Daily Blog

was not out with the camera today, but this picture was made yesterday morning.You often hear me talk about how quickly the light changes in the West of Ireland, well this picture was made exactly 11minutes and 1 second after the one I posted yesterday. Look how much the scene has changed ! The cloud has closed in and almost formed a window, through which you can see Croagh Patrick.
1 minute and 54 seconds later I took my last picture as it had closed almost completely and had started to rain . I love this kind of weather it is so much more exciting then the blue sky weather that we had today, its the ever changing scenes that are so impressive, but also so challenging as a photographer as you have to react really quickly in making your decisions re exposures , filters etc.

I will be leading a Residential Landscape Photography Course at Essence of Mulranny from 10th-12th April, if you would like to come along you can check the details on the website ,or send me a message http://mayo.photium.com/page17528.html

It was certainly easier to get this morning's sunrise picture then yesterday's! But I nearly did not get it. I was a few minutes late leaving the house and as I left there was a black cloud overhead and the hail was falling. twenty minutes earlier when I had first looked out, I thought it looked promising,but now it really felt like a waste of time, even when I crossed the golf course to the beach it was now a mix of sleet and rain, Croagh Patrick could not be seen, and, I thought I should just go home. But looking at the sky I could see that the clouds were moving in the right direction and I MIGHT get a clearance, so I headed off across the beach. This picture was taken five or six minutes later, its amazing how quickly things can change. There followed about ten minutes of wonderful display and I was glad I was on the beach to experience it, by then the sun was too high and more showers started to come in so I went home for breakfast. What a start to the day! Just an interesting sub note both the sun and moon can be seen in this picture, can you spot the moon?

I am just back in Mayo after a day in Athlone. But this morning was both great photographically and also just a little frustrating. Patricia and I had decided to go to Athlone leaving Mulranny about 11am. That gave me plenty of time to go to Keem Strand on Achill Island for the sunrise and still be back on time for our trip. I woke before the alarm and tried to sneak out without waking sleeping beauty and I thought I had succeeded when just as I made for the bedroom door Patricia said "What about the icy roads" They are fine I said, see you at 11. So I headed towards Achill, the roads were terrible and I had to travel very slowly , as I drove along Patricia's voice kept going around and around in my head "what about the icy roads?"
I thought to myself , "maybe THIS was a bit silly, I could bump my car, I could do worse", but I decided to turn back once I realised that the worst part of bumping the car would be the fact that Patricia could say " I told you so" Now to be fair to Patricia I don't think she has ever said such a thing to me but my Male ego was not going to let it happen today!!. So I turned the car a round and headed back to Mulranny beach. The tide was in and the rocks on the beach were very slippy, too slippy for the wellington boots I had put on for the sand on Keem Strand. So realising that I was going to miss the sunrise I headed back to the house and decided to take the dog for a walk back to the beach and I might still get a picture. At this point I switched cameras, I did not want to carry the Nikon and lenses and walk the dog, so just took the fuji. As me and the dog walked towards the beach the sun began to creep over the horizon, so I found a place with a view took out the camera and pressed the shutter ERROR NO MEMORY CARD flashed up on the screen!!!! Dam ,Blast etc etc. I had not checked the camera as I had picked it up. So me and the dog headed back to the house, you can imagine the dog was not impressed and wondered what she had done to witness such an outcry from me and have her walk suddenly terminated. anyway I got the card, took the dog back down to the beach, enjoyed the calming sound of the water on the stones and got this picture!

The weather in Mulranny is terrible,.You will know there has been a "red" weather warning in place for the last 24 hours due to high winds. I had hoped to go out this morning to Achill Island to get a flavour but the rain is also constant so I decided to give it a miss. I did not post yesterday because we have lost internet both the wifi and the 3g on my phone have given up, as has the TV signal. ( Its great weather for some people (McDonagh TV)!! I am posting this from an "inland" location, so I am not sure that I will manage to post every day over the next few, but I'll do my best.
This image from Roonagh Pier , you have seen before, but it gives a flavour of the current sea conditions.

The winter has really kicked in . Probably being by the sea we may not be getting things as bad as other parts of the country, but it is VERY cold windy with hail and sleet showers. we did get out for a walk between the showers in the afternoon. I would much prefer if we got a good fall of snow that would sit for a few days, this sleet and hail is just messy, but Mulranny did look pretty after one heavy shower this afternoon ! And don't be fooled by that lovely blue sky, it was freezing!

I had great intentions of getting out for the sunset this evening. I should at this very moment be on the rocky shore making exposures. While it is has been very windy all day it was also bright. But just as I prepared to leave the house, the clouds closed in over the sun, the wind increased and the hailstones started to lash against the windows, the weather we had been expecting all day has arrived, and we are apparently going to get a lot of it over the next few days. So I decided not to go out but am posting an image I made last week, just after sunset on a slightly calmer day!

The poor weather continues and I did not get out today. I was thinking of taking up a new hobby called "slow bike riding" Ever since I got my fuji XE1 I bring it with me everywhere including on my cycle rides. Being based in Mulranny at the moment the cyclist and the photographer are well catered for and the Great Western Greenway is of course the ideal place to ride a bike! I have gone out several mornings to cycle from Mulranny to Achill and back or from Mulranny to Newport and back. I have an app on my phone that records my journey with fastest times etc, and every morning when I head out I reset it and leave, with the intention of setting a new record time, but I usually get distracted along the way. Like on this occasion only last week ( yes that is a blue sky!). So now maybe I should be measuring the success of my bike trips by the longest time rather then the shortest time!

I did not get out with the camera today but did spend a lot of time printing. I was using a nice new paper I have found , a fibre based "art paper that shows off the prints very well. A change in paper always throws up a few teething problems, but fortunately I had it cracked today by the third print so I was happy with that.
This image of Croagh Patrick was taken back in October.

The weather in Mayo has been pretty horrendous all day, not really a day for photography, but I think this image might give you a little feeling of what it has been like!

Its blowing a gale out side at the moment, we have been promised storm force winds this evening and tonight. Earlier today while the wind was calm the sea was a lot higher then it has been for several days, evidence I suppose of an Atlantic swell. I made a quick visit to the beach, the scene , while lovely, lacked any colour and the image looked almost monochrome, so I decided to turn it into Black and White and added a blue tone, Here is the result.

The rain and wind was relentless today so once again i did not get out. This sunrise picture of Croagh Patrick was taken on 2nd Jan. As you can see it was pretty dark and windy that day too, If you look carefully at the right hand side of the picture you can see the rain falling out of the cloud!. But on that day the sun made several gallant attempts to break through creating a really dramatic scene, nothing like that today I am afraid!

I did not get out with the camera today, but I got this image a couple of evenings ago. I went out to photograph the sunset, but the sun which set beside Clare Island was hidden by big black clouds, as they travelled across the sky however the sky over Croagh Patrick remained clear to produce some lovely twilight colours.

I watched this angler on the Beach at Mulranny yesterday and after a quick chat with him I felt inspired to have a go today. It was very cold on the beach today but at least it was dry, I brought my camera to take a picture of "The Big One" but I'm afraid he got away, so did the "Little One"!. So you will just have to make do with this picture from yesterday.

Another lovely sunny day in Mayo,I went out to get the sunset this evening, and just as I did , Thick cloud came in and hid the sun. fortunately I had gone out for a little while in the morning when I photographed these Brent Geese who are regular winter visitors to Mulranny.

A Glorious sunny day in Mayo today. They say its a good idea to combine photography with any other hobby you might have. Today I took a bike ride on the Greenway, I brought the camera. My intention was to cycle to Achill and back a cycle that would normally take just over an hour. but today I got distracted along the way with the camera and only got half way to Achill and returned in just over two and a half hours! I got a few interesting pictures, but not being a big fan of blue skies I thought I might get something better this evening. So Patricia and I drove to Achill, arriving just on time for the sunset, once again the lack of clouds meant the sunset was (to use Patricia's words) "only ordinary" However I still got a couple of decent pictures at Cloughmore.

Apologies for being so late posting this evening!.
I was out early this morning, I woke early and was so delighted to see we had no rain, so I headed off down the coast for a planned sunrise picture. It was freezing cold with occasional hailstones and the sunrise was very disappointing , but I still took some pictures and hung on for as long as I could. ( I had to be places this morning so could not stay out for too long) As the sun rose higher in the sky I watched and waited as some clouds came across the mountain, hoping that the sun would rise high enough to reach the clouds as the arrived . Eventually everything just fell in to place and 40 minutes after sunrise I got this picture and was able to pack up and go home for breakfast.!

I always carry a camera with me, even when I go cycling, I take my FujiXE1 strapped to me in a little belt bag. But the weather was so bad as I went out cycling this morning that I made the decision that there was no point in bringing the camera and so I left it on the kitchen table and headed off out along the greenway towards Achill. I turned a corner on the Greenway and almost ran into (literally ) a herd of thirty or more of the famous Mulranny Wild Goats, I think they were as shocked to see me out on such a miserable day as I was to get so close to them, so I cursed my decision not to bring the camera!!
The rest of the day faired just as bad weather wise and we did not see the sun at all. So here is another image from last night, this was taken forty minutes after sunset, I had already packed up the camera and tripod and was heading back to the car, but looked over my shoulder and thought "I should just take one more picture!"

The sun sets on 2014!!!!

The weather here in Mulranny was pretty horrible most of the day. I went cycling this morning on the greenway and battled the wind and the rain before tumbling off my bike just as I got to Achill. I got a couple of grazes ,but was uninjured apart from my pride of course, and I had to call Trish to bring me back in the car. This evening the poor weather continued and at about 4pm the rain had stopped when I decided I would go out with the camera anyway, not really hoping to get any pictures but to do what photographer Jay Maisel calls " daily visual pushups" I have been doing my daily visual pushups on this blog for five years now, I started the blog as an exercise to improve as a photographer on 31st dec 1999.So five years on I am still doing my Visual pushups almost every day and I have certainly learnt a lot in that time. I was rewarded this evening though because despite the bad weather, I left the house just after 4pm , as I did the sun suddenly appeared, I drove out the coast road, as the sun dropped below the clouds that had rained on us all afternoon, so I picked my location, scampered across the rocks to get into a good position and at 4.22pm took this image!! by 4.24pm the sun was gone, for another year!


Happy New Year!

What a beautiful day we had in Mayo today, bright and crisp. Patricia and I spent a few minutes on the beach in Mulranny, and despite the cold there was heat in the sun. I managed to get this picture before others who were on the beach walked across this piece of sand.

I had a busy day today and did not get out with the camera, I had hoped to get out for the sunset but did not manage it. But half an hour or so after sunset I had to go out of the house to the car to get something and the sky was a beautiful pink! So a bit like yesterday there was not much effort in capturing this image, taken from the front garden here in Mulranny!