Daily Blog

Happy Easter to you all. A lovely day here in Mayo. I was at Mass today in the Basilica in Knock, which reopened last night. There are still some finishing touches to be made but I must say the whole thing looks wonderful. This mosaic is on the floor of the Sanctuary, it is slightly out of shape in this picture because I was standing on a chair with my arms at full stretch and so was unable to keep the camera parallel to the floor.

My daughter Grainne and her boyfriend are visiting from Dublin for the weekend, it was Peter's first time in Mayo so we took him on a tour of West Mayo up to Achill Island , and Mayo put on a great display, one of the nicest days we have had in a long time. One of the first places we stopped at was Rockfleet Castle the home of another, more infamous, Grainne. The tide was very low at the time of our visit which meant I was able to photograph the castle from a more unusual viewpoint.

Another from the archives for this evening. This tree features in the video I posted a couple of days ago, as it is in a favourite location of mine that we always visit when doing the landscape courses.
It seemed appropriate to post a tree on a hill for Good Friday.

I did not get out again today so here is an image from Bellacragher Bay as you can see it was long after sunset , probably too late to be taking pictures really, but it was one of those occasions when I just could not drag myself away, but still I think the shapes work well.

ts raining again this morning, and so far no rainbows. But here is a picture I took a couple of weeks ago. You may have heard that there has been a major refurbishment of the Basilica at Knock.I understand a visit to the Basilica will now be a much more comfortable experience then we have all become used to over the years. The Basilica has been closed to the public. Knock which is usually a quite and peaceful place has, over the winter months been a hive of activity. But I understand the work is almost complete, I was lucky enough to be there just when they were lowering the spire back onto the Basilica having given it a power wash, I expect it will be another thirty years before it receives another one. The Basilica will reopen on Easter Sunday, I am really looking forward to having a look inside.

I am posting early today, because I know it is unlikely I will get a chance to go out again today. I got this photo just a few minutes ago as I drove between Claremorris and Kiltimagh. Its a very cold and wet morning and as I drove along I thought to myself,
" just look at this there is no chance of me getting a picture today"
I had no sooner released that thought when the sun broke through behind me and a rainbow started to appear in front, I drove a further 500metres to where I could safely pull the car off the road , grabbed my fuji and jumped out of the car, as I put the camera to my eye I put the exposure compensation to -1, it nearly always works for rainbows,I shot off only two shots before the rainbow faded , the sun disappeared and the rain reached me. But I sat back into the car feeling I had received a gift!

Its pouring rain all day here in mayo today.
So here is an image I made as I drove through County Clare on Friday evening.I had already put the camera away disappointed i was not going to get a sunset as the sky had completely clouded over. but as I approached Ballyvaughan the sun made an attempt to fight back, it did not succeed , but I liked the contrast created and decided it would work well in monochrome.

Trish and I went to Mulranny today, first we had lunch with Tricia's brother Rory and his family at the Mulranny Park Hotel. Rory and family were on a break in Achill and had cycled the greenway before stopping for lunch at the hotel. we had a great lunch and a lovely time with family. then we visited Cheryl at Essence of Mulranny to finalise arrangements for the upcoming Photography weekend I am leading on 10th, 11th and 12th of April, the price has been reduced to only €325 and includes accommodation and full board. I have posted a video that gives a flavour of the weekend.https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152919995483439&set=vb.154843233438&type=2&theater

Then I went down to the beach and even though it was very dull with no sunshine I decided to get a picture. You may remember I broke my big stopper filter a few weeks ago, well I was in Cork earlier in the week and I replaced it with a "Little Stopper" Its the same size as a big stopper but reduces the light coming through the camera lens by 6 f stops, rather then 10. it resulted in an exposure of 1.6 seconds for this shot, which was slow enough to show the movement in the water. Lets hope I can keep this filter for a long time!

Our son Barry is visiting from Dublin for a few days and we decided to take a trip to Co Clare today. Fortunately I brought two cameras ! As we left the house this morning I thought "I should have charged the battery in the fuji" When we got to Kinvara we stopped for coffee. Patricia and Barry decided the day was warm enough that we should have our coffee outside. I thought coffee outside in march in Ireland was worth recording so I took out the fuji, I shot one picture and the battery warning light started to flash, it would not let me take a second picture!!
Still all was not lost because I still had the Nikon to fall back on. We then went to NewQuay and had a wonderful seafood lunch before I had to go on an errand to Limerick, I am just back now...its been a long day, but a good one.

I was out with Patricia today , and of course I put my camera in the car. we were at Turlough when the light on the tower was particularly good so I got the camera out of its bag only to discover I had no memory card in it!! Then this evening Patricia went out with a friend and I decided I would go out and photograph the sunset, it was only then I realised i had left the camera in her car!! Still I had another camera, the nikon, but I have taken to carrying all my filters in the small camera bag with the fuji camera. So I headed off with a camera and no filters. now my filters ( Graduated neutral density) are a crucial part of my kit and I never take my camera out without them. But as it happens the light over Lough Cullen near Foxford was not too challenging because the sun was hidden behind clouds so I managed to get a couple of shots.

Just back from a quick 24hour trip to Cork where my niece had her Confirmation today. As I drove out of mayo and into Galway last night there were lovely clouds in the sky so as the sun set there was also lovely colour. As drove I was constantly looking for somewhere to stop to get a picture, but could not see anything that would give foreground interest, then I thought of the Abbey at Claregalway so drove as fast I was legally allowed, all the time hoping I would reach the Abbey before the colours disappeared, I arrived with five minutes to spare!

The weather looks like its returning to something a little like normal for this tome of year. Its a lovely day, sunshine and showers, but whats great is that the clouds are back, making the sky much more interesting. I am heading to Cork today so do not have time to go out and make the best of the weather but I snapped this shot at Turlough earlier this afternoon.

I was only out for for a few minutes this morning. when I looked out the window it was very foggy and I tried to think of where I could go to get shapes in the fog. So I thought I might try the old graveyard and ruin of Kilcolman church between Kiltimagh and Claremorris. But before I even got into the car the fog simply disappeared , but I went to the old church anyway. I wondered around and tried various compositions before settling for this one. I love the way gravestones all face the rising sun.
There was an interesting exercise in composition in making this picture. Separating the four crosses from each other required finding just the right position to hold the camera, even a slight move right or left would result in the crosses overlapping each other.

A very exciting morning this morning in Kiltimagh full of expectation that we might see the solar eclipse . I looked out first thing and thought with the thick cloud overhead that there was no hope of seeing anything. but ten minutes before the display was due to start I saw the first gap in the cloud, it closed over again, but it gave me cause to be optimistic. we only needed a few minutes of a break!. So I set up the camera and waited and watched the clouds moving across the sky, then it happened the sun peeped through and I frantically adjusted the camera settings trying to get the exposure right, and then it closed again. So I got a few pictures as the moon passed in front of the sun, but the bit I really wanted , the peak of the eclipse was completely hidden from view by the clouds, but never mind there will be another one in 2026 !

A lovely day in Mayo, but I did not get out. it has clouded over this evening, once again blocking out the sunset and the forecast suggests we will not see the Solar eclipse in the morning, but we will have a look anyway.
So here is another from yesterday mornings visit to Turlough in the fog.

Apologies for not posting yesterday, I did not really expect anybody would notice, but I got a number of messages and emails wondering why. Well we made a last minute decision to go to Limerick for the day to visit Tricia's Mum for Mother's day and I did not get back here until 2.30am so decided it was too late to post ! I did slip out for a few minutes in limerick to get a picture, despite the complete lack of sun. I went down to the shore of the Shannon where there was a large flock of swans. They were not easy to photograph and they were not a bit impressed that all I was holding out in front of me was a camera. As i took this photo, I imagined the swan approaching was saying "that better be a bread dispenser and not a camera I see" They certainly gave me a hiss when I did not produce any bread!
I have not given up on the sunset from Sleive Cairn, but once again today, while it was a dry day we did not see the sun at all.

Day seven and still no sunset from the top of Sleive Cairn, but I could not put up another failed attempt. So here is a picture taken during the morning. I was asked to take photographs for Brian Cunningham Transport, a haulage company in Castlebar . As with many of the jobs I do it is always interesting to see other professionals at work. I spent most of the morning photographing , trucks, shunters, trailers, container stackers etc but what was incredible to watch was just how skilled these drivers were at putting these huge machines into spaces that I would hesitate to put my little car into. Having spent most of the time in the yard though we did take this one trailer out on the road and I did get a small chance to combine a landscape image with a work image .

I take thousands of photographs every year and could post to this site for several years to come without ever taking another picture. But of course I edit a lot and try to only post images that I think are of a high enough standard to share . But on the last three evenings I have described to you a little of the frustration of being a landscape photographer in that I have gone out for several nights to capture a particular sunset scene. Tonight was my fourth night in a row going to the same spot, the aim being to get the setting sun and Croagh Patrick in the same picture and for four nights in a row the promising sunset has not happened, instead low cloud has come in off the ocean and hidden the sun AND Croagh Patrick. this evening was full of promise, even as I drove up the mountain the sun shone, but almost as I came over the top of Sleive Cairn the sun dropped behind the cloud and the scene was again very disappointing. Above me and behind me there is blue sky!! So even though this picture does not really meet my usual standard I thought I would share it as it is four days in the making! I'll have another go tomorrow evening.

Another lovely spring day in Mayo, and for a third day in a row I was full of hope, planning to go out for a sunset picture. But for the third day the cloud cover came in about an hour before sunset, and once again there was none, not even a hint of colour.
So here is an image of Urluar Abbey taken early in the morning a week or so ago. The abbey is in a lovely location but it is quite difficult to photograph showing its location, because the area around it is very well fenced off. So to get this image I am standing as far away from the abbey as I can with my little Fuji Xe1 on a tripod which I have held as far above my head as I can, so the camera is about 12 or 13 feet off the ground. Of course I had to take several pictures as I kept missing bits of the Abbey.

No sunset again this evening, for a while it looked like there might be, but heavy rain clouds came in just before sunset, so there was no sunset to chase this evening, but I did have fun chasing rainbows a little earlier!