Daily Blog

I should be out photographing the sunset in the next 15minutes or so. But instead I am sitting looking across Clew Bay, no sign of the sun , Croagh Patrick has disapeared completely behind the misty rain that is blowing across the bay so I will spend the evening processing some of yesterday's images.
Here is one from yesterday, Croagh Patrick is clearly visable across the bay in this one!

This picture required a tripod to hold the camera steady for the 10second exposure at f11. I converted it to Black and white because I think it is far more dramatic.

What a great day yesterday, still in Mulranny! Got up at 6am for the sunrise, arrived at my location, not a sign or sound of a human being, but as I arrived I saw a Heron in the water, silhouetted , to far away to photograph , but a lovely site. As I set up the tripod a robin sang beside me. I waited for the sunrise it did not really show due to low cloud , though it was still lovely. Then at sunrise a cock crew somewhere behind me and a donkey started to bray away to my left. I enjoyed the sunrise though it was not the most spectacular. Once that display was over I decided to head back to the house, but got distracted and visited another three sites. this picture was taken at Bellacragher Bay twenty minutes after sunrise. I got back to the house at 8.45 plenty of time to take the dog Inca { remember Inca? thats why I'm in Mulranny for the few days} out for her run up the mountain.
In the afternoon Patricia and I cycled the greenway to Achill Island its about 10 miles each way. We felt very pleased with ourselves for taking such exercise, but probably undid it by having coffee and cake on Achill before we headed for home!

Today started just like yesterday, misty and rain with the addition today of strong winds. I had given up on any photography when all of a sudden just after lunch the mist over the bay began to lift, within half an hour or so it had completely disappeared and Croagh Patrick became visible for the first time in three days! So we went out to the shore and enjoyed the sunshine.
As you can see from this image the sea was quite choppy, but it did not deter this Lobster fisherman from going about his work.

I am in Mulranny for a week .Dog sitting for a friend. the fact that the dog (Inca), (and my friend) live in one of the most beautiful places in Ireland means its no hardship at all!! I had great hopes and still do, of some great landscape photography but so far the weather has been disappointing. No sunrise and no sunset, very little sign of the sun at all today. The day was mainly drizzle and any time the sun did break through I was not out! Anyway on a walk this morning we came upon this scene and I thought it might be of help to those of you having difficulty sleeping!!!

Having spent yesterday printing and mounting pictures for sale in the Lady's Buttery" gift shop in Cong Co Mayo, this morning I had to deliver them. It was a fairly dull morning but just as I left Cong the sun broke through and so I stopped at Glebe Stone Circle to try for a picture. The stone circle is clearly visible from the road as you approach Cong but it is a narrow road and it is difficult to stop, so I have often passed it when I have wanted to stop. This morning however I made a determined effort. I have also found it difficult to photograph the circle in a way that does it justice. Many of the stones are missing and there is a horrible metal fence around the stone circle which I feel takes from it somewhat. It must have been a very important site once upon a time because there are apparently FOUR circles all within a few hundred hards of each other. I love these places, and as I lay on the ground trying to figure out my exposures in difficult lighting, I did wonder about those that went before and hoped that I was not disrespecting them by lying within the circle.

Very little of a photographers time is actually spent taking photographs!! Today I spent the day printing and framing pictures. Hopefully I'll get out with the camera tomorrow!

This picture of Ballintuber Abbey was taken about a month ago, it was a really dull morning with avery bland sky. I always think skies are very important to a picture but as an old , now deceased, photographer friend of mine used to say if the sky is boring "Cut it out" I thought of my friend Keith as I took this picture.

We had a lot of drizzly rain today , so it was a day for working indoors. i finished processing the photographs from the weekend wedding.
This image was made a month ago in the Burren in Co Clare. and shows Lough Geallain with Mullagh More in the background. I have been traveling to the Burren for over thirty years and I have never seen the water level in Lough Geallain so low.

No new pictures today, rested after yesterdays wedding. But I did get some requests to see yesterdays bride, Eileen . So here are the happy couple at Black sod Co Mayo.

Just back from a great day at the wedding of Eileen and Richard, the computer is still downloading the pictures from memory cards, but here is one of the images from the day. This picture was taken at Black Sod.

I spent a good part of today processing wedding photos and did not get out with the camera. here is an image I made last month on Fanore Strand in County Clare.

Another image from Achill Island. This window is in a derelict cottage , the corrugated tin roof has fallen in, but there are still flowers in the window!!

Took a rest from the camera today. This picture was taken in Achill on Saturday evening. The boat is an "Achill Yawl" you can learn a bit more about them by watching Jerry Cowley's interview on YouTube. Jerry has been one of the people who has spearheaded a revival of the Achill Yawl, and his wife Teresa takes great pictures of them in action. See Jerry's interview here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rQbX9gOLX0

A little late posting this evening, just back from a great day on achill, photographing the wedding of Jackie and Brian Kilbane, such a great couple and a really lovely day, thanks Jackie and Brian.

I was on Achill Island this evening to meet Jacky and Brian whose wedding I am photographing tomorrow. Before we met I made a quick visit to Dugort Beach, the clouds were threatening rain but the light was great. I think its amazing to see empty beaches at 7pm in the evening in August!

Back in Mayo since late last night, there was a lot of rain and dark clouds today, and I did not get out with the camera, but this image from Castle Bourke, Lough Carra was taken on a similar kind of day. You can see the ruin of Castle Bourke in the background.

I am in Athlone in WestMeath for a couple of days. There was a lovely sunset over Lough Ree this evening but unfortunatly I missed it. But I did go down to the lough about twenty minutes after sunset. I just brought the camera and one lens, a 24-85mm f4.5zoom. Its a general purpose lens. As I left the car I thought, "bring the bag with the other lenses , but decided I did not have the time for "messing about with lenses". Of course I should have listened to my inner voice!! I got down to the water side and there was this lovely swan, and I had no choice but to work with the lens I had, but a faster 2.8 lens would have made life much easier. For this image I used iso500, the widest aperture on the lens which was 4.5 this left a fairly slow shutter speed of only 1/40th second. So I took at least a half a dozen pictures most of which were slightly blurred because the swan was moving, but I liked this one.

A couple of days ago I took delivery of an "umbrella softbox", a really inexpensive way of softening the light from a flash gun. The flashgun is off camera on a stand and is fired wirelessly from the camera. Anyway after the postman arrived I was like a little child wanting to try it out. My son Barry was the only person around and even though he had just taken his porridge out of the microwave he stepped out into the garden for just a couple of pictures ( he brought his porridge with him !) The methodology for this kind of picture is to underexpose the picture for the natural light by one stop or maybe a stop and a half, this darkens the scene, then the flash which is in manual mode is set to give enough light to light the main subject. the "umbrella sofbox" softens the light from the flash so there are no harsh shadows. I was delighted with the effect. now I just need to find some more people to photograph.

Its very dull this evening. Around lunchtime today I decided I was probably not going to get out to do any landscape pictures this evening, but I still needed a picture for this evenings blog. So I went out to the garden it was overcast but there were still a few bees working hard. Now chasing bees rarely works its better to let them come to you. So I selected a flower and waited, within about two minutes, I was rewarded when this little fellow visited the same flower. I shot off eight shots before he buzzed off, only two were in focus!

Yet another shot from Sunday evening! I had to work hard to get the shots and at the time felt that I did not do the amazing light justice. But having posted five shots from that evening, thats a very good return! This was taken about fifteen minutes before sunset and as you can see the sun was very low in the sky, lighting up the wild grasses. When you come upon a situation like this you know it is only going to last minutes and sometimes the excitement can get the better of you! The low light will certainly get the better of the camera and you have to really engage your photographers brain to get the shot recorded , properly exposed etc before the magic light just disappears.

The big issue for this picture , apart from the exposure was keeping the sun out of the lens, which would resulted in flare. I was trying to use a piece of card , but I could not shade the camera lens without the card appearing in the picture. When I realized what I needed to do, I had to run into action , over the barbed wire fence back to the car for a remote control for the camera, connect the remote and then walk about twenty to thirty feet from the camera, with me between the sun and the camera, I then leaned forward watching my shadow as it fell across the front of the camera lens and shot off the pictures, then back to the camera, check the results , punch the air cos it worked and then repeat the picture!! Who said photography is not a sport!

Despite the lovely weather and the lovely low sunshine I can see outside as I post this , I have been stuck in the house all day, so here is another image from my Sunday evening trip to Lough Feeach.