Daily Blog

Lots of rain today so I did not venter out.
here is an image from one of my favourite locations on Achill island, its a spot I find it impossible to drive by without stopping for a picture, I have photographed it it all different lights, and with different effects. sometimes using a high shutter speed to freeze the water, sometimes using long exposures of 30 seconds to completely blur and soften the water. this one is taken at a shutter speed of 1.5 seconds which is just enough , I think, to show motion but keep the shape of the waves.

The weather has got a lot colder and wetter over the last couple of days, its amazing how easily we forget, that, in this part of the world we would consider sunshine and showers to be good weather for this time of year. After two weeks of blue skies and all day sunshine we may have been too quick to pack away the coats and umbrellas .
I took this image of Croagh Patrick last week, when taking it I thought I could entitle the picture "the weather is about to break" but its too late, its broke already.

I got out this evening just before sunset and managed just two shots before the sun dropped out of site. I visited lough Nambrackagh near Kilkelly, there was a gentle breeze which meant that the water was not as reflective as I had hoped.
Thanks for all the comments on last nights picture of the lines of plastic in the field, my sister Elaine, who is an expert in these matters, informs me that there are potatoes planted under the rows of plastic! Haven't we come a long way from the lazy beds of old

Very late posting this evening,but I am not long back from Cork. I spent a lot of time driving today and did not expect to get any pictures , but I passed this field somewhere between Galway and Limerick and when I saw it I just had to stop. I have no idea what they were growing under the lines of polythene , but I thought the lines very interesting.

A little early posting this evening as I am about to leave on an overnight trip to Cork, its pretty dull and I don't expect I'll get any pictures between here and there. This is another image from my quick visit to the shores of Lough Carra yesterday evening, i converted to Monochrome, because sometimes when we view a picture in Monchrome the shapes and textures in the image become more important, and for me this was all about the shapes, accentuated by the back lighting skimming across the top of the boats.

We are back from our short break in Westport, fully rejuvenated ! But there was no rest once we got home, I was attending a "showcase this evening of the Craftworks Mayo group of which I am a member, this meant I had to prepare prints etc for the event, set up etc. Anyway it went well, I think. After we finished I had the car packed up and realising the sunset was about 15 minutes away I wondered where I could go for the sunset, I settled on Castleburke on the shores of Lough Carra, As you can see I got there JUST on time. Its amazing how quickly the sun drops and you just can't stop it!

Another fantastic day in Westport at the Westport Coast Hotel. After breakfast this morning we thought we mightt go to Clare Island for the day but realised we would not get to the ferry on time so Trish sugested we might climb Croagh Patrick instead ! Now Trish has never climbed it before, and it is five years since the last time I did. Now I don't usually post personal pictures ( though now that I say it, I realise that All my pictures are personal! ) But I thought I would like to share this picture of Trish , still looking remarkably fresh as she reached the summit! It took us a full 5 hours to go up and down! The journey was shortened a little by the company we met along the way, a Noel O Donavon from my home town of Clonakilty in West Cork!

Away for a couple of days with Trish in Westport. One of our adult children gave us a voucher for Christmas! We are staying at the Westport Coast Hotel. We had said we would take a drive after dinner to get the sunset, but a bottle of wine at dinner put paid to that idea! But the restaurant is on the fourth floor, when we arrived for dinner the window blinds were closed and the waiter told us he would open them later so we could "benefit from the view" I think maybe the sun was too bright at that time. Anyway just as we ordered desert they opened them........ And then they held desert until I returned from our room with the camera!

More blue skies again in Mayo, we don't get it this good in the summer!
I did not go far for todays picture, the cherry blossom is in all its glory in the back garden, we normally get gales about now! and it puts on a very short but spectacular display, but if this lovely weather keeps up we might get another week out of the cherry blossom.

Yesterday evening I had to be in Claremorris just after sunset so left the house a couple of minutes early in the hopes of catching the sunset at a small lake just outside the time.Sunset waits for no man and just as I got to the lake the sun disappeared, I really did not have time to stop anyway but there was a young lady fishing which meant I only had to step out of the car and take a couple of exposures and I knew I had a picture. what a lovely way to spend an evening sitting fishing, and watching the sun go down, it reminds me of my youth!

Following on from yesterdays picture, I explained that I was at Downpatrick Head with one to one course participant Caroline. Having taken the picture I posted yesterday we walked around the cliffs to where the couple in yesterday's picture had been standing, this was the view they were looking at. Caroline had been learning all day how to cope with difficult light and how to use graduated filters and the histogram in her camera to control the exposure. Here, we are shooting into the light which is always more difficult, but also in my view usually more rewarding, but Caroline nailed it! I also took a few pictures, but I thought this one of Caroline's was better then mine so I asked her if I could post it. She was a little reluctant at first but came around. So unusually, here is a picture I did not take! Credit to Caroline Horgan ...Thanks Caroline!

This image was taken a week ago while on a one to one training course with Caroline from Limerick. We had really finished and were just taking a walk along the top of the cliffs at Downpatrick Head, we stopped and were taking pictures of the couple who were standing perilously close to the edge ( of course we were just as close on our edge!! ) When without warning the fishing boat came around the edge of the cliff adding further to the interest and the scale of the picture.

Here is a third image from the lovely evening I had on the shores of Lough Cong on Sunday evening. As you can see it was taken long after sunset, during that time when you are just hanging on refusing to go home!!

You probably picked up from my post yesterday that I was very pleased and excited by my evenings work at Lough Conn. It was one of those evenings where the plan came together, I was in the right place at the right time , the sun set , the colours developed, and as a little bonus a small red cloud appeared at just the right moment and in the right position. So really my main contribution to the whole thing was to be there just in case it happened ( and I had to bring my camera with me of course), the point being, I would have been there even if it did not happen, so its not all luck, its just about being there enough times that occasionally you can describe yourself as "being lucky"
Last night on my way to my planned location I passed over the bridge at Pontoon that separates Lough Cullen from Lough Conn, this is a popular view, though I have rarely managed to get a great picture from there. I stopped on the bridge but failed to see a good picture so continued on my way. But as I was heading home a full fifty minutes after sunset, glowing inside because I knew I already had a great picture, I glanced to my left as I crossed the bridge. I just could not believe what I could see. I slammed on the brakes, put the car into reverse and went back over the bridge , put the fuji on a tripod and exposed this shot for 6.5 seconds at f8 iso200.

Just in from a lovely evenings photography on the shores of Lough Conn. I had resisted going out all afternoon, instead getting more work done in the garden,( for which I am chalking up the Brownie points!) but at 7pm with sunset at 8.35 it was definitely time to head out. I decided to head to Lough Conn and a spot where I knew the sun would set behind Nephin. Of course I got distracted along the way and took a couple of detours, I suddenly realised that while sunset was due at 8.35 given that from my location it was going down behind Nephin mountain it would obviously happen earlier so had to abandon my distractions and get to my location in a hurry. I was glad I did because it was quite spectacular. Once I got there finding the right spot to get my picture was not easy, there was no foreground interest , but I spotted the old fence posts but had to wade through a foot of water for about 100 yds to reach this spot, fortunately although the depth of water varied a lot it never actually came over my wellington boots, I was delighted though that I made the effort when I got there as the fence posts were perfect. The only thing was that in my haste to check out the location, I left my camera bag with the filters I would need back in the car, so I left the camera on the tripod and retraced my steps,twice, still managing to avoid wet feet!

Trish and I took a trip to the Burren in Co Clare today. We were probably a bit early for the flowers but had hoped to find some Spring Gentian, we were not disappointed though they were few and far between. The Spring gentian is a tiny flower and not easy to spot when they are only occurring singly as was the case today, but this particular one did have some companions coming behind it and no doubt in a week or so there will be a really good show.

Another lovely sunny day, really not good for photography in my view, but we got more work done in the garden.
This image of Croagh Patrick was made last night just before sunset, we were driving towards Carrowniskey Beach to capture the sunset, but I thought Croagh Patrick looked very well so I stopped at Murrisk to make a couple of pictures. I was glad I did because the sunset was very disappointing as the sun was hidden from view by low cloud.

A frustrating start to the day today. I recently sent my van for its road worthiness test and it failed on a number of minor issues, so it spent some time in the garage getting fixed, but most time was spent waiting for spare parts. When you fail you have 21 days to get a retest, at the retest the garage only tests what failed and it costs €40+ instead on the €111 fee for the full commercial test. Of course I failed to notice that the deadline for my retest was on the bank holiday weekend so having collected the car from the garage on thursday I tried to book it in for a retest only to be told , sorry we are closed until Tuesday. So I then had to book it in for a COMPLETE retest which happened today, and would you believe it failed on two completely different things to the original failures and it has not travelled a 100 miles since the original test!!! So now its back in the garage for more repairs and another retest next week!! So you can imagine I was like a bear with a sore head, but Trish took me out for my tea in Westport this evening and I'm all settled again!
This picture of the Reek ( Croagh Patrick) was taken from the Quay in Westport this evening.

Another lovely day in Co Mayo. Today we were visited by Caroline from Limerick who recently bought a Fuji XE1 camera and came for a one to one class in how to use it. After we had covered all the basics and buttons etc on the camera we decided to take a trip out to Dunbriste for Caroline to try out some of her new skills. Dunbriste looked lovely today although the sea was calmer then I would usually like, but Caroline tried all kinds of different ways of photographing it, and was I think a little surprised in how much thought had to go into an apparently simple photograph. For example today Caroline was taking slow shutter speed pictures to blur the water, but had to wait several minutes between shots as she waited for a wave big enough to create the effect she was after,and then had to hit the shutter button at just the right moment, I think she got some good pictures though.
Here we see Caroline enjoying the scene having already captured her images on camera.

We had a glorious sunny day in Mayo, I spent the afternoon and evening gardening, now its a VERY small garden , which has not been tended since last year so Patricia and I spent all afternoon, digging and pulling weeds, it still needs a lot of work but we both felt good after our day. Despite the lovely evening I chose to sit back and open a bottle of wine rather then seek a sunset. I felt just a little guilty that I might be letting a sunset escape me , you know each one is an original never to be seen again. The choice was made easier though knowing I had a couple of pictures from Saturday's trip to Achill to fall back on. But now that I have gone looking for the picture I almost feel guilty again , because even the sheep on Achill take time out to admire the sunset!!