In Photos dot Org

  • The Most British Office in London

    Someone chose to put two Union Jack armchairs and an exercise ball in their office window for all of London to see. I spotted this walking past an office block and the arrangement stopped me mid-stride. The chairs are proper wingbacks, upholstered in full flag regalia, flanking a slightly deflated-looking exercise ball that’s doing its best to fit in.

    Someone in that office has a sense of humour, and I’m grateful they put it by the window.


    Apertureƒ/8
    CameraILCE-7M3
    Focal length240mm
    ISO200
    Shutter speed1/500s

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  • Shandon Above the Shopfronts

    Cork’s Pope Quay packs more character into two hundred metres than most cities manage in a mile. I was standing on the south bank with the River Lee between us, drawn initially by the sweep of that pedestrian footbridge. It’s a clean, modern arc that sits surprisingly well against the jumble of modern, Georgian and Victorian facades behind it. The shopfronts tell the story of the neighbourhood in bold strokes: Coffee Scape and its Eastern European treats in hi-vis orange, MYO with its painted kingfisher on sky blue, and the enduring Sloans at the end of the row. Above it all, Shandon’s steeple rises like a referee keeping order over the chaos below. The sky was doing its best impression of a dirty dishcloth, but honestly, Cork wears grey well. It makes the colours along the quay punch harder than they would under blue skies. One hooded figure on the bridge, a life ring on the wall just in case, and the whole scene had that quiet mid-afternoon energy where a city is just getting on with itself.


    Apertureƒ/4
    CameraILCE-7RM5
    Focal length50mm
    ISO320
    Shutter speed1/2500s

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  • Rain Won’t Stop the MascletΓ 

    Fist in the air, beer in the other hand, in defiance of the rain that had been hammering down earlier. This is Las Fallas distilled into two men and a moment. I caught them mid-chant on one of the streets near the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. The man on the left had gone full traditional, with woven manta draped over his shoulders, loaded with pompoms and bandana tied tight while his friend had hedged his bets with a clear plastic poncho over the waistcoat. His Amstel was probably warm but he didn’t care. Valencia in March is meant to be about fire and gunpowder, and the rain didn’t stop the festivities.


    Apertureƒ/4
    CameraILCE-7RM5
    Focal length24mm
    ISO3200
    Shutter speed1/500s

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  • The Bookshop Pigeon

    Photo of a pigeon perched among books in the window display of Dubray Books, Cork. The bird sits on a copy of Lonely Planet's "Epic Trips" beside a small decorative robin figurine. Visible book titles include "Ireland: Mapping The," "This Way Up" by Mark Cooper-Jones and Jay Foreman priced at €16.99, Collins "History of the World in Maps," "The Hare's Corner," RHS "Gardens of Great Britain & Ireland," and a Michael Palin book. A Wild Press title and "Traveller" are partially visible.

    A pigeon had taken up residence in the Dubray Books window on St. Patrick Street, wedged comfortably between Michael Palin and a Lonely Planet guide which is frankly better taste in travel literature than most of us manage. It sat there among the carefully arranged display like it had been hired for the job, unbothered by the Black Friday signage overhead or the passers-by stopping to gawp.

    One woman paused mid-stride, peered through the glass, and you could see the exact moment the penny dropped: that’s not a prop. The little decorative robin beside it only made the whole scene funnier. A fake bird and a real one, side by side, and the real one looking far more at home. I’ve no idea how it got in, but it clearly had no intention of leaving. Fifty percent off stickered stock, and the pigeon wasn’t buying.


    Apertureƒ/4
    CameraILCE-7RM5
    Focal length24mm
    ISO200
    Shutter speed1/500s

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  • This Car Is Protected by Fluff

    A Hyundai sat brazenly on the double yellows outside Dunnes on Drawbridge Street, and behind the wheel, well, behind the steering wheel at least, sat this absolute unit of a security detail. Blue jumper on, mouth open, eyes locked on mine like I’d just tried the door handle. The owner had clearly nipped into the shop for five minutes, leaving a child in the passenger seat armed with a red ball and their dog who would fend off traffic wardens through sheer force of personality.

    The WARNING SECURITY SYSTEM sticker on the glass is doing far less work than the dog.


    Apertureƒ/4
    CameraILCE-7RM5
    Focal length50mm
    ISO2500
    Shutter speed1/500s

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  • Clogher in Full Voice

    The Atlantic was absolutely hammering Clogher Beach when I got down there a few weeks ago. A proper winter swell rolling in through the gap between the headlands, each wave stacking up and throwing that incredible translucent green you only get when the light catches the water from behind. An Fear Marbh sat out there in the spray haze like it always does, impassive, while everything around it was chaos. I was shooting low, practically at wave height, which is either brave or stupid depending on your tolerance for salt-encrusted gear. The sky kept shifting between brooding darkness and these cracks of warm light overhead, and the timing gods cooperated for about thirty seconds before the clouds sealed shut again. What struck me most was the colour contrast. That jade-green wave face against the bruised grey sky is something you’d barely believe if you hadn’t stood there watching it happen.

    A Video To Watch


    Apertureƒ/6.3
    CameraILCE-7RM5
    Focal length120mm
    ISO400
    Shutter speed1/1000s

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  • When the Atlantic Catches Fire

    The cold at Cappagh Beach the morning I made this photo was the sort that makes you question every life choice that led you to a dark car park before dawn. The sunrise wasn’t that great but shortly before we left, the sun cracked through a gap in the cloud and turned the entire Atlantic into molten gold, and suddenly the cold didn’t matter much.

    I love how the backlight picks out a single breaking wave on the rocks mid-frame, giving the whole scene a focal point that isn’t the sun itself. Kerry mornings like this are why alarm clocks exist.


    Apertureƒ/11
    CameraILCE-7RM5
    Focal length118mm
    ISO100
    Shutter speed1/125s

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  • The Invisible Shift

    A street cleaner with a bin bag in one hand, framed between a STOP sign and a no-right-turn sign. You couldn’t stage it better. I shot this from Drawbridge Street, watching the lunchtime crowd flow past him like water around a rock. What struck me was the contrast: dozens of people mid-stride, shopping or wandering around, and this one figure doing the quiet work that keeps the city ticking over.

    His orange hi-vis jacket is the loudest thing in the frame, but he’s mostly unnoticed by everyone. The young lad in the camo jacket is walking towards me, a woman in a black top is mid-step, and behind the railings there’s a whole parade of shoppers who have no idea they’re in a photograph. I like that the two road signs bookend him: STOP on one side, no-right-turn on the other as if the street itself is giving him contradictory instructions. It’s one of those shots where the composition just fell into place, and all I had to do was not fumble the shutter.


    Apertureƒ/4
    CameraILCE-7RM5
    Focal length50mm
    ISO160
    Shutter speed1/500s

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  • Golden Hour at The Roundy

    Late afternoon sun hit Castle Street at just the right angle and turned the whole scene outside The Roundy into something cinematic. The outside area of the pub was packed with people drinking and enjoying the afternoon and soaking up the kind of Cork sunshine you never quite trust to last.

    The lens flare flooding in from the right was almost too much, but I leaned into it rather than fighting it. Sometimes the technically “wrong” choice is the one that captures the actual feel of a moment and this one felt like the first real evening of spring.

    Videos to watch

    Was Martin Parr Actually That Good?
    Crimes Against Photography: Revisiting My Worst Edits


    Apertureƒ/1.7
    CameraGalaxy S23 Ultra
    Focal length6.3mm
    ISO40
    Shutter speed1/350s

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  • Teenage Kicks Through a Tiny Screen

    A hand went up three rows ahead of me and suddenly I had my shot. The Undertones were tearing through their set at Cyprus Avenue in Cork, the stage lights throwing fat circles of purple and magenta across the room, and this person decided twenty seconds of shaky phone footage was worth the effort. It gave me the frame-within-a-frame I’d been waiting for!

    Everything around it dissolves into these massive, dreamy bokeh orbs that make the whole scene feel slightly unreal. I shot it wide open and let the background go completely, trusting that the phone screen would anchor the image. It’s one of those concert moments that sums up how we experience live music now. We’re half watching, half recording, the real thing and the digital copy sitting right next to each other.


    Apertureƒ/1.8
    CameraILCE-7RM5
    Focal length75mm
    ISO1000
    Shutter speed1/80s

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  • St. Finbarr’s Oratory at Dawn

    Nine exposures, three positions, and a lake disturbed by a biting wind. That’s what it took to stitch this panorama together at Gougane Barra just after dawn. The sky refused to cooperate with anything dramatic, so I leaned on the scene itself: the oratory sitting quietly on its spit of land, the water holding just enough calm to throw back something of a reflection, and those bare winter trees looking atmospheric without trying. Did I say it was cold? My fingers were feeling it.

    I’d have traded my tripod for a bank of broken cloud, but you work with what the morning gives you. The HDR merge kept detail in the shadowed chapel walls without blowing the sunrise glow, and the reeds breaking through the water surface add a bit of texture to what would otherwise be a fairly smooth lower half. It’s not the Gougane Barra postcard shot. That needs mist, or rain, or both, but there’s a stillness here that I quite like.


    Apertureƒ/8
    CameraILCE-7RM5
    Focal length24mm
    ISO100
    Shutter speed1/13s

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  • Dawn Sentinel at Gougane Barra

    A bunch of us arrived in Gougane Barra this morning to photograph the sunrise, only to be met with driving rain and mist and fog on the hills. A biting wind tore through clothes making for a missed opportunity for all of us.

    Luckily, within a few minutes of arriving, a glow could be seen on the horizon, and the rain started to thin out. In another 10 minutes the sky was almost completely clear, as if nothing had happened!

    Ironically, I would have liked some high cloud for the sun to bounce off before it rose, but it wasn’t to be so I decided on a silhouette of the tree near the oratory instead. That would fill in the sky nicely.


    Apertureƒ/8
    CameraILCE-7RM5
    Focal length32mm
    ISO320
    Shutter speed1/250s

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