Daily Blog

This evening I photographed members of the Mcmanamon Family who were having their annual family reunion at Tiernaur this evening,






Having photographed the family I drove a few hundred yard up the road to capture one of my favoutite scenes.

No real improvement in the weather but I just had to get out this evening . I photographed this stream at Furnace. It was a slow shutter speed of 90 seconds. When you take slow shutter pictures it takes as long to write the image to the memory card as it does to expose the picture. So I had just taken the waterfall when these sheep appeared to my right being driven by the dog and the farmer in his car. So I put the camera to my eye made several changes to the exposure to give me a faster shutter speed ,but the camera would not work until the previous picture was written to the memory card, I kept pressing the shutter butten and thought they would have passed me by the time it worked. Just when I was about to give up the camera started working.





Rush Hour in Mayo ?

I was in the Gallery most of the day today and it rained as I left, I am beginning to get withdrawel symptoms! I have not been out for a landscape picture for almost a week.!
This evening I decided I really should not rely on the archives for a new picture and should go out and get a new one, so bare with me, this is not a landscape but I enjoyed making it all the same. The funfair is in Westport for the music festival, so just before they closed this evening I got down to get a couple of pictures.

I have no new pictures of Mayo this evening because I had to go to Dublin. I visited my sister Elaine and while there we watched "Higher Ground" a programme on RTE about a friend of mine Paul Harmen and his new business Electric Escapes. There was a possiblilty that I might appear as I had been filmed giving a brief photography class to one of Pauls tour groups. Anyway there I was in full colour, and its true TV does add 20lbs!! If we are to assume that we will all have 15minutes of fame then I have about 14minutes and 45 seconds still to come!!. Anyway we then went to the airport to collect my daughter Grainne who was flying in from Germany and I took this picture for the blog.It was taken fromthe multi story car park, I should add it was taken in a hurry as I was aware that taking out a tripod and camera at an international airport could have resulted in my quota of fame being completed!!



When we got home at 2.30am I discovered that I had won a gold award for Landscape in the The Society of International Nature and Wildlife Photographers "SINWP" Monthly comp which I had entered for the first time! The picture can be seen on the blog for 4th June called "the winning shots" - I must have known!! Its the first picture and is called " shaped by nature"

Had a good day today doing the first of this years camera skills workshops in the studio. I had hoped to get out this evening but the rain returned and it rained all evening, so back to the archive!!. The great thing about wet evenings is that when you go through old files you often find pictures that you have not worked on and some of them can turn out to be quite good!

This panorama is of Ashleem Bay on Achill consists of nine photographs stitched together in photoshop. The final completed picture is just over a metre long !

No chance to get out again today but I was looking through some old photos when I found a set of pictures of crashing waves taken on Achill Island.These requir fast shutter speeds to freeze the action, the complete opposite to the waterfalls of the last few days. There is a great spot on Achill at cloughmore where most days the waves pput on a great show, I might try and get up to Achill this week .

I am posting another couple of photographs from yesterdays trip to the river. each is an exposure of two minutes or more

I decided to experiment some more with the "big stopper" ( a ten stop neutral Density Filter) so I went down to the banks of the Owenwee river just outside Westport. When I got to my favourite spot I found Aden Kelly and his two little girls fishing. While I was still setting up the camera Aiden hooked a Salmon and was clambering over the rocks playing the fish. The fish however managed to escape ! Aiden said he didnot mind as it was only a small one. Now this surprised me a little because I thought it was only the REALLY BIG ONES that got away! Aiden explained to me afterwards that there is a catch and return policy on that stretch of river anyway.




Aiden and his two little helpers!



No filter 40th second



"Big stopper used, exposure was for one whole minute!

I spent the day on Achill, helping Terri with another wedding. We started off in pouring rain and arrived on Achill for breakfast. Once we started to take pictures the weather started to clear, it rained ( a soft rain !) during the ceremony but cleared up for our trip to Keem Strand. It was a lovely wedding.


The happy couple take a few minutes on their own.






this fishing boat came into keem bay while we were there.

Back to the archive again this evening Im afraid, Patricia and I did go out for a short while this evening after work but it was very dark , we went home and decided it might just clear around sunset, but no joy. I am writing this 7 minutes after sunset I should be out photographing, but there is no sign of the sun just very thick heavy grey cloud. So I have decided to take the night off and am posting a picture of Burrishoole Abbey taken on a much brighter day.





There are still places left on the Camera Skills Day next Tuesday and on the Photoshop skills day on Sunday 8th August!!

I photographed this old petrol pump in Manulla yesterday evening, but there was no sunlight so I decided I would try again this evening. Once again we had another very cloudy evening and so I brought my flashgun with me to create my own "sunlight". Modern flash is great and can be operated off camera wirelessly . In this case I used two flashguns, hand held about six feet to the left of the camera held above my head directing the light down onto the pump. The flash is ttl but the camera is in manual mode. I had no time to experiment but I am happy with the result I got, the two pictures are both " acceptable" but look very different.
I'd be interested to get your views.


manulla pump no flash


Manulla pump with flash

I struggled to get out again today, so I am posting a picture of Mulranny strand taken this time last year. Judging from the photograph the weather was not much different with low cloud and little sign of the sun ! Still the slow shutter speed is I think very effective with both the sea and the sky moving during the exposure.I took this photograph during an afternoon when I was leading a landscape workshop, unfortunatly everybody was further entertained when I took a soaking from an incomming wave! I am leading a couple of two day landscape workshops in August. the first is on 19th +20th and the second is on 21st +22nd. Cost is €180 contact me by email or phone the Gallery 09850275 to book your place

The depression that came over Westport yesterday continues and we have very dark skies and constant rain. I decided I had raided the archives enough recently and despite the "lack of light " I would go and get a new picture for today. Many photographers myself included talk about good light and bad light or on a day like today we would say there was "no light". But I believe you can make photographs in any kind of light you just have to choose your subject carefully. I decided today I would do a water picture and would use the lack of light to show movement. I went to Lough Furnace where there is a waterfall, but I was unable to get safe access to the waterfall so I will go back another time with company. Anyway I had a little wander through some woodland to the lackshore and came upon this little stone jetty. I imagined the photo in my head and went back to the car for the camera and tripod.When I was a youth I did a lot of fishing and when I found the jetty I thought it would make a great place to fish. It was raining and so when I took the tripod from the car I also took an umbrella and I really felt like I was going fishing, I remember wasting many an hour sat under an umbrella waiting for the fish to bite! For this photograph I used a very slow shutter speed of about two and a half minutes, well 151.7seconds to be exact!. This has resulted in the water becomming very smooth and the reeds bluring with the jetty and rocks remain still. I enjoyed taking it for all kinds of reasons.

Today was Reek Sunday. That is the pilgrimage day on Croagh Patrick when thousands of people climb the mountain. Yesterday I intended to climb but on waking this morning Croagh Patrick could not be seen! Very low cloud and continous rain made me decide that I would give it a miss. So I spent the day in the gallery and the quite of the day was disturbed only by the several ambulances that were carrying injured pilgrims to the hospital in Castlebar.
So I have had to return to the archives for todays picture which was taken before sunrise on Lough Carra earlier this year.

It was a fairly grey day today in Mayo, This morning it rained a misty rain and I swear I could smell the sea , you know that unpleasant seaweed smell ? Nobody else I said it to could smell it, maybe it was just me that smelled!!

Anyway the rain stopped around 11.30 and I helped my friend Terry to photograph a wedding. here are two of the pictures I took. The first is of the grooms Dad having a quite pint before the off, and the second is of the happy couple after the wedding ceremony.

what a day I had today. Up at 2am drive to Dublin, fly to london spend the day on a photographic training seminar with Joe Mcnally . Joe is one of my phographic heroes. He works with national geographic and I have two of his books, "the hot shoe diaries" and "The moment it Clicks" The day was all about using flash for portraits. Joe is a very funny guy and a great presenter and of course is very very knowledgeable. any way it is now 1.50 am and I have just got back to mayo. so I am posting another picture from carronisky beach , this one was taken maybe twenty minutes after the sun went down.

I went for a walk with Patricia to Carrowniskey beach this evening. There was a lovely sunset. Carrowniskey beach is so big and the sky so brilliant tonight that it all felt v ery big, too big for the camera !

I had twenty minutes out with the camera today, just enough time for a "quick" picture at Bertra Beach. Only it was not a quick picture because I used the "big stopper". as I explained yesterday the big stopper is a filter that reduces the light reaching the camera sensor by ten stops. So this picture I tiook today should have had a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second but instead it took 32 seconds! But I love the clouds moving and of course the sea is made to look very smooth. I am looking forward to experimenting some more with it.




I was listening on the radio to the weather forecast, they said that some areas would remain dry and some would have showers, heavy at times. Well we had a shower here in Mayo today that started at 1.30pm and has not stopped at 11.53pm !! Some shower!!.

I was in the Gallery all day today, it was a lovely day but by the time I left it was pouring rain. I got a new filter today, its called "the big stopper" Its a ten stop neutral denity filter so expect to see some very smooth water pictures over the next few days.

I spent a good amount of time today putting the new summer courses on to the website. Check them out there might be something for you.!



Carramore strand taken earlier this year.

Busy day today and I did not get out with the camera. I went to post a picture this evening but have left the hardrive in the gallery so my choice of picture is very limited tonight. This picture was taken about two weeks ago in the burrishoole area.