In Photos dot org

A water tap on the quay in Cobh, Co. Cork drips slowly into the sea.

This is a favourite photo of mine.

A rainbow brightens up the dark clouds threatening Cobh in Co. Cork in late 2006.

You can see Cobh Cathedral in the background, and I’d swear the boats in the foreground are still there in the same position all these years later ..

School children

While walking back to the car after the Cobh Rambler’s game a few weeks ago I made this picture of a sign on the road.

I find it strange that out of the 600-odd images I took that day, this is the first image I’ve uploaded..

Lysfoss heads into Cork

A large cargo ship of the Lys Line company called "Lysfoss" makes it’s way into Cork while a small fishing boat is tied to the pier in Cobh.

In the distance the harbour pilot can be seen heading for the small harbour in Cobh.

It’s fascinating what comes up on Google:
The Lysfoss went aground (pdf) in 2001. This page says a vessel of the same name was in dry dock and had repairs made on 2 separate occasions.
The Lysfoss sailing schedule.

I lost my head

All that remains from a fishing trip to Cobh.

I discovered this fish’s head while walking about on the pier in Cobh during the month of August last year. At that time of year the mackerel
chase the sprat into Cork Harbour and provide a bountiful catch for local fishermen. Many years ago I remember casting into the waters off Church Bay and reeling in at least 4 fish, the feeding frenzy was so great!

PS. the new Digital Journalist is out!

Cobh at sunset

The tide is out in Cobh, Co. Cork while the sun sets in the west casting an orange glow over the water and boats in the harbour.

Method
This required some work to expose properly. The sky is bright while the harbour, houses and landscape are in shadow. Out with the layers, top layer for the sky was darkened and the opposite was done for the ground.
Then it’s the simple task of adding a layer mask to the top layer and rubbing out the dark bits to expose the brightened landscape.
When using a layer mask, never paint with an opacity of 100%, try 30% or even 5%. Don’t be afraid to do a rough job of exposing the bottom layer because with a layer mask you can always reverse the procedure by swapping the colour of your brush with an opposite colour!

Thank you all for the comments on yesterday’s post, The Lonely Swan, it’s great to get feedback and I’m glad when people get something out of my methods when I describe them. See what you’ve done? I did it again!

Water Drops in Cobh

Water drops from a railing in Cobh after a particularly heavy rain early in the day. That day’s shooting in Cobh was quite successful and by the evening there was a beautiful glow from the setting sun.

I took these firework photos from a spot on the right of this image.

PS. Happy Australia Day!

The Moonlit Shipyards

The shipyards in Rushbrooke, just outside Cobh are still active although much quieter now than during their heyday. The cranes make for great photography against the moonlit sky.

This was shot from across the River Lee in Passage last November.

FRLinux asked about settings so here they are, including post-processing:

Flickr’s exif data for this is a bit wrong - gthumb says the exposure was for 5 seconds, aperture was wide open at f4.5, and lens set at 28mm, which you can probably multiply by 1.6 for the crop factor. ISO was 100.

Post Processing was done in the GIMP using 3 layers:
1. Top layer is transparent with a black gradient at the bottom. Layer mode is Overlay.
2. Middle layer is black and white, and blurred and with added noise. It’s set to screen mode, and opacity of 51%.
3. Bottom layer is the colour image, slightly saturated and darker.

Hope that helps!

Cobh Train Station

Cobh Train Station, taken just before closing many months ago. It’s a long exposure shot of the interior of a fine building on the quay-side.

“The Queenstown Story”, a museum in the background of this shot is worth a visit and tells the story of the port of Cobh as the last place 3 million Irish people saw before they sailed for the United States. Some of those sailed on the ill-fated Titanic.

The Queenstown Story on virtualtourist.com has more reviews, and pictures of the museum if you’re interested.

Techincal details:

1. Duplicate Layer
2. Brighten new layer with Curves tool.
3. Blur with Gaussian Blur and a radius of 15 pixels.
4. Black/White conversion with channel mixer.
5. Change layer mode to Grain merge, 82.5% opacity.
6. Resize and unsharp mask the lower layer.

I like this: Shandon Tower.

A Golden Glow over Cobh

Last night we went down to Cobh to walk around and lucky for us the rain disappeared as we approached the town!

It was strange. There was lots of localised rain yesterday. Blarney was mostly dry, the roads were dry as we drove down but as soon as we crossed the bridge off the main road a steady drizzle enveloped the car.

I gloomily predicted that we’d spend our time in the Cobh in the car or sheltered under an umbrella but just as I parked the car, the drizzle let off and a little blue sky and sunlight peaked through the grey clouds! We had a nice pleasant walk after all!

This was shot at the end of a private row of houses that look on to the harbour. There’s a high chimney near the end of the road that I’d like to find out more about. I’ll have to do some research later on.

I like this: Wyre Wreck #5 - nice use of HDR to create a dramatic image.