I was there too
A dog, a tree and a park bench in the Lee Fields, Cork.
I took Oscar, our shitzu, for a short walk at the Lee Fields a while back and made this image during what was a fairly uneventful walk. Neither of us was in the mood for a walk but we had time to kill.
| Aperture | ƒ/10 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
Studs on the ground lead down to the traffic lights on the South Mall, Cork.
In this long exposure shot a couple of cars passed by providing a nice light trail in the background. The twinkling of the street lighting is from the narrow aperture. Setting the aperture as small as possible is definitely the best thing you can do when making long exposure shots at night.
This was taken while out with Mallow Camera Club last December. More to come from that night too!
| Aperture | ƒ/16 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 10s |
A witch hands out balloons to young kids outside Brown Thomas on a late October Saturday.
Just out of frame of this shot is a woman who has asked for a balloon. The witch explains that the balloons are just for the kids.. I wonder why? More on this later.
| Aperture | ƒ/5 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 48mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/250s |
A child is carried atop his parent’s shoulders on St. Patrick’s Street, Cork a few weeks ago.
I really like this shot, for what reason, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s the brightness and flowery design of the clothing worn by parent and child compared to the passers by. I’m sure both parent and child are in a happy place wandering around town.
“Here’s Health” and a sign advertising the Mutton Lane Inn can be seen in the background.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/400s |
Friends talk and laugh on the street while busy shoppers pass on either side.
Pictured on St. Patrick Street, Cork last October in front of Penneys. I love my wide angle lens!
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/1000s |
A girl steps away from the maddening crowd on a busy street.
This was a bit of an experiment for me. I blurred the background by making a duplicate layer, blurring, adding a layer mask and then revealing the girl through the layer mask. It’s not perfect, and in fact, the closer I look the more imperfections I see. Unfortunately I never saved a .xcf file preserving the layers so this is the final product.
I like it. The blur successfully separates the girl from the backgrond and even the zone of sharpness takes in some of the ground around her which exaggerates the effect!
Taken on St. Patrick Street, Cork last October.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/800s |
A man bends over and adjusts his shopping bag outside Tesco shopping center on Paul St. I was waiting outside the shopping center and this scene enfolded in front of me.
On a busy street people studiously ignore each other. Strangers pass by without a glance, busy with their own lives, friends gather to chat and gossip. The man bending over and checking his shopping bag was an incongruous sight in the midst of all this bustle.
I like these – Chris Weeks has some great shots of Britney Spears and party-goers at Caesars Palace’s nightclub, Pure. She played host and here’s what Chris says of her.
All this shit about Britney Spears passing the fuck out is fucking bullshit. I was 20 feet from her from the time she “walked the carpet” to the time she “gave the nod” to her security detail … and was whisked away …
She was not carried out of the club. I watched. I was there. Most of the people spewing bullshit weren’t even in Vegas.
| Aperture | ƒ/7.1 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
Poor Oscar. It’s not bad enough that he got the snip but he had to wear what looks to all the world like a lampshade for two weeks. This was only a week after he moved in with us last Summer and the poor fella was not impressed.
Thankfully he got over it remarkably quickly and doesn’t have an aversion to lighting fixtures as we suspected he might have.
Our Oscar is quite a needy little character. He loves human attention. This faq on Shih Tzus is quite good, although it does contradict an earlier page I read that said they are a one human dog. Oscar definitely prefers Jacinta to me, but he goes crazy when he sees me after an absence too!
He sleeps in the kitchen and up to recently we kept the door closed to stop him coming upstairs but unfortunately he has the door half-ruined from scratching and his whining and barking kept us awake many times.
The solution? Train him and be more strict. He’s not allowed upstairs now and I leave the kitchen door open at night. No scratching, no whining. Sometimes he sneaks upstairs and we find him curled up on the landing but a quick and sharp, “Oscar! Get down!” and he’s scurrying down to his bed again.
So, it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks. Well, a middle-aged one at any rate.
| Aperture | ƒ/5 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/50s |
A man stands alone amid the bustle of downtown San Francisco holding a sign proclaiming the message, “Jesus Christ Loves You”.
This photo brings to mind the preacher in Chicago I photographed while on holiday there. I wonder if the man in San Francisco has the same colourful history.
Happy Christmas to all, I hope you’re having a great day!
| Aperture | ƒ/10 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
Today many major cities and towns around the world are going to be thronged with shoppers doing last minute shopping before Christmas Day. Traffic is going to crawl and frustrate and the crowds will be suffocating.
I’m glad I’m staying at home. We may head out to the Lough later for a walk. So stressful!
I like this: Europe – The Parisian Chapter
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/800s |
Two girls standing at the edge of a crowd on Patrick’s Street, Cork.
A quick search for irish cork girls hoops earrings led me to the answers.com page on scanger. Judging by the definition of both male and female clothing, there are plenty of them about!
Stereotypical Appearance
* Very short haircuts (sometimes with a short fringe or quiff at the front) in males. The wearing of a high pony-tail in the girls (usually at the crown of the head), negatively referred to as the “knacker knot”, “scrunchie” or “Annie”. The wearing of ‘quiffs’ on women is also becoming quite popular.
* Peroxide blonde highlights, usually on the top of the head and quiff of males, and as streaks in females have been popular in the Summers of recent years but are losing out to shaved-in patterns among short haired males.
* The wearing of thin moustaches, (“knacker-taches”), such as that made famous by Irish Boxer Barry McGuigan.
* The wearing of branded baseball caps (such as the Burberry check pattern). The cap is often worn at a sharp 70-90 degree angle. The Nike brand has a high take-up rate traditonally among this market segment. In recent years Burberry has also emerged as a strong market player.
* Prominent jewellery: sovereign rings (on men); large earrings, especially hoop earrings, (on women); and thick chains (worn around the neck or wrist) is another characteristic of the scanger; another overt display of affluance, these are often hallmarked silver or gold, or at least gold in appearance—another similarity with the british chav.Females can be identified by the so-called “Knacker Facelift”; a ponytail with hair pulled back so far that it stretches the facial skin, hiding the wrinkled skin developed from years of eating chips and smoking since childhood.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/800s |
Worried looks accompany the average male during the Christmas shopping season. While this was taken at the end of October I bet that young man is still walking around with the same harried look.
My quest for a graphics tablet is complete. The Wacom Graphire4 arrived yesterday from Pixmania. As I promised to myself, I haven’t opened it yet and won’t do so until Christmas Day, or after because the 25th is going to be so busy!
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/640s |
