Daily Blog

Thanks to everybody for the good wishes for yesterdays Race2Glory . The race was great fun, Kiltimagh as usual did itself proud with so many people volunteering to make the event happen, there was a great atmosphere, before during and after the race. I finished it in 2hours 56 minutes a great time for me ( I was hoping to beat 3hours)... but just to put that in context I was only one HOUR behind the winner! Anyway I did not risk bringing the camera, just as well, the river was alot deeper then I expected, so I have no pictures from yesterday. I am posting a picture from Carramore beach taken just over a week ago.

Today i am participating in the “Race2Glory” a challenging race being held for the first time here in Kiltimagh. It involves a 10k run to the top of our local “mountain” followed by a 23k bike ride over and around the same “mountain” followed by a 7k run which includes a short distance in the Glor river. During the runs there will also be some detours to make us run through bog! As I type this I wonder “why” it just seemed a good idea at the time!! And notice I said I am participating not competing!! The only person I will be racing is myself!! Still there are expected to be over 200 people and it should be a good event for the town. My biggest concern while training was the weather, the race starts at 1pm, I thought that might be too early on a hot day in July, but I should have known better, it is rain and gale force winds!! I am posting a picture taken on a nicer day in mulranny a couple of weeks ago.

The rain has arrived and is due to stay for several days, we have had no rain for three days now so we feel like we have had a summer! I have just spent an hour or so emptying my computor which has suddenly got very slow. One of the things about digital photography is that I keep filling the hard drive full of pictures. When photographing say for an evening I could take maybe a hundred pictures but you always end up with a favourite , all the others then become second best. I really should edit thenm all and delete the ones that are no good ( and there are many) but I just find it very hard to press that delete button!! Still as I was clearing out this morning I found this picture of Carrowniskey among the "seconds" I decided to promote it !!

I am posting two pictures today , of a butterfly called the “common blue”. Patricia and I chased it around for ten minutes or so trying to photograph it. It is a tiny little thing and we wondered how it got its name “Common” as its not that common. It seems the common is because its the most common blue butterfly. Am I making sense?
We wondered maybe it should be called the “Not as common as it used to be blue” !

Yesterday I was in Westport in the morning. We had a lovely day but at the time the morning haze was only just lifting. I went down to get a picture of Croagh Patrick. The tide was at its lowest so there was no water in the bay.

Yesterday I drove to Cong to deliver some pictures, the weather was cloudy and the light not very interesting. As I drove through Ballinrobe I would normally go around the town rather than through it. I am not sure why but yesterday I missed my corner and only realized as I found myself in town ! It was lucky I did though because as I came around a corner I spotted this sign writer ( he really is an artist!) putting the finishing touches to a magnificent work of art !! After I stopped and spoke to him I realized I actually knew him , his name is Damien Moran and he used to live in Kiltimagh !

Heres a very simple picture taken after sunset, sometimes the exclusion of detail can make things look very graphic. I spotted these trees as I drove along one evening and took the picture from the side of the road. They look a lot less interesting during the day.

Its fairly overcast today in kiltimagh, I am not sure if I will get out at all, I have some printing and other indoor work to catch up on !
I am posting a picture of nephin taken from Westport. Nephin is Mayo,s second highest mountain. Most people think of Croagh Patrick when you mention Mayo and mountains, but Crough Patrick is only the third highest !

Late again today ! I had a lovely morning, I had a one to one camera class for the morning. In two weeks time I have a Landscape weekend, there are still some places left , if you are interested or know of somebody else who might be why not check out the details on the website. Todays picture of horses on the coast was taken earlier this week , once again it was taken in "bad weather" which again proves sunshine is not a requirement for good landscape pictures.

A little late posting today, I spent the morning photographing an award cermony, and am busy again this afternnoon, so I am posting a picture taken on Carramore strand last week.

Having spent so long photographing Mayo I almost felt guilty this morning crossing the border into Co Sligo in search of photographic opportunities !! I was meeting my friend , photographer, Monica Flanagan. We visited Strandhill , where Monica spent her childhood. Monica took me to “The Glen” a fault line in the side of Knocknarea Mo...untain. I would never have found it without someone to show me. Going through what looks like a small gap in the hedge you suddenly find yourself in this amazing and unexpected environment. Warm and damp it is full of ferns and trees both growing and fallen down, but all stretching for the light. The light from a photographic point of view was both exciting and frustrating. Contrary to the forecast it was a very sunny day making the contrast levels difficult to work with, so we spent alot of time just waiting for the sun to slip behind a cloud, or perhaps to come back out from behind a cloud and because the growth was so thick we could not actually see the sky, so never knew how long we had to wait !! we spent several hours there and would have spent longer only Ieft because I had to go to a job in the late afternoon! So I’ll definitely be going back!

I am posting a little early today because I am heading up to Co Sligo for the morning, in search of a picture or two, a friend of mine is taking me to a location that sounds very interesting. If I get anything good I will post it tomorrow. Today I am posting another picture from Carramore Beach taken at the same time as yesterdays picture. This is the view accross clew bay towards Newport, as I said yesterday the light and whole feel feel of the place was eerie , so dark and so still, about half an hour later the wind did suddenly pick up as the rain arrived and the water became very choppy. You can see a shower of rain on the other side of the bay.

Yesterday afternoon I had some business in Westport so we decided to go to Louisburgh afterward for a walk on a beach. As we drove towards Louisburgh it was very dark and threatening rain I” Knew “ there would be no pictures, still I was here for a walk on the beach with my lovely wife, not to take pictures! We got to Carramore Beach and the light was just amazing, it was so dark and so calm and the light was almost eerie, we spent over an hour on the beach, me taking pictures and Patricia walking!!

Today I am posting another picture from Mulranny,taken on saturday , showing some of the islands in Clew Bay.

Yesterday evening I had to go to Mulranny for a funeral, I was then in a hurry to get somewhere else but just could not resist a quick trip across the golf course to the beach. The sky over Croagh Patrick was great and when I got to the beach I found the tide almost fully in, so I tried a couple of slow shutter speed shots. I often use graduated neutral density filters in front of the lens to help make the skies darker. this picture was unusual in that the sun on the water made it very hard to keep detail in the water , so I simply used the Neutral density filter UPSIDE DOWN, it worked a treat!

Another picture taken last week on Carramore Strand , Louisburgh. While waiting for this sunset there was always a doubt if we would see on , it was slow cloudy. A good way to judge if you will get a sunset on a cloudy evening is, if you can see the horizon clear beyond the clouds you will get a sunset, however fleeting, as this one was! The sun is setting over Achill island.

The difference between today's picture and yesterday's is about 200 metres and 20 minutes , isn’t it amazing how different the mood of the pictures look ! I am calling this one " Sailing into Westport" I watched the yachts for some time waiting for one to get within the composition with the lighthouse, that happened several times but it was only on this occasion that the sun actually shone and so lit both the yacht and the lighthouse .

This picture of was taken last week on Bertra Strand, near Westport. it was taken about one hour before sunset, as you can probably tell from the picture it was very cold and windy and a few minutes after taking this I had to run for cover as the shower cloud broke above me ! This kind of weather is usually a good recipe though for exciting pictures.

Back to Mayo for todays picture. this picture of a wild rose was taken on the roadside not far from my house here in Kiltimagh, between the showers.

The sun finally arrived in Co Clare for our last day. We had a walk along the "Blackhead Loop" one of the great green roads in the Burren . I may post another Co Clare picture or two tomorrow, but I promised I would post the picture of the Cliffs of Moher so here it is...