Daily Blog

I have just began to archive many of my pictures and even though I save everything at least twice I can be very untidy and don’t always remember what I saved things as. I am also paranoid that my computer or hard dive, or both, will crash.! So I have started to save important pictures to an external data bank off site entirely.
This morning I got two requests for photographs taken several years ago , one four years ago and one five years ago. My heart sank as I started the search, when were they taken ? What would I have called them ? , did I delete them ?
Amazingly within twenty minutes I had located both pictures I was delighted. While looking I discovered this picture of the twilight on Carramore Strand taken exactly four years ago!

Somebody commented on the facebook page that yesterdays picture looked like Africa, I have just returned from a walk with Patricia and Treenagleragh Bog, here in kiltimagh,had a look of Africa about it also!

Happy Easter .I did not get out today but am posting a picture taken near Leenane yesterday.

I spent a second morning teaching one to one, today we were doing more landscape and met at Aisleagh Falls and went from there to Doolough. It was a lovely morning though it rained just after we started at the falls! but the rain only lasted a couple of minutes and the rest of the morning was glorious. It was almost to good for photography!

But the harsh light meant we were able to practise some of the fill flash techniques learnt yesterday.

I took this view of croagh Patrick as I headed home just outside Louisburgh

I had a fun day today teaching one to one. We were working with flash, both on and off camera flash and experimenting with lots of different options to control the light.
I am posting another picture of north Mayo. This one was taken a month ago at Dunbriste. While the sea is very calm, it was very windy on top of the cliff!

I am posting another picture from the top of Kilgaligan. It shows recently cut bog (Turf) on top of the cliffs.

Todays picture was taken at the same time and location as yesterdays. Having photographed Dunbriste I wanted to go close on the waves, but that meant trekking out the coastline towards the edge of the bay. The waves looked great, and so I had to climb over rocks and traverse long flat rocks covered in seaweed to get to a good vantage point. Not knowing the area well I was very aware that the tide could cut me off and so I was nervous not to stay too long. This is as close as I could safely get to the waves and the picture is taken with a 200mm lens. I really could have watched them all day but as I say I was nervous of the tide and so dragged myself away after fifteen minutes or so.

I promised to share some pictures from North Mayo taken on Friday of last week so here is the first.
This is an unusual view of Dun Briste just outside Ballycastle. Dun briste which means “broken fort” is the sea stack on the horizon. It is one of my favourite places . I was driving to Kilgaligan when I was distracted by the waves and so stopped . I spent about an hour on the shore and scrambling over the rock to get into good positions to compose the pictures.

I am posting early again today because, I have a lot on today and may not get a chance later. Over the next few days I will share some of the pictures I got in north Mayo. I did not cover a whole lot of ground. My main aim was to visit Kilgaligan which is probably the most northern tip of the County and has some majestic cliffs and rugged shoreline. It is quite a trek in the car to get there so it is not a place I have visited very often; in fact I think I have only been there three times before. And on each of these occasions the weather was less then kind.
On Friday as I set out from Killala the weather was looking good, I got a little side tracked near Dunbriste ( I can never pass it) and as I set off again the weather began to close in. At the Ceide Feilds the sea mist seemed to be in control and I wondered should I continue, but as I often say “stick to the plan” and on this occasion it paid off, just as I got to Kilgaligan the weather began to lift and the sun broke through ! So I spent a couple of hours at Kilgaligan, sometimes photographing, sometime just admiring and taking in the whole scene and experience, and some time trekking along the clifftop. I always come away with a sense of awe . There is the incredible beauty, the peace ( I was the only person there for the whole two hours) and at the same time a feeling of great vulnerability.
I took this photograph of “The Stags of Broadhaven” from a cliff edge, in truth I never got close to the edge but while standing waiting for the light to come right I did have a feeling that I could get blown off !!

We are heading back home today after our short break in Kilalla.The holiday cottage was lovely and well positioned for exploring some of North Mayo. I was out with the camera for a time yesterday and will share some of the pictures over the next few days. But I thought I should include a picture of Kilalla today.

This was taken yesterday morning. The morning was cloudy and grey, but just as I headed out for the day the cloud began to break and there were hints of sunshine, so I went out on the mud flats to photograph this view of the town. Walking on mud flats is exhausting! And standing behind a tripod waiting for the sun to come out from behind a cloud is equally exhausting ,because it feels like you might sink and once you stand for a minute of two it is quite a struggle to move your feet as the mud gets a grip.

The holiday cottages are on the waterfront under the round tower. I have only one complaint about the cottage. In the one we had I had to get out of bed and go to the front room to see the sunrise across the bay!! Apart from that, it was perfect, Thanks to Liz and Tony .

I am still at the Kilalla Holiday cottages, I set the alarm for 6am so as to be up on time for the sunrise. I did not have to go very far as this is the view directly outside the cottage !

Patricia and I are in Kilalla for a couple of days, we are staying at the Kilalla Holiday cottages, http://www.killalabayholidays.com . it has been very cloudy and the sun did not break through as I hoped it might. We went for a walk along Ross Strand, I took this picture at about 8.50 twenty minutes or so after the sun had set, I thought the sky was almost surreal, and looked so heavy it might fall on us!!

Last night I decided to “review “ the website. While the site is busy a search of Google for “photography courses” did not find me so I thought I should pay it some attention, however I pressed the wrong button and deleted ALL evidence of photography courses!
You can imagine how I felt, and there is no “undo” button when you delete pages from your website. As it happens it may not have been an altogether bad thing as it meant I had to rewrite everything and not just tinker, but it takes SO LONG ! I have spent several hours today in front of the computer and have not finished yet. So I was glad to get out for a few minutes this evening to get today’s picture.
As you can see the weather was not great, infact it was misty rain and I had to keep drying the lens after each shot, at the same time , the sun was trying to break through, you can see it behind the tree on the left. I took the photo at Woodfield and a few minutes later the sun disappeared and did not appear again this evening.

I had great intentions to go to North mayo today and visit one or two places that my friend Monica has shown me in the past, i never seem to get the weather when i go , but today the weather was OK so I said I would go. Then I discovered the charger for the Sat Nav was broken. I have a very poor sense of direction and while I could have gone anyway , I probably would not have found all the lovely places I wanted to visit, so I spent the day in the garden!!. Its amazing how dependent on technology some of us have become, I used to be able to remember phone numbers, now I don’t have to, the phone does it for me, and similarly with the Sat Nav, it really is a most useful piece of photographic equipment. Mayo has many many very rural spots and I often drive around exploring, then when I find something worth photographing I put it in the Sat Nav to revisit maybe when the “light is right” I have not always been clear in my place naming and so my Sat Nav now has places like “lonely tree” or “Nephin Pano “or even just “pano!! These seemed like great titles at the time but six months later I have no idea what they mean.

Todays picture is from Bertra Strand

The grey and hazy skies have gone and today was lovely with blue slies and white clouds ! I was not able to get out however, so I am posting a picture taken last week between Newport and Mulranny. when you see these old homesteads on a beautiful day like this, you wonder, why they were ever deserted !!

The warm weather continues but so too does the haze. The skies have been grey all day. Apparently this is due to a sand storm in the Sahara Desert last Thursday..isn’t it a small world.

Todays picture is of Down Patrick head.

What a day we had in Mayo today. Everybody is going around with smiles on their faces, there are lawnmowers and garden strimmers sounding all over the place I even saw some neighbours lighting a BBQ !!! It feels like the middle of summer and its only April and the temperatures reached a balmy 19degrees! Well that’s all well and good ,but, grumpy here ,is not happy, the skies are hazy and featureless, not good for photography. So I am posting a picture from two weeks ago at Woodfield Lough just outside Kiltimagh on a day of blue sky and lovely clouds!!

A lovely sunny day in Mayo today, not always the best for photography. I took this photo on Old Head Beach just after sunrise on a day not as nice, but the low sun lights the headland with a golden colour.

I am posting a little early today due to commitments later in the day.

I took this picturein mulranny, I was actually photographing Clew bay and Croagh Patrick When I turned to go back to my car I saw this fantastic cloud, I photographed it without the car, but then decided to include my car because it gives the whole thing scale and also as a kind of tribute to the car!! As you can see this car brings me up and down all sorts of tracks and bog roads, I nearly got caught out on a bog road on the same day this picture was taken,. the ground was too soft all around me to turn and I had to reverse for about half a mile to find a place to turn. I got a puncture the same evening, but fortunatly the tyre stayed up until I got home and deflated during the night !!

No chance to get out today, so I am posting of some waves at Downpatrick Head taken twenty minutes after sunset last Friday.