to speak. For them to hear and see a camera in full motion and me going through 5 rolls of film in the space of 2mins was unbelievable.

To bring the story up to date, my daughter wanted to go back and see Fungie for her 10 birthday this year. So back at the start of May while down in Killarney we drove out to Dingle and went out in the boats again to see Fungie. And to his credit, Fungie puts on his show for the tourists. This time I around with the age of digital, I was able to get the images and view them on the camera to make sure I had got the image. While waiting around for Fungie to surface I was able to take a couple of images of the surrounds, which the image above was.

When I got back home and looked through the files from that day I was surprised to see how good the images taken from the boat were. My usual landscape workflow of setting up tripods and ND Grad filters, test exposures etc…. not this time. Hand held on a boat going from side to side, high ISO makes you stop and think?

As you might have seen, no posting for the past few days as I was over in Gotenborg for the Half Marathon. (not running but shooting it). Over the 3 days of events I shot over 20,000 images of the runners. I don’t have the total figure for all the photographers there but well over 300,000 images were taken. And in a couple of weeks time it’s of to Stockholm for a full Marathon.

Sunday walk about

Mr Kepala on his walk about.

Well that’s the end of the Tiger series on Kepala, a five year old Sumatran tiger from Dublin Zoo. I hope you have enjoyed the posts this week as much as I did photographing them.

I am off on my travels again this weekend, this time to Gotenborg, Sweden for a Marathon. I will be leaving early Friday so sorry no posts until I return on Sunday.

Mr Kepala dives for lunch

Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

We continue the Tiger Theme this week with another one of Mr Kepala. To get the action shots of the tigers, the Zoo keepers feed the tigers by tossing whole chickens over the glass and into the pond. It was amazing to see the speed of them as they jumped into the water to get the chickens. It is very unusual for tigers to put there complete head under the water, but they did so on the occasion. However two of the chickens were in the deep part of the pond and the tigers could not get them. The image above shows you Kelapa after trying to get them but failed.

I will post one more image for Thursday and then we will be back to normal b&w landscape for Skywatch Friday.

Mr Kepala

Here is your My World image.

And here he is, Mr Kepala, the Sumatran Tiger from Dublin Zoo who got very close and I mean very close to me. I was taking some images of Sigra the female tiger and could not see Kepala anywhere, Why? Because he was right beside me. I know it’s not the same as true wildlife photography but I don’t think I am ever going to get within a inch of a tiger (a live one that is) and live to be typing on my keyboard and telling all about it.

So this is My World for the moment the Tigers at Dublin Zoo.