Daily Blog

Here's another picture of Croagh Patrick, this one taken early mornig from Mulranny. I had to take several pictures to get the wave in just the right position.

Last night about twenty minutes before sunset, I headed down the road in the hopes of capturing a good one. I made a couple of wrong choices and ended up without decent foreground interest, anyway the sunset itself was disapointing and over very quickly with little or no twilight. So I turned for home but there was the moon rising, so once again I drove around trying to find a suitable foreground interest before the moon got too high. This tree was the best I could find, it being up hill from me means, that by looking up towards it the moon looks lower in the sky then it really is. For those who are interested in these things the exposure was -1.3 stops from the camera's recommended setting. this means the sky is dark but there is plenty of detail in the moon.

Yesterday I commented that the single biggest secret of success to capturing good landscape pictures is just "being there" I should have added "and have your camera with you"! Todays picture is a case in point. Yesterday after I had left John, I called to visit my friend Michael, also a photographer who lives in westport. As I left his house I could see lovely light on Croagh Patrick, knowing exactly where to go i sped up the road to a viewing spot and watched in awe as this beautiful scene played out in front of me. It lasted about five minutes before the sun was completely hidden by the clouds and everything became dull.

Today I was booked for a one to one photo class with John. John last came to me for lessons two years ago, but recently bought a new camera and needed a little help to familiarize himself with all the controls. John was staying in Westport for a few days and he suggested we meet at his hotel for breakfast at 9.45! Now for a Landscape photographer 9.45 is lunchtime ! So as I was going that direction anyway I said I would go early, get a sunrise and maybe some other pictures before meeting John for breakfast. I had decided to go to Achill for the sunrise, but I was a little late leaving and so went back to Mulranny instead. it was raining as I left and it rained for the whole journey which is about an hour. In the car I was listening to the radio and the forecasters were describing how "the last of the rain is just leaving the South East Coast, and its going to be a lovely sunny day though a little cold, there may be the occasional scattered shower on the West Coast." It seemed to me that this was a very long shower!! I arrived in Mulranny twenty minutes before sunrise and sat in the car and waited, it continued to rain, I did not see a sunrise, it continued to rain, but I waited. Then at 8.55am half an hour after sunrise the rain stopped, I still could not see the sun and the clouds were very grey, at 9.00 the clouds began to clear and the sun began the break through, at 9.05 I took this picture, at 9.15, I was back in the car on my way to Westport, arriving on time for breakfast!
I think the biggest secret to success in landscape pictures is just being there! Sometimes you wait for hours and get nothing. This morning I was up at 6, drove for an hour, then waited for an hour, and had about ten minutes of photography, but it was magic and it was a privilege to be there. And breakfast with John was great!

Arrived back in Mayo from my couple of days in cork. Cork was very wet. On the journey home it rained none stop from Cork to Gort, but in Mayo it is freezing! no pictures taken today , so here is another one from this weeks visit to Mulranny.

I am in Cork this evening, and spent much of the day travelling. we had a very cold night last night and the whole country suffered a very severe frost. not unlike in this picture taken a year ago on the shores of Lough Carragh.

I went out yesterday evening because it looked like there was a good sunset developing.So I went to Lough Nanbrachna near Kilkelly, but the sunset was a little disappointing. However I got this image as I returned to my car, twenty minutes or so after sunset.

Mayo is such a great county for scenery and of course photography. Sometimes journeys take me much longer then they should, not because of traffic, like in some parts of the country, but because I have to stop so often to take photographs! Todays picture is evidence of this. On Wednesday morning, while racing to get to Mulranny for the sunrise, we passed this scene , seen from the main road. I pass this spot many times and stop many times, yesterday morning I did not have time to stop, but when I looked to my left and saw the colour , I just had to apply the brakes and do a quick U turn.

The picture was taken a half an hour before sunrise and as I did not have time to put up a tripod I had to take the picture at iso800, f5.6 and 1/30second, not ideal for a landscape picture! I am delighted with the picture but in truth I probably should have taken the few minutes to put up the tripod.

Yesterday I planned a trip to Mulranny for this morning, to photograph the sunrise, I had originally planned to photograph the footbridge with the sun rising behind it. Having checked out sun position, tide and of course the weather forecast the plan was finalized,. Mulranny is an hours drive from my house but I was being joined by my friend Liam who was coming from Co Roscommon to try some Landscape photography, so he had even further to travel. At 6am I looked out my bedroom window to see (and hear) heavy rain, I dragged myself out of the bed thinking, it will clear up, I have checked everything!! As I drove the first half of the journey the rain continued, but as we got closer to Mulranny the rain began to ease, and had stopped by the time we got there!. Now the only problem was the wind, which meant there were no reflections under the bridge as I had hoped, so we switched to the beach. Sunrise was due at 8.16 , I had explained to Liam that the best time would be the fifteen minutes or so before the sun actually came up. However there was no colour at all in the sky. but we set up our cameras and waited more in hope then expectation, the sun rose behind clouds and still the colour did not develop, but just when I thought we were going to go home empty handed the colour suddenly developed and we had a frantic five to ten minutes before the sun came over the clouds and became too bright for us to work with. But for those few minutes everything was beautiful, and all the plans were justified, and I think Liam became a convert to landscape photography.

It is safe to declare Autumn is well and truly over in Mayo for another year! After three days of rain and wind, today has blown a real gale all day long. I dont think there will be a leaf left on any tree anywhere! So I am posting an Autumn picture made three weeks ago, just to wish Autumn farewell, this year has seen the best Autumn for colour in this county for several years.

Miserable kind of day here in Kiltimagh today, there was not even a sign of the sun at sunrise today! It did attempt to make an appearance around sunset so I headed out for a few minutes with the camera to try and find a suitable vantage point, but it came to nothing. So here is a picture taken some time ago, there is no sun in this one either. This is a famine memorial in the Doo Lough Valley.

Lots of rain in Mayo today! The sun shone for about twenty minutes, just as it rose from the East, but it was quickly overwhelmed by the low cloud and rain that came in from the West. Within twenty minutes or so of this picture being taken this morning the sun disappeared and was not seen again !

I was out early this morning and photographed the sunrise near Claremorris.

Still working my through some older pictures this picture of Clare Island is two years old, processed in lightroom , I am enjoying re visiting some of these older "forgotten " images.

Rain again this morning, the day did get better but I was unable to get out. This evening i was looking trough some old pictures that never made it to the "blog" This one was taken in November two years ago. Its interesting to see how even in two years we learn and change. I now prosess my pictures differently to how I did two years ago. This picture is taken near Newport and is a good example of how sometimes a long lens can make good landscapes. This is taken at 200mm on a zoom lens.

iIt rained most of the day yesterday and its raining again this morning, so here is a picture from a brighter day on Achill Island
.

On Saturday I went to Myrtleville beach in Cork to photographthe sunrise. Given that we are in the middle of November I was very surprised to see a man dressed in nothing but a swimsuit walk across the beach and go for a swim. My thoughts were something along the lines of " wow , he must be nuts"! As he approached the water he stopped to put on his swim cap and got straight into the water, if it were me I would probably have put in my toe and run back up the beach! Anyway having watched him get into the water my thoughts changed to thoughts of admiration, words like hardy, and brave came to mind. Next thing his companion came down the beach to also go for a swim, only he was wearing a full wet suit and I thought......wimp !

I am in Cork for a few days, I got out for a few minutes early this morning and went to Myrtleville, near Fountainstown, It was a lovely morning, though the sun never actually broke through.

I am in Cork for a couple of days and may not get much chance to take photos . I took this image of Burrishoole Bridge a few weeks ago.

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago in Errif woods on the Leenane road. As you can see, I arrived just on time for some very exciting light, and I immediately thought of "the burning bush" because of the way the small tree or bush was lit.The angles that i could take the image from were very limited however , for example I tried to frame the picture so as to see the top of the bush but if I did sky appeared at the top of the frame which ruined the whole effect of the backlighting .and of course there was a race against time as the sun was sinking rapidly, infact if you look at the picture you can see that the sun is not hitting the ground just behind the bush and a few minutes later it was also gone from the bush. So I had to settle for this view of it, but I was still pleased with it.