Daily Blog

I am posting this from Kiltimagh, I ran into all kinds of technical difficulties however. Firstly I was unable to download all my pictures off the camera onto the laptop. I had intended posting a panorama of Islandeady lough but I gave up . i settled to download one jpeg of a rainbow. Then the internet failed and it has taken over 40 minutes to get this far, but it looks like we have made it now!!

I was at the doctors this morning having suffered several days of what my wife Patricia dubbed “the man flu “, fortunately the doctor was a bit more sympathetic and anti biotics were issued!. I then drove to Westport to the gallery and nearly crashed the car between Castlebar and Westport when I looked to my right and saw the scene in todays photo. It all looked very strange, almost like a rainbow was being squashed by the big cloud above! I managed to find a place to pull the car off the road and ran back to get a viewpoint, the colours had already started to fade , I fumbled about with the exposures on the camera, but managed to shoot off a couple of frames before the colours faded altogether..

Today i was in the Gallery all day and it was by and large a lovely day weather wise. I was teaching a night class in Kiltimagh, and have been asked to run a second one on a Wednesday night as well. Anyway my only chance to use the camera was in the morning prior to opening the Gallery. When i set out the sky was very dark with no sign of the sun and so i decided after all the rain it might be interesting to photograph a waterfall. This one is a 5 or 6 minute drive from westport so I set off with half an hour to kill before opening the gallery. The river was in complete flood and very different from when I last photographed it (see blog on 31st July) . Anyway i had to work quick but just as I reached the riverbank the sun came out and hit the white parts of the water. Just what i didnt want but by the time I had set up the tripod and deecided on an exposure thankfully the sun disappeared I made a total of five different views and decided I had to pack up and open the Gallery. I was lucky i did because just as I reached the car the heavens opened, and I mean opened!!


the river was in complete flood



It looked like this little fern was hanging on for dear life!!

Today was a miserable day here in Mayo, I had intented going to achill this evening to photograph the waves due to the westerly winds, but the rain was so heavy i decided to stay home!
I am posting a picture taken a few weeks ago on carrownisky strand ago

This old tractor is parked about a half a mile from my house in Kiltimagh. First thing in the morning the low light seems to pick out the interior of the barn and the tractor. I often admire it but this morning I stopped to photograph it. The light was not too strong because the sun was partly shaded behind clouds and a few minutes later was completely obstructed. The scene looks very different without some directional light. The rest of the day remained grey so I was glad I got this picture early.

As I drove to Westport this morning , the showery weather produced a lovely rainbow just as I approached Castlebar, so instead of turning towards Westport I swung a left and went to Lough Lannagh, there was the rainbow right in front of me, and I had found the end of it ! Where was the pot of gold? Maybe it was on the lake bed? Anyway I only had time to fire off three exposures when the rainbow disappeared and the heavens opened.

Today was a day were the weather and the sky was constantly changing. I went cycling again this morning but decided not to bring the camera because the skies were so dark and I was sure I was going to get a very heavy shower. I returned home 40 minutes later, not only had I not got wet but the skies were blue and the sun was shining! I had a chance to go out at 5.30 and the weather was still showery but with great skies and lovely sunshine, I decided not to go out as the sun would be that bit lower in an hour or so and things will be more interesting. One hour later the sun had disappeared behind heavy cloud that came in from the west and was not seen again for the rest of the evening.. So I got no picture today. I am surprised at myself because I should have learnt this lesson before,always take your chances, and even as I rode off on the bike I just knew I would regret not bringing the camera! So I am posting a picture taken a couple of weeks ago in similar weather conditions in Mulranny.

This is a silver birch it grows on treenaglare bog just down the road from my house in Kiltimagh. I was out on the bike again this morning, fighting the inches, when I took this picture. I have photographed this tree I don’t know how many times. The first picture was taken about ten years ago and was a black and white picture taken on film. The picture won an award in a National Enviromental photographic competition. It went on exhibition in Dublin and on tour. A condition was that I had to send the Negative as proof of ownership and from which the exhibition picture was printed. At the time of sending the neg I tried to negotiate as I felt that how I had printed the photograph was a crucial part of the overall image and I offered to print the image by hand to exhibition quality. But no, I had to send the Negative, well I never got the negative back!! It was lost somewhere in Dublin. And of course despite many attempts since I have never been able to repeat the picture. The tree has “grown up” over the last ten years and now looks quite different. Still I thought it looked well this morning.






The bike also looked well backlit by the sun on the wet road!

Some lovely light today. I got out for an hour on the bike this evening and took this picture at Craggegh , Kiltimagh. I loved the sky.

It rained all last night and most of today. There was a brief break this evening and I went out on the bike and photographed this reek of turf all ready for winter, you can see from the sky it did not remain dry for long !!





I started a beginners photo class in Kiltimagh this evening, I will be starting a beginners and an improvers and an advanced class in Westport in the next few weeks, if you are interested, or know someone else who may be, please contact me at the gallery or drop me an email.

Do you remember the ad long ago for Kit-Kat. A photographer is trying to photograph bears at a zoo, the bears refuse to come out of their den until he stops for his cup of tea, as soon as he does the bears come out of the den and dance around behind him, only to return to their den when he returns to his camera.

I took this picture a couple of days ago. I had composed everything and hoped the two horses would wander into the picture , the horses were out of frame to the left. I waited and waited but they remained out of shot. I did a few pictures without them and decided I could wait no more, I put the camera back in the car and had started the engine when suddenly the two horses galloped up towards the tree. I grabbed the camera and leapt out of the car ( well leapt may be an exaggeration ) and took three pictures as they ran back down the hill. I waited another ten minutes but they did not repeat, not even when I sat back into the car!

Today was very cloudy with no sun and heavy rain arrived this evening .Im not complaining though because we had a great week and especially as I was moving house ,it made the job much easier. This picture of Croagh Patrick was taken yesterday while I was waiting for the cyclists to arrive for their lesson!

Another Glorious day in Co Mayo. I had another group class today, like yesterday, this class was arranged as part on an “Electric Escapes” tour arranged by my friend Paul Harmen We met on location at Rossbeg I am posting a couple of pictures of the group. I spent the rest of the day in the gallery and finally finished the house move this evening.
For details of Electric Escapes follow this link http://www.electricescapes.ie/

Well the move is nearly done, I did find time today to teach a one hour lesson to two visitors, Orlaigh and Pat were just great students, so enthusiastic, the hour felt like it was over in minutes! I did not get any pictures taken however, but I did meet this cow last night when out for a cycle I had stopped to photograph reflections in the water, it was about 15minutes after sunset and I had no tripod so I had to use the camera at a very high iso, but i was pleased with the result. I dont think this cow had seen a photographer before, at least not in shorts and high viz vest!!

We are still in the throws of moving house, why do we collect so much rubbish?!!! We are now under p[ressure to get the job finished asnd have started to move things that should be got rid of. We are moving them with the intention of sorting them out later and recycling etc, but i bet that once we move we will just put things away out of site only to find them again the next time we move!!
So for todays picture i have posted another interesting sky from Kilmeena.

Well the sanding and painting is done and we have started to actually move, so a busy day today, but I got this picture of turlough round Tower on one of my trips past it !

Another lovely day in mayo, I had hoped to get out this evening but the evening just turned grey and there was no sign of a sunset. i am posting a second picture from last nights fantastic sky

what a glorious day we had today.I was full sure that we were going tohave a great sunset tonight and i drove out the Kilmeena direction to capture it. byt it was disapointing, the sun disapeared about 15 minutes early into a haze of cloud, but there was a magic sky all the same!!

It looks as if this late summer weather may continue for a few more days so we may get some good sunsets this week. Tonight I had to drive away from the sunset, always difficult to do, but I just could not resist stopping the car in Claremorris to grab this picture of Croagh Patrick 25 miles away!

This photograph of the round tower at Turlough Co Mayo was made two nights ago. I was travelling towards Castlebar and was the passenger in the car. Patricia was driving , I often pass by the tower and had never seen it like this, the problem was how to position the tower between me and the sun. We took a detour off the road, and I then scampered up a nearby hill and was delighted with the position I was able to get to.