The Black Surfer

A surfer rides the waves at Garretstown in early January this year. I’m not sure how many were out there but we talked to one wet and cold looking one when he came out of the water and he told us they had been there for a few hours.

The heavens opened and rain fell shortly after. Only the surfers were left out in the open.

Donal has a good post about exposure. Donal, you should read Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera by Bryan Peterson. I’ll lend you my copy if you want. It’s a great read.

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/125s

Waves crash on the tyre

A tyre causes waves to crash up and splash over it on the beach at Garretstown in Co. Cork almost a year ago.

This picture languished in my archives until last weekend when I frantically looked about for “Sea” releated material for theme night at the camera club!

If you’re around Cork at the weekend, Mallow Camera Club is hosting the SACC Annual Competition and Exhibition tomorrow. A number of other clubs will be enter the competition and should be a good day out. Unfortunately I can’t be there due to prior commitments. Also, on Monday night Des Clinton will give a talk at the club on “Best of Irish” which should be a good night. A number of his images can be seen in this gallery.

PS. a tyre is a tire.

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/250s

Boats at the quay

Small boats or dingies tied up at the pier in Ballycotton, Co. Cork.

I was looking straight down when I shot this and had to crop out a tiny bit off the bottom where the pier was. The tide was way out, I expect the owners of these small boats weren’t in a hurry to get out on the water.

Owen Higgins wasn’t very happy that he wasn’t nominated for the Irish Blog Awards. Treasa blogged about his rant, quoting bits that he has since removed. He later commented on Treasa’s post that he didn’t understand how the nomination process worked. Go show him some love by visiting his site. Some of his photos are quite good!

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/200s

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.

Aperture ƒ/16
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 72mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/640s

Horse and Rider at Inchadoney

Riding through the waves at Inchadoney beach, Co. Cork. The horse loved the experience galloping up and down the beach with gusto!

Last night was themes night at the camera club and I had to come up with several images about the “sea”. Luckily I had a good few ready but I searched through my archives and found a few more. Expect more sea related images over the next few days.

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/1250s

Family at the beach

Dad carries the forgotten kite, daughter walks through the water and mom basks in the sun of a glorious September afternoon at Inch Strand, Co. Kerry.

Tonight is theme night at the camera club. My theme is “The sea” so I went through my archives yesterday choosing suitable photos. This will be one, which is possibly stretching the definition a little but it does have breaking waves on a beach.

Vignetting was done using an overlay layer and a separate overlay was used to make the shadows of the clouds deeper. I could have burned them in as well but I like the way it turned out.

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/250s

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!

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/20s

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!

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 20mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/50s

Footprints in the sand

Footprints on a sandy beach on the Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry.

The blue sky, fluffy clouds, golden sand and warm breeze are just the tonic for a relaxing break away from it all.


Apertureƒ/14
CameraCanon EOS 20D
Focal length11mm
ISO200
Shutter speed1/400s

Temporary Dwelling Prohibited

A Cork County Council warning sign looms overhead at Garretstown Beach, Co. Cork. Luckily I had left the caravan at home and the rubbish was in the bin!

This photo shows one of the disadvantages of shooting in Jpeg – it can’t cope with the subtle shades of blue in the sky, although the ugly bands of colour are made worse by my vignetting of the image afterwards. Oops.

In other news, I ordered Bibble Labs Pro RAW conversion version using a discount code on The Digital Photography Show. The nice thing is, I can use the Pro edition on Linux and the Mac, which will be useful. It’s also a great piece of software and will encourage me to shoot more RAW images.

I also ordered the Canon 50mm f1.8 lens from warehouseexpress.com (via) who were reasonably priced. Hopefully I’ll get that in the next few days and in time to shoot the IT@Cork conference in a week’s time. Eddie Hobbs and various people from the online world will be speaking there and I hope to get some goot shots.

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/320s

Seaside Bubbles

Bubbles in the incoming tide break on the sandy beach at Garretstown about a month ago.

I turned this black and white because I love the abstract feel to the bubbles and it makes the grain of the sand beneath more visible. I had to jump up to avoid getting splashed moments later but such are the risks one takes for one’s art!

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/800s

Carefree on the beach

Shoes off wandering along the beach, the glow of a setting sun and nothing to do but enjoy the moment.

Taken in Garretstown last month on a warm Autumn day.

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 179mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/2000s