Daily Blog

Patricia and I drove to Co Wicklow yesterday to collect our baby daughter, Grainne, who had been away for several weeks. Our "baby" (the youngest of four) was 20 yesterday !!
Wicklow is on the opposite side of Ireland to mayo and of course I brought the camera. We stopped for a few minutes at Glendalough probably Irelands most famous monastic site, the place was full of people and it rained, so I resolved to go back in the winter time,when it will be quieter . I did get this picture of the small chapel that I liked.

Had a busy day yesterday and had little chance to get out but did pass by Turlough Round Tower, and the sky was great!!

I have not got back to sarch for my filter holder yet. I took this picture down stream from where I lost it.

The last couple of evenings have threatened nice sunsets but each evening the sun has disappeared early and the sunset has been disappointing.The same happened yesterday as I drove to Claremorris, I was in a hurry and really did not have time to stop, but I could not resist a quick stop to record this sky. The three cows look completely shocked by my behaviour !!

My day did improve a little yesterday when I decided to have a quick look at Rockfleet castle. The tide was in, the scaffolding that seems to have been on the side of the castle for the last twelve months was gone, and somebody had very kindly parked their boat in a great position for the photograph!

I described yesterday as being frustrating by 7.30 in the morning. well it got worse ! Later in the morning I went to Letterkeane woods to photograph a waterfall as it was fairly dull at the time. I decided i would photograph the waterfall close up to go for shape rather then the complete waterfall, I also decided also to photograph with a slow shutter speed and a fast shutter speed to show the different effects. So one picture was taken with a slow shutter speed of 1second and one at 1000th of a second. I used a neutral density filter to achieve the slow shutter speed. as i took the camera off the tripod the filter holder , worth over €100 fell off the camera, bounced twice ( in slow motion!!) and you guessed it,.... fell into the river!!!

Just where it happened was a deep part of the river with deep sided rock bank and I made two half hearted attempts to get in but decided that as I could not see how deep it was and was unsure about how I would climb out I had to leave it. I may go back with a friend later in the week though I think it very unlikely that I will get it back !!


One Second exposure.


1000th second exposure

Its 7.30 am and I can already describe today as being a very frustrating one !. I checked the weather forecast late last night and it suggested a sunny day today with the weather deteriorating over the week. So I decided at about 12.30am that I would get up early for a sunrise. I had decided to travel to Crossmolina . So I sat into the car at 5.20 am turned the key and saw that the warning light for the diesel was on. It was on all day yesterday also and I had intended to get a fill up but forgot. This meant I would not make it to Crossmolina. So back into the house then decided I would take Patricias car, but could not find the keys . ( Yes I could have woken her to ask where they were, but would you !) Anyway by 5.50 I had given up, when I suddenly remembered there is a 24hour petrol station in Claremorris and I could still get a sunrise locally. So Off I headed, by now it was beginning to get bright and I could see it was cloudy. Got the diesel, ten minutes before sunrise but there was NO sign of the sun. Sunrise was due at 6.25, by 6.40 I was home with no pictures.

I am posting a picture taken two weeks ago on Old Head Beach. I was there for a sunrise, but like this morning it was very cloudy and infact was raining, the sun nearly burnt a hole in the clouds, but this was as good as it got before the disappeared altogether and was not seen again until the afternoon.

All Ireland Semi Final Day today....UP MAYO!!!!!

I took this picture a few days ago at the side of the road, I think the flower is called sow thistle but I could be corrected. What attracted me to take the picture was the height of the flowers and the fact there were three. Three is always a good number for composition.

I did not get out with the camera at all today. I took this black and white picture of reeds blowing in the wind at Lough Na Annagh last night while I was waiting for the colour to develop in the twilight.

We arrived back from our very enjoyable trip to Scotland yesterday. It has been suggested I should change the name of the website to “ Images of Mayo ...and beyond “ ! but I think for the time being at least we will leave it alone. What was interesting about Scotland though was while it is really beautiful, everywhere we went I was inclined to compare with Mayo. For example when I walked the Cliff walk in Arbroath I found myself thinking its nice but nothing like North Mayo. ! When you live in a place its easy to take it for granted , but Mayo really has an extraordinary wealth of fantastic scenery, and all in one county , and really is heaven for the Landscape photographer!!

Yesterday it looked like we might get a good sunset so I dashed out to a local lough, Lough Na Annagh to capture it, low cloud meant the sunset was unimpressive and the breeze on the Lough meant there were no reflections either. So I just waited to see what might develop, and as I expected the drop in temperature meant the breeze dropped, and as the clouds moved across the sky I got this picture about fifty minutes after the sunset, the exposure was 15 seconds.

Up early this morning and about to head for the airport for the trip home. I took this picture of "The Queen,s View" in the Tay Country park. It had rained all da and was just clearing when we got there. And its true the Scottish midges are a much fiercer then the Irish ones !!

Still in Scotland, I went for a walk early this morning along the cliff walk at Arbroath.

Having posted cloud pictures for a couple of days I could not resist putting up this one taken from above , on the plane journey between Knock and Edinburgh.

Another cloud picture today! I stopped the car on the N17 near Claremorris to take this picture of these clouds that looked like they needed to burst.I am travelling to Scotland later today for a few days, we are going to visit our daughter Aisling in Dundee, so I may be missing "off line" for a few days.

Plenty of rain again in Mayo yesterday though there were some short periods of sun light. Todays picture of the sky over Kiltimagh was taken a couple of days ago just before sunset, when the sun made a brief breakthrough to light up these clouds against the dark sky behind. It only lasted a few minutes.

Another picture from last week. This little stream is on Achill Island, I think it gives an impression of falling vertically but infact it is quite gentle. The unusual perspective is because I am on a bridge looking directly down on it.

Another grey morning in Co Mayo, no sign of the sun at all! I had hoped to get out for some pictures this morning but its so grey its really not worth it. So back to the archive, or at least to a memory card still in the camera from last week. This picture was taken from the side of the road to Roonagh from Louisburgh. I thought the cloud looked like a dough nut with the "God beams" coming through the middle.

Well the rain continues, it was like a monsoon here during the night. So to cheer us up I'm posting an Atlantic sunset taken in July.

We awoke to wind and rain this morning. I think the summer really is over!! I don’t think we have had a decent run of summery days since May!. This picture is a case in point, three weeks ago I had a Landscape weekend in mulranny and although I know the area really well I travelled to mulranny early on Friday morning to scout the area for the very best locations for Saturday morning. The sun position is changing all the time so I just wanted to be sure of its position . I arrived to lovely light and took this picture of Riogh Bay. But I need not have worried about the position of the sun because we did not see it for the next two days !! We still got some great pictures though!!

This morning I am in Westport photographing items for a clothing catalogue. So I don’t expect to get any new landscape pictures today. I took this picture of Lough Fiach a couple of weeks ago.