Daily Blog

Very dull and windy today , but the heavy rain that was forecast has so stayed away.Today I am posting a picure taken two nights ago of the sunset from the top of Sleive Cairn , Kiltimagh.

I got no pictures today. I went to a charity car boot sale with Patricia and my daughter Grainne who was helping out at the sale in Ballycastle and I thought I might get some pictures at Dunbriste, but the weather was awful , misty rain' strong wind and very poor visability. Even the wind was blowing from the wrong direction so there were no waves.

I did come away from the car boot sale with an antique projector screen, I don’t know what I’ll use it for but it was just such a lovely thing its called a “Self Recta”from the 1950s I believe.

I am posting a picture taken during the week its another "Big Sky".

I had a really enjoyable day today. I had two one to one classes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Bill who was here in the afternoon travelled all the way from Cork! While I really enjoy the teaching it’s amazing just how tired I am after it!

Today’s picture was taken last night half an hour or so after the sun set on the top of Sleive Cairn just outside Kiltimagh.

The Graduated neutral density filter is one of the most useful and essential pieces of equipment for the landscape photographer. I won’t even take my camera for a walk without one! Skies are a really important part of the picture and today the skies over Mayo were just fantastic. I was driving for most of the day and was truly frustrated because there were so many glorious skies but every time I stopped the sun went behind the clouds and the effect was lost. I did get a couple of pictures however on the Mayo /Roscommon border.
The sky in this picture was really bright and contrasted hugely with the trees in the foreground and without the filter would have been very difficult to capture.




I am posting a second picture taken a few minutes earlier as I calculated what exposure to set in the camera. You can see that the sky is almost overexposed and the foreground is almost silhouetted because it is under exposed, a three stop Neutral density filter has helped to balance them in the first picture.

I had a busy day today and did not get any real time for photography. But in the afternoon I had to collect my son from the railway station in Claremorris. On the way back we stopped at this little ruined church called Kilcolman Church and took this picture.

I did not get out with the camera today. I had hoped to in the afternoon , but started to put together a wedding album , these things always take hours, which is why I had put it off the last couple of days, but once you start you just have to stick with it till you finish!!

Todays picture is of Lough Fiach near Newport, I took it on Monday.

This is a lovely time of year. Sometimes things come and go without us really noticing. One of the advantages of being a landscape photographer is that you are always on the look out for changes in the scenery. I photographed this little hawthorn tree yesterday in full bloom, the countryside is decorated with these trees at the moment, often standing in the middle of fields because farmers often refuse to cut them down or disturb them in any way for fear of offending the fairy folk who live under the hawthorn trees !

I often work alongside my friend Paul Harmen who runs a tour business ;www.electric escapes .ie. Paul was hosting a group of international travel writers for the day for Board Failte and asked me to provide a photography lesson as part of the day. I was of course delighted and prepared a simple lesson on camera exposure. The forecast for the day was really bad, I mean really bad , heavy rain and strong winds. I spent most of the night listening to the rain pounding off the windows wondering how this was going to work. We had agreed to meet at Burrishoole Abbey , where the journalists would arrive by bus, have a tour of the Abbey, and a photography lesson before continuing their journey on Paul’s electric bikes. My daughter Grainne came with me and the closer we got to the abbey the worse the weather became, I was full sure I would have to do the photography lesson on the bus.

But just before the bus arrived the rain stopped and the sun came out ! I grabbed this picture of the Abbey just before people arrived. The photography lesson went really well, and the weather changed from persistent rain to short showers, and the electric bikes took care of the wind! Everybody seemed to have a great day and the Mayo countryside looked majestic in the showery light!

There are five round towers in Mayo. ( At least five that I know of!) They were defensive buildings and have survived 800 years ! Part of the defence is the placement of the main door about fifteen to twenty feet off the ground. On entering the tower the occupants pull a ladder into the tower before slamming the door shut!
This is a picture of Meelick Round Tower , You can see the entrance on the left side of the tower as you look at it.

Paul Simon in his song “Kodachrome”says that Kodachrome
“gives nice bright colours, and the greens of summer, makes you think all the worlds a sunny day"
I wonder is this what he meant ! Of course Kodachrome is gone, I always thought Fuji was better for greens then Kodachrome, but this picture put me in mind of the song.

Its a lovely morning in Mayo. The rain has done a great job of clearing the air and that horrible haze has gone. The weather is showery but that gives periods of sunshine with really interesting skies!! This picture was taken near Meelick close to Swinford. I went out to photograph the round tower but i thought this scene with the fresh leaves on the trees looked really good. I’ll share the tower another day!

Its great to see the rain !! I'm told the farmers are delighted because the "ground needs the rain for growth" Farmers must be like photographers when it rains we want sunshine and too much sunshine and we want cloud cover, and more water for waterfalls.... !
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Its great to see the rain !! I'm told the farmers are delighted because the "ground needs the rain for growth" Farmers must be like photographers when it rains we want sunshine and too much sunshine and we want cloud cover, and more water for waterfalls.... !

The rain has arrived !! I am delighted to see it, it will clear the air and get rid of the haze, the only thing is it looks like we could get several days, I think we will be getting the tail end of the american storms, but much diluted of course having crossed the atlantic.
I went down to the local bog this morning to get a picture before the rain started.

The picture shows the turf , some of which has been "footed" to dry in the wind and some is still on the ground yet to be footed. the bog looks very dry, there have been bog fires all over the country this last week so the fire brigade will be glad to see the rain also !

Todays picture was taken a couple of days ago while out cycling, it is of Ballylahan Castle between Bohola and Foxford, I don’t know much about the castle but apparently it was built in 1240. What made me stop was the colour of the trees with their new leaves.

The good weather continues , I can’t remember such a long dry spell at this time of the year. I believe there is rain on the way and that parts of Cork and Kerry have rain today but it has not reached Mayo yet. I took this picture of Aisleigh falls several days ago. The angle of the photo is a little unusual because I would not normally be able to get into this position, but the water levels are so low that you can get to the middle of the river without getting your feet wet. It would normally be a torrent! The falls themselves also look small, though the wide angle lens accentuates this. There are actually three people in the photo which does give it some scale.

The warm weather continues though it was very windy today, I spent the day in the garden and up to now have not got out with the camera, I may yet, if there is any sign of a sunset developing, though its not looking likely. I was very pleased with yesterday's picture and once you get a good one it can be difficult to post the following day but you just have to accecpt you cant have a winner every day! I am posting a picture of a tree taken on the shore of Kylemore Lough ( I know its in Galway!)

I had been asked to get a picture of Kylemore Abbey so I headed off this morning shortly after six so as to arrive early and get the morning light. Of course Kylemore is in Galway not Mayo but I thought I would share it with you anyway. The day was like yesterday, very hazy and bright. I knew that I would not have to include any sky in the Abbey pictures so the haze was not a factor today. I was surprised by the wind but decided to use it and put a neutral density filter on the lens to slow the shutter speed right down so that the rushes and leaves would show plenty of movement. I took several pictures of the Abbey and am posting my favourite
By 10am I was enjoying a coffee in the Abbey restaurant, after which I did explore further with the camera but by then the sun was too high and the haze too strong , and so I just explored and marked spots for future visits but did not get any more pictures for the “gallery”

Another lovely day in Mayo, I spent some time in the Garden, but the haze meant I did not go out with the camera though I may try later in the evening. I took this picture on Doolough last weekend, it was a bit of a grabbed shot as this father and son headed out to do some fishing on the lough.

This spell of good weather continues and today ,was, I think, the best day we have had. I thought the weather too good for photography and went out for a cycle in the afternoon. I was cycling between Swinford and Foxford when I looked over my shoulder and saw this sky.
The Cumulus humilis clouds immediately made me think “ There’s a Simpson’s sky” !!!

I went out this evening to a local bog to try and photograph a bog bean ! Bog beans are the prettiest of little flowers and can be found growing in water in the bogs at this time of year. The flowers are really small measuring only a centimetre or two across . needless to say I had to kneel in the water to get this one.