Daily Blog

Had great intentions to go out this evening but it clouded over and started raining, so here is a picture from a brighter day on Mulranny beach!

Plenty of rain again in Mayo today. It didn't stop the residents of Cois Abhann having their community BBQ !! Well done to everybody , and especially Paul and Fiona for organising everybody seemed to have a great time !

Tonights picture was also taken on Inniskea last Sunday. Having landed on the beach I was immediately attracted to this rock covered in seaweed. The colour of the water was amazing. This is a thirty second exposure which is why the water is so soft. I had to take several pictures because during the thirty seconds the shutter was open inevidently a wave would come over the rock, ruining the effect I was looking for. but eventually I managed to get the timing right.

This is the same curragh as featured in yesterdays picture, the curragh is the landing craft and the "mother ship can be seen at anchor. The Landmass you can see in the background is Achill island.

Here is another picture from last Sunday's trip to the Inniskea Islands, this was taken on Inniskea North, there is no pier on Inniskea North so landing is done by a small boat directly on to the beach. This Curragh (a traditional Irish boat) was already on the beach before us. The people who had landed ahead of us shearing sheep!. You can see the old ruined houses of the Island at the top of the beach.

More boats on Lough Conn... There were parts of the country this morning who would have found a use for these . Cork was particularly badly hit by floods and Clonakilty my own birth place looked particularly bad.

I did not get out with the camera today, so here is a picture taken two weeks ago at Castle Bourke, Lough Carra , on a very windy day. { notice the rushes are blowing in the wind}

Here is a picture of the Lighthouse at Blacksod. When we arrived to board our boat to the Inniskea Islands on Sunday the tide was in so I quickly took this picture. I did not have time to put up the tripod and do things "properly" but I knew the tide would not be as high on our return so i took the picture anyway. The lighthouse in Blacksod had a very significant roll to play in world history . The weather reports from Blacksod resulted in D day being postponed to take advantage of improved weather on 6th June. You can hear an interview with the current lighthouse keeper on Newstalk radio Newstalk

Here is another picture from yesterdays trip to Inniskea Island off the Belmullet coast. The island had a lot of bird life and the Terns on the North island were great to watch. I took a bout a hundred pictures of terns, but not all were in focus as they moved so fast. ! This is my favourite of the few that I am keeping.

Had a great day today ! Well I am posting so late it was really yesterday! Patricia and I went with other members of Mayo Photographic Club to the Inniskea Islands off the coast of Blacksod. The weather was fantastic though the sun was almost too bright but we had a fantastic day. The Islands are now deserted, but both have "deserted villages" as evidence of their past inhabitation. The houses are almost on the beach and on a day like today would seem to be an idyllic location, but we can only imagine how hard life must have been in the winter months, and the island experienced a number of tragedies which resulted in them becoming deserted.

A dull and wet day in Mayo today so I took no pictures. Heres a picture I took earlier this week that at least has a feel for summer. When I stopped to take the picture, unknown to me the donkey owner was also parked up, he thought I might like to buy a donkey and was very disapointed when he learn't I only wanted a photo! But they are for sale and I believe they could nearly be given away so if you want one a "small donation" would secure, there are four to choose from.

I have just returned from making todays picture. The weather of the last few days eventually broke late this morning and we have had a very pleasant day . There were great clouds in the sky all day will strong winds making the clouds race across the sky. Just before sunset I drove to Claremorris to photograph this tree with the sunset behind it. When I arrived 15 minutes before sunset the sun was very bright and I had to "place" the sun behind the tree trunk. I took this picture with an exposure of one and a half minutes so the clouds would appear to be moving. In that time a very large cloud covered the sun and I did not see a sunset. So I think I will revisit this tree many times!

Today was the longest day of the year!!!! In more ways then one! We did not see the sun ALL DAY LONG!!
But even on dull days you can still make pictures! This is a spotted Heath Orchid photographed on the local bog. When I was getting my camera out of the car I noticed I had a small box with a white interior , so i took it with me and used it as a reflector . By taking the box apart I was able to put it under the flower to reflect light back onto the flower from the front and the two sides, I think it worked well.

Yesterday I visited my friend Monica's home just outside Crossmolina. This is the view outside her front door. Monica is also a photographer so I had to ask her permission to steal her view and share it!! The "small" hill you can see is actually Nephin Mountain it just looks small because the sky is so big!

Had a great day today, this morning I had a one to one class, helping a fellow photographer work with photoshop to make consistently good prints. Then in the afternoon I got out with the camera for a while, I took this picture of Lough Conn around 8pm this evening.

Well Ireland lost .. again! We knew they would but ever the optimist we sat and watched the game against Italy hoping against hope that something good would happen, it didn''t!!
As soon as the match was over wse looked out to see the sun setting and took a quick trip out and captured this picture of the sun setting over Nephin.

Today was Fathers Day, I miss my own dad very much and he was in my thoughts especially today.
I took todays picture in the middle of the day just outside Balla. As you can see from the shadows the sun was very high in the sky, not normally the best time to make good photographs, but I thought the sky was lovely, especially after a couple of grey days.

Spent another day on the Golf Course, I have a friend , Neill , visiting from Wales, so today we played golf on two courses! I have not played since the last time Neil visited two years ago, and I have not improved any either!! But it was still good fun, every so often you hit a good shot and think to yourself "self, your pretty good at this " then spend the next five or six shots thinking "This is a really stupid game"!!
So now new pictures today, but i did find this panoramic of keel Beach on achill in my archive!

I did not get out with the camera today, I did play golf in Balla, there was lovely light but I had no camera with me!! this picture was taken a month or two ago on Keem strand, Achill.

Well what a disappointment ! None of us really expected to beat Spain but we sat to watch the match with some hope. We really did not expect to be on the wrong end of a 4-0 drubbing however!

Todays picture was taken a week ago in the Sheefry valley, after a dry spell the stream was fairly dry, probably just as well as my friend vincent lost his filter holder with two filters attached into one of the waterfalls ! However a few minutes "fishing" and we managed to find them !

Today 13th June is the birthday of WB Yeats. And a day of celebration and commemoration was held Sligo . This photograph was taken back in January. The picture is of St Columba's church Drumcliff Co Sligo, the final resting place of the poet.