Daily Blog

Another picture from last week . This is Rockfleet Castle one of Granuaile,s castles, , where Grainne lived for many years. Grainne was Ireland's Pirate Queen and was a real thorn in the side of the English, so much so that in 1574 they sent a force under Captain William Martin to Rockfleet and laid siege to the castle which lasted 15days but in the end Grainne managed to defeat this force and sent them packing!!

Heres another picture showing Sleive Mor this was taken about 10 days ago on the road to Achill.

Thanks for all the good wishes, feeling much better this evening but still not out today so here is another picture from last week. This dawn picture was taken near Mulranny about 30 minutes before sunrise.

I'm feeling a little under the weather today so did not get out with the camera. I took this picture on Achill on Saturday evening.

This must be one of the most photographed scanes in mayo. I was in Mulranny again yesterday morning and I could not resist another picture! The light was just great, with the sea glistening .

Here is another picture from the weekend. This view of Croagh Patrick and clew bay is taken from Teirnaur.

After a busy weekend teaching the landscape Photography course in Mulranny I took today off and left the camera in the bag! I am posting a picture taken on saturday morning while on the course, I had checked out this location a few days earlier to be sure of exactly where the sun would come up. We left the B&B at 5am to be on location on time for everybody to set up their cameras and be ready for those few moments as the sun appears . Modern technology is great because I was not even beside my camera when this was taken, I was actually helping somebody else maybe twenty feet away from my camera but just kept pressing the camera remote control in my pocket! I was delighted today when I checked the pictures and found this one!!

I am posting this from home after a very successful Landscape Photography course in Mulranny. Today was the third day of the course and after successfully capturing both the sunrise and the sunset on Saturday the group decided that we should take it easy on Sunday morning and not venture out until 7.30am!! The forecast was for a very cloudy morning with rain from 10 am ! As you can see from the picture it was very cloudy and VERY windy. This picture was taken at Lough Fiach a place I would normally bring people in the morning time for lovely reflections on the water, you can see how strong the wind was by the waves on the lake , it looks like the seashore!. Anyway having done the best we could in the windy conditions we sat back into the car at ten a.m . for our return to Mulranny for breakfast when it started to rain !! The forecasters got it exactly right!!
We spent the rest of the day working on photoshop and lightroom , with each participant preparing their favourite images to be printed and I am delighted to say that everybody went away, tired but happy with their prints after a very productive weekend.
As always Cheryl at Essence of Mulranny Studios did a fantastic job of hosting us and I am already looking forward to running my next course there in October.

I am posting this picture from Mulranny. The Landscape photography workshop began yesterday evening and at 9pm the group went out for our first "photo Session" to try and capture the sunset. The sunset itself was a little disappointing but still it was great learning for the group members. People were amazed by how quickly the light changes and some had difficulties in keeping up with the light changes! This morning we left the B&B at 5am to get the sunrise. The morning was glorious and it was a bit of a struggle to get people back to the B&B for breakfast at 10.30!! Here is a picture from last night.

It poured rain all day today, so I did not take the camera out. I took this photograph of a boat close to Westport on Tuesday evening, in the twilight, its taken about half an hour after sunset.

This morning I was up at 4.30 to get to Mulranny before sunrise to check out a location I had planned for the weekend Landscape Photography Course I am leading from Mulranny this weekend . There is still a place available on the course so message me if you would like to come. This picture was taken from a point on the "Greenway" cycle path.

Thanks to everybody for all the likes and comments on last nights picture, it got a great reaction so i hope you dont mind I am posting another Dunbriste picture this evening.

As I have told you before Dun Briste , Downpatrick Head is one of my favourite places to photograph. Several years ago I got the opportunity to photograph the Sea Stack from below the huge sea cliffs. A friend from the camera club , Nick, has been asking me about it recently. As it happens today provided an ideal opportunity, as there was an exceptionally low spring tide at 1.30 in the afternoon, and the sea was also exceptionally calm. So we decided to give it a go today. Well it rained all morning and for the whole journey up. But just as we got to Downpatrick Head the rain stopped but it remained very cloudy. Despite checking all the tide tables and being very confident about the tide times, I still checked with my friend Alistair who lives close by and is very knowledgeable about the area and the sea conditions. It was as well we did because Alistair explained that our safe period was much, much shorter then we had thought. Alistair said we would need to be leaving within half an hour of low tide. Anyway everything was just right for us, and we even got a little blue in the sky before we left. Despite the calmness of the sea we still got a couple of surprises when surges of water suddenly engulfed us up to our knees, on dry land !
A real word of caution, dont attempt this without careful planning and with local knowledge, for example, low tide today was .2of a metre high. By next Friday low tide will be 1.3metres high ! Both Nick and I were really made aware of the power of the sea today and if todays tide was any higher we could have been in real trouble.
Anyway, here is one of the photographs, taken from inside a cave ,it all looks very calm , but as this picture was being taken Nick was yelling from outside the cave, "Its getting really bad here, we gotta go ! Without my buddy with me , I could easily have dallied long enough to get cut off!

This morning I was in Bekan Church to photograph the First Holy Communion children, I always enjoy it but am always left exhausted !
I am posting another picture of Sliabh Mor taken on Friday afternoon.

I did not take any photographs today, I spent the day learning how to run! I have been a 'runner" a jogger really for about 35 years so it seemed about time I learnt how to do it properly ! Catherina Mckiernan was in Kiltimagh for the day giving a course in chi running, it was a great course , sorry i didn't do it at least twenty years ago, I might have avoided lots of injuries. if you would like to know more about Chi Running check out Catherina's wesite. http://www.catherinamckiernan.com/DesktopDefault.aspx

I am posting a picture of a sheep taken yesterday, its funny to watch lambs in a field they seem to have so much fun, I wondered the other day how is it that lambs , who are so full of energy grow up to be such boring creatures ? but yesterday evening it was very windy and I swear this sheep was enjoying the wind, it stood ontop of a little hill and for at least ten minutes faced into the wind as if enjoying the sensation .

Another lovely day in Mayo, very cloudy and not great for photography, but no rain, which is always a good thing.

The sunset this evening was obscured by cloud so I am sharing a sunset picture taken last week on the top of Sliabh Cairn , Kiltimagh.

Thanks to everybody who has "liked" my page on facebook, (Images of Mayo) today we reached the 1000 barrier and went through it! It has taken two years, and I am thrilled so thanks again.
I am running a Landscape photography course next weekend (Friday 11th - sunday 13th May) in Mulranny, there is still one place available, if interested message me.
Todays picture was taken at Cloughmore on Achill, proof you dont need good weather to get good pictures!

Yesterday I posted a picture of Accony Beach, tonights picture is from the same place just moments later, only looking the other direction, towards the sun.

The good weather continues in Mayo. Unusually the rain seems to be only effecting the East of the country. This picture of Accony beach near Louisburgh was taken a couple of evenings ago just as the sun was setting.

Its been a good weekend here in Mayo. Yesterday The Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Giovanni Trapatoni climbed Croagh Patrick in lovely weather which showed Mayo in a good light, The People of Murrisk presented them both with one of my photographs as a memento of the occasion ! You never know where your pictures end up hanging!! The weather continued good again today but it was very cold. This evening I was in the house when I looked out the window and saw the clouds beginning to "colour up" from the setting sun. So I grabbed the camera and went out in the car.The clouds were very high in the sky and I had great difficulty finding a foreground, I had to drive half way to Claremorris before finding this little wooded area to give foreground interest and scale to the clouds. The one disappointing thing for the people of Mayo was the defeat of the footballers in the National League final to Cork, never mind.... did I mention I'm from Cork!