A storm was blowing on to Clogher Beach recently. Waves so high they’d go over your head. You definitely did not want to drive down there or swim.
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 118mm |
| ISO | 20000 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
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No Swimming. No Kidding.
Fediverse reactions
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Cobh Lights Up for St. Patrick’s Night
Cobh put on a cracker of a display tonight with fireworks over the harbour. We headed across to the Haulbowline Island Recreational Park to photograph the show and we weren’t disappointed.
However, the barge launching the fireworks drifted further along the water than anyone expected, which meant a scramble to reframe shots and swing tripods mid-display. I’d love to know how it looked from the Cobh side. Usually the barge loops back and forth in a fairly tight arc, but this time it had other ideas and kept wandering off down the harbour!
Aperture ƒ/5.6 Camera ILCE-7RM5 Focal length 24mm ISO 320 Shutter speed 2s Fediverse reactions
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Storm Brewing Over Dingle
Dingle Marina sat there looking calm and civilised. Boats were tucked in, masts upright, everything in order while the sky overhead threatened rain and hid any chance of a sunset from my vantage point.
Luckily, it didn’t rain. The sky just got darker and darker as the sun slipped further around the Earth. The low cloud was not illuminated by the magnificent sun as it descended so I made do with what I had.
Aperture ƒ/8 Camera ILCE-7RM5 Focal length 24mm ISO 100 Shutter speed 1/15s Fediverse reactions
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Waiting for the Light
Nothing sorts the casual photographers from the committed ones quite like an early morning alarm on a Kerry beach in March. This lot from Blarney Photography Club were out on Cappagh Strand before first light, tripods planted in the wet sand, hoods up, waiting for whatever the sky decided to offer.
The long exposure in the first shot turned them into ghosts which felt fitting, given how they were all standing perfectly still and barely speaking, the universal code of photographers who haven’t had coffee yet. By the time the clouds broke and the pink started to creep in, they’d fanned out along the rocks, each one finding their own angle on the same stretch of coastline. It’s a funny thing, watching people who spend their time making images become the image themselves.
Aperture ƒ/8 Camera ILCE-7RM5 Focal length 24mm ISO 400 Shutter speed 25s Fediverse reactions
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One More Photo
I can just imagine the conversation here, “Just one more photo and then we’re done!”
What I like about this moment is that it’s completely unselfconscious. They’re in their own world while the crowd flows around them. There’s a nice irony in being a street photographer photographing someone photographing someone else, a little Russian doll of lenses and intentions.
Aperture ƒ/4 Camera ILCE-7RM5 Focal length 24mm ISO 1600 Shutter speed 1/500s Fediverse reactions
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Low Cloud Over Dingle
Low clouds lay over Dingle town on Friday evening but while it wasn’t the most exciting light, it had a lovely even light without deep shadows. It was a quiet evening with only a few people out walking their dogs and even a couple of tourists!
Aperture ƒ/8 Camera ILCE-7RM5 Focal length 100mm ISO 100 Shutter speed 1s Fediverse reactions
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The Cappagh Sentinel
The sun had risen about 40 minutes before and we were about to leave Cappagh Beach on the Dingle Peninsula when I saw a tree silhouetted against the sun.
Aperture ƒ/8 Camera ILCE-7RM5 Focal length 32mm ISO 100 Shutter speed 1/160s Fediverse reactions
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The Umbrella Photographer
Sunday’s storm on the Dingle Peninsula was the kind that turns sensible people around at the car park, but photographers are rarely sensible. I was down at Clogher Strand when the rain properly opened up. My friend and I both grabbed umbrellas trying to keep the gear dry while still getting the shot. The blue umbrella was doing most of the heavy lifting, swallowing them whole against that wall of ancient slate. What struck me was the colour contrast: that vivid blue
popping against the muted greys and ochres of the cliff face, with the smooth sand beneath acting like a stage. They never knew they’d wandered straight into my frame, which is probably for the best. Sometimes the best subjects are the ones who don’t know they’re performing.Clogher Strand was used as a filming location for David Lean’s Ryan’s Daughter (1970). The production spent nearly a year on the Dingle Peninsula waiting for suitably dramatic weather. We had that on Sunday!
Aperture ƒ/5 Camera ILCE-7RM5 Focal length 63mm ISO 800 Shutter speed 1/2000s Fediverse reactions
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1864 Meets 2026: Old Iron, New Glass
Look up and notice that 160 years of history are stacked vertically in the same sightline in London. At the bottom of the frame is the ornate ironwork crest of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, dated 1864, sitting on its stone parapet like it’s been there forever (because it basically has). And rising directly behind it, filling the rest of the frame, is One Blackfriars. That’s a 50-storey residential tower clad in curved glass that Londoners have nicknamed “the Vase” because of its shape.
Aperture ƒ/8 Camera ILCE-7RM5 Focal length 65mm ISO 100 Shutter speed 1/250s Fediverse reactions
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Tiny People in a Giant City
This is what I love about shooting London with a telephoto lens. You compress the layers of the city together and suddenly the relationship between people and architecture becomes absurd.
Aperture ƒ/8 Camera ILCE-7RM5 Focal length 87mm ISO 125 Shutter speed 1/500s Fediverse reactions
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Cool and Curly: Two Strangers on the South Bank
Just after we walked across Millenium Bridge in London I came across these two people watching something behind me. I think it may have been two women who had a couple of dogs with them.
An interesting pair. I couldn’t resist making a candid photo of the moment.
Aperture ƒ/4 Camera ILCE-7RM5 Focal length 24mm ISO 100 Shutter speed 1/1250s Fediverse reactions
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Wish You Were Here
We stopped for a break in St. John’s Church Garden where I spotted an art installation mounted on a rotary clothes line. A bit eye-catching!
Aperture ƒ/6.3 Camera ILCE-7RM5 Focal length 187mm ISO 500 Shutter speed 1/500s
White Owl (2006)
Patrick’s Day in pictures (2007)
Patrick’s Day Spectator (2009)
The Lee from the Line (2014)
Colourful Designs (2015)
Bars, San Diego, 2012 (2016)
Autumn Colours on the Ground (2017)
Reflections of the Temple (2018)
A cigarette in the shade (2019)
A Selfie in Madrid (2021)
Fireworks Over Cobh (2022)
The Port of Cork (2024)