Daily Blog

Glad to make it back to Mayo after our few days in both Cork and Dublin. I find driving in the city so stressful . Despite the use of a sat-nav we still managed to get lost because the sat nav needed to be updated, but the roads are so busy and difficult to navigate. I just get so stressed. So its great to be back in Mayo. Here is a picture of the "Road to Keem" its not the straightest , or the widest, but how many cars can you see? I love it!!

Glad to make it back to Mayo after our few days in both Cork and Dublin. I find driving in the city so stressful . Despite the use of a sat-nav we still managed to get lost because the sat nav needed to be updated, but the roads are so busy and difficult to navigate. I just get so stressed. So its great to be back in Mayo. Here is a picture of the "Road to Keem" its not the straightest , or the widest, but how many cars can you see? I love it!!

Spent the day in Dublin. Being on the East Coast , for a change I thought it would be easy to get a good sunrise picture.But we awoke to rally horrible weather this morning , wind and rain most of the day. this picture of the Martello Tower in Dun Laoghaire was taken on a previous visit, the sun did not shine that day either!!

Todays picture was taken a few minutes before sunrise, in Carrigaline Co Cork. Just after this picture was taken, as the temperature began to rise the wind picked up and the reflections disapeared. This scene is just a short walk from my mothers house.

Very late posting today, I am in Cork for a pre christmas visit. So I did not get out with the camera. Here is a sunrise picture from Lough Carragh in county Mayo taken a couple of weeks ago.

On my way to Keem Strand on Achill last Monday, you may remember I had to stop at Keel Strand because of the wonderful colour in the sky. As I travelled back from Keem a few hours later I just had to stop at Keel again! By this time the sun had come over the cliffs and so I had to walk the length of the beach to reach a point where I could photograph the cliffs without including the sun directly in the picture.

I did not have to go far for todays picture. This picture of the dawn sky was taken down a bog road here in Kiltimagh

I hope you don't mind, but here is another image from Keem Strand! Posting a picture every day has at times been a real challenge ( On 31st Dec it will be three years since I started doing it) I try and only put up pictures that are "good enough" so many are rejected and usually I might get one or two from a trip out that are "good enough" to post but this is the fifth from Monday mornings trip, (and I may use another one tomorrow!) the light was just so good that morning.

Here is another picture from the sunrise at Keem Strand. As you can see it was a lovely morning and I was eagerly working the beach when I noticed my battery was running low with only two bars showing on the battery indicator. naturally I had packed a spare battery that I took out of the charger before I left the house. Once the indicator moved to only one bar, I replaced the battery, but it was completely empty!!!! I could not believe it .So I changed the battery back and now began to use my camera more like a film then a digital camera. With film you were always careful not to take too many pictures as you were limited by the length of the film, with digital each memory card can take several hundred pictures. The other big disadvantage that digital cameras have is their reliance on battery power. Once the battery is dead so is the camera, even battery driven film cameras could be used in limited settings when the battery is dead. So I continued to work the beach.

Having stopped at both Mulranny and at Keel Strand, I eventually made it to Keem Strand on Monday morning with only a few minutes to spare before sunrise.

On my journey to Keem strand for the sunrise yesterday, as you have already seen, I stopped briefly at Mulranny. I was tempted to remain there for the sunrise but decided that I should stick to the plan. As I drove towards Keem , it was such a lovely morning there were loads of places I could have stopped but I knew the sun would not wait for me at Keem. However despite the fact that time was becoming very tight, I just had to stop at Keel when I saw this sight ! I could only stop for a minute or so and was tempted to stay on Keel , but I was so close to Keem......

I had been planning a sunrise trip to Keem Strand for some time, and had even made two attempts in recent weeks but for one reason or another did not make it. The forecast for this morning was for cloud. Its always good to have some cloud at sunrise, it was also frosty and the tide would be at its lowest at sunrise time. So with everything in place I got up extra early allowing just over two hours for the one and a half hour journey. Just as well I did as the roads were very icy in places, and I also had to deal with other drivers, some who were being just too careful, crawling along at twenty miles an hour and slamming on their breaks as often as they could! And of course the others who were just not being careful enough as they sped along . I on the other hand was driving perfectly!!! Anyway I made it to my destination in plenty of time and in one piece.
I passed through Mulranny about hour before sunrise as the dawn began to break , when I saw the moon over Croagh Patrick I just had to make an unscheduled stop.

For those who ask about these things the exposure was 1/8second at f9 and iso1250

Spent the day in the shops!!! Took the camera with me in the hopes of making a short escape for the sunset. But we went into Horkans early afternoon and came out after the sun had long set. That would be great if we had managed to get all the presents bought but unfortunately we have to go through it all again!

So here is a picture taken last week at Lough Carragh ,it was taken about ten minutes before the sun rose.

How is your Christmas shopping going ? I think I am being dragged moaning around the shops this afternoon!

Here is a little reminder that all my images are for sale as prints, or why not send a voucher so that the recipient can choose their own print? There are NO POSTAGE CHARGES between now and 2013 !

Vouchers are also available for one to one photo training and I have also just placed the dates for next years Landscape weekends on the website. www.imagesofmayo.com

If you would like to purchase a recent image from the blog , that has not yet found its way into the gallery on the website just message me.

This picture of Keem Strand can be found in the Black and White Gallery. It was taken back in 2005 !

Got back to Mayo this evening after my few days in Cork.Spent the afternoon travelling, so I did not go out taking photographs but I did get this sunset from the side of the N17 near Tuam.

I was up early for the sunrise here in Carrigaline Co Cork this morning.I had intended to travel to a beach a few miles away . I was amazed by how much traffic there was on the roads, going in every direction! Thats one of the great things about living in Mayo, very little time is spent sitting in traffic. It soon became apparent that i was putting myself under undue pressure to get to the location before sunrise so I decided to go somewhere closer and went to Myrtlvile beach. I also forgot that in the winter the sunrise in Cork is ten minutes before sunrise in Mayo so I was only just on time, and definitely would not have made it to my preferred location!

Here is a close up shot of the sunrise yesterday at Urlaur Abbey.

This morning I took a trip to Urlaur Abbey for the sunrise. It is very difficult to get a good view of the Abbey because of its position on the lakeside, this picture is taken from a small pier. The rising sun can only be seen from this position for about two months of the year, otherwise it is behind the Abbey.

Its a horrible morning here in Co Mayo, there'l be no photographs taken today. This is one from yesterday morning ar Lough Carragh. This was taken about 35 minutes after sunrise time just as the sun came over some clouds. The lack of wind meant there were lovely reflections in the water. This was one of those times when I was glad I had decided to go out ,and glad I decided to wait to see whet might happen! I always feel privileged to witness sights like this even if the photographs don't always do the scene justice.

This morning I headed over to Lough Carragh for the sunrise. The morning was much milder then others this week ,but I still knew it was winter when I got there because all the boats that would normally form part of the photographs were gone - put away for the winter! My decision to go to Lough Carragh was a little last minute because it looked like there would be no visible sunrise when I went out first. But a small clearing in the clouds caused me to re think and I headed off. Well the sunrise itself was hidden by low cloud, but I waited around for about forty minutes and captured some lovely light as the sun came over the cloud. This is one of the last photographs I took.