Daily Blog

UP Mayo!!
What an amazing game of Gaelic Football ! Mayo played Kerry in the All Ireland Semi final this afternoon and by half time it looked like it was all over for Mayo. But in the second half with only fourteen men on the pitch they played like men possessed and somehow pulled off a draw and will now play a replay next Saturday. To be fair to Kerry they nearly stole it at the end. But it was a great game so well done to both teams....... but especially MAYO !

Often the best time to take photos is after the sun has gone. On this occasion I had raced down to the shore to capture the sunset. But it was very disappointing and lacking in colour. But this image was made about twenty minutes after the sun had dropped. the light levels were very low and it needed a 1/15th second shutter speed but while there was very little light, it was a lovely quality ,with lots of reflections on the wet rocks.

I did not get out today so here is another image from last week in Co Clare.
Can you think of anything better, your feet in the wild atlantic, fishing and watching the sun setting in the west ? I suppose a couple of fish to fry in butter with a pint of Guinness afterwards maybe ?

On our way to Murrisk Abbey yesterday for the shoot with Sinead and Simon, Croagh Patrick was looking particularly clear, and try as we might to resist the temptation to stop, we just had to , but only for a minute or two!

Had a great morning with fellow photographer Sinead. Sinead wanted some help with off camera flash and her nephew Simon agreed to model. We went to Murrisk Abbey and Simon was very patient as photographs were made all over the place. Just as we were about to leave I wondered could we make an interesting portrait using the abbey window. So here it is, the challenge was to balance the ambient light in the window with the flash, I think it worked pretty well, helped of course by Simon's choice of a blue jacket that balances well with the blue sky.

This morning I had a one to one photo class with a lady from Galway. Frances had a compact camera that she had been using in auto for about a year. After only a couple of hours she was amazed at what she could do and I don't think she will use auto ever again.
Last week I held my first ever long distance one to one class through Skype. My student was in Miami ! but the classes went really well , we held them over a period of a week, and are to have another in a couple of weeks time.
This evening I had a class a little closer to home . My daughter Grainne is studying photography in college in Dublin and came home for a couple of days to get ready for the new term. We did a little practice with off camera flash and she took this portrait of me.

We are only just over half way through August but I am beginning to get that end of summer feeling ! The days are getting shorter and the evenings are a little chillier, but confirmation came today when I got my first request to run a photography evening class!! These usually start in September , so if you are interested in attending an evening class or indeed if you wanted to organise one in your community contact me!!

There are also still places available on a weekend Landscape Course in Mulranny in September, these courses are always great fun.

This evenings image was made from the Cliffs of Moher in Co Clare, the sunset looked so promising as I prepared to take a picture of the cliffs, but then it just faded away as the clouds moved in to obstruct the sun completely.

Back from holidays and today was my first chance to edit the pictures from the wedding I photographed last weekend. Fiona and Nick are such a lovely couple, and easy to photograph!!

Late again this evening ! I am not long in from the Novena in Knock, where I was photographing the event. The ceremony normally finishes with a candle light procession, and in anticipation of the procession, I left the Basilica to establish the correct camera settings . So i took this picture, at iso2000, 1/15th second and f2.8 on the fuji, its amazing just how slow you can go with this camera and still get fairly sharp pictures. It was spitting rain at the time . I had taken a few pictures and established the correct settings when I suddenly realised that nobody was coming out for the procession! It had been cancelled due to the rain, so I had to quickly make my way back to the basilica to photograph the closing ceremonies.
For those of you not familiar with knock, the Church at the front of the image is the Old Parish Church, The Basilica is the more modern building in the distance.

last day of our family holiday in Co Clare, by tomorrow all the "children" will have gone back to their own lives ! This evening we went to the cliffs of Moher, I had hoped to get the cliffs lit by the setting sun, but while it looked like it was going to be a very spectacular sunset once again the cloud near the horizon blocked the sun and it rained as I attempted to make this picture, so i had to use a high iso to speed up the process as I could not keep the lens dry. needless to say ,once I gave up and put the camera in the bag the rain stopped!

A different take on Landscape photography this evening My niece Carragh needed some photographs for her modelling portfolio, so we took a stroll down to the beach and made some pictures.

I was very late getting my picture for this evenings post, once again there was no sunset this evening because of the heavy cloud and frequent showers. But I went down to the shore about half an hour after sunset time and got this image just as the light was failing. Camera; Fuji XE1 30 seconds, @f10

I intended to go for a sunset picture again this evening, but about an hour before sunset the cloud cover thickened and so I decided to go fishing instead ! I caught no fish !! and while I had the fuji camera with me I had no tripod and the cloud was so dark above the sea that I really wanted a picture! It was so dark that a tripod was needed ,especially as I wanted a little movement in the water, Not having a tripod I rested the camera on my fishing tackle box and using the self timer got this shot. Looking at the back of the camera I was delighted, no fish, but I still had "one in the bag".

Day three of our family trip to Co Clare. I decided not to go out taking photos this evening but instead went fishing on Fanore Beach with my daughter Aisling and son Barry. But I had the Fuji camera with me so even though my role for the evening was to bait hooks and unhook fish, when the opportunity arose for a "memory" picture for Aisling, i had a camera at the ready!!

I am now going down to the kitchen where Barry is cooking the fish!!!!

I am still in Co Clare, enjoying a few days with the family, all four grown up children and partners are here. So we went fishing in the afternoon it was such a lovely day, and I was sure we would get a lovely sunset , but ten minutes before subset time the clouds covered the sun and there was nothing to be seen. I went out a second time to check if it had changed, it had not, but as I turned to go back into the house, there was the moon rising over the Cahir Valley, so I got a picture after all! Fuji Ex1 at iso 2500 !!

I am in Co Clare this evening. I stopped briefly at Blackhead Lighthouse as the light was lovely.

Very late posting today, but I am not long home from a lovely day at Fiona and Nicks wedding, the wedding was in Swinford with the reception in Westport. It was a lovely day and a real privilege to share in Fiona and Nick's special day.

I am always "on duty" as a photographer day or night !! I see pictures every where and must really annoy my poor wife who has had so many journeys interrupted when I suddenly stop the car "just for a minute"

A few evenings ago we passed Ballylacken castle when I "saw" a picture , the moon was rising but there was still a little twilight in the sky. So I stopped a few metres after passing the castle put the car in reverse and went back. I would have liked to expose the moon a little better but if I did the rest of the image became too dark and I would lose the blue colour, but I still liked it!

Thanks to all who responded to yesterdays post, it is really heartening to get such a big response.
Tonight I am posting another image of the sunset at Kilcummin Head on Sunday evening.

I was delighted to hear today that this image of Croagh Patrick,that I made on 5th July with the fuji XE1, has one a Gold Award in the July round of the SWPP and will be printed in the "Professional Image Maker " The other award winners can be seen Here