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An Fear Marbh, or “The Dead Man” in English lies off the coast of Co. Kerry. I posted another photo of the island taken on the same night as this one here, but it was such a beautiful evening I took quite a few shots!

Shih Tzu on a sunset beach

Our Shih Tzu Oscar on Garrettstown Beach again. We forgot to bring a ball with us but Oscar went running after anything I threw.

He never did catch the object. I guess there’s nothing quite like a tennis ball eh?

I love the evening sun on him in this picture!

The Sun sets on 2007

The final day of the year 2007. It’s cloudy and misty and rain is in the air. Very mild for this time of year actually.

2007 was a mixed bag for many people. It was a year of extremes - joy and sadness in equal measures, but life changing for myself and my wife as our son Adam was born into the world this year.

This sunset was shot at Garrettstown Beach a few weeks ago. Dedicated to the memory of Gerry who visited that beach with us before she passed away.

California Sunset

On the way to the Automattic beach houses last night we drove along the famous road that featured in Basic Instinct. I opened the window on Toni’s car and took a few photos of the sunset. I hoped for it to happen, but I was very lucky that the sun was blocked out by the signpost.

What are we doing on day one? Robert Hoekman, Jr is talking to us about "Designing the obvious" and expanding on his talk from the first day at WordCamp. The talk is going great, and generating lots of chatter and ideas!

Beach in the evening

Inch Strand in Co. Kerry as the sun shines over the water and the tide comes in.

Shadows of prison and freedom

A crow flies off into the freedom of the air with a crumb of bread he found on the pavement. The railings of nearby houses are like those of a prison keeping humans in and trapped and closed off.

Who is free?

Father and son in the water

Father and son wading in the shallow water at Inch Strand, Co. Kerry last September.

I previously posted a picture of the child but this image demanded attention when I was looking for “sea” photos. I love the silhouettes, the colour, the waves and the clouds.

Happy Valentines Day!

Vote in the Irish Blog Awards!

Damien says there’s only three days left to vote in the Irish Blog Awards. 1100 people have voted and apparently we’re in for some shocks if voting patterns remain the way they are. So, thank you all who voted for me already, and if you haven’t voted, please take two minutes to vote for In Photos in the best Photoblog section.

Cupid’s Arrow and the birds

Cupid’s Arrow in San Francisco provides an interesting silhouette against the evening sky. If you’ve payed close attention to my photos in the past you might think this is a duplicate of another shot but it’s from a slightly different angle and wider, and I feel stronger because of the pattern the birds make in the sky. What do you think?

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!

Brooding sky at sunset

A brooding, dark sky threatens to swallow the setting sun over Drake’s Pool near Crosshaven in Co. Cork.