The black and white boat

A small boat lies upside down on the grass. Isn’t black and white great?

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

Lady at the lights

If looks could kill! I don’t know who she was looking at but she doesn’t look happy!

Pictured on the corner of Washington Street and Grand Parade a few days ago while we waited for the traffic lights to change. Finn’s Corner, a sports clothes shop, has been on that corner for years and St. Augustine’s Catholic Church is visible just down the road. I’ve never been in that church despite it’s central location. It’s so well integrated into the street scape that it’s easy to forget it’s there.

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

Pog Mo Thoin san Daingean

“Kiss my ass!” That’s what “póg mo thóin” means. This is from a shop display in Dingle, Co. Kerry. The town, also known by it’s Irish name, An Daingean, is in an Irish speaking part of the country collectively known as An Gaeltacht.

If you’re interested, you’d probably pronounce “póg mo thóin” in English as “pogue mahone”.

Interesting trivia – The Pogues got their name from this short phrase.

Both Ryan and Daragh got their free mini cards from moo.com but I’m still waiting on mine. They have been shipped so they’ll arrive soon I hope. Check out Daragh’s shot of his cards for an imaginative way of photographing them!

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/60s

Points to relief

A sign points the way to the public toilets, or restroom, at Inch Strand, Co. Kerry.
This sign can be a much sought after sight on a long journey!
“Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”
“Mom! I need to go!”
“I can’t hold it any more!”

Everyone rushes to the public convenience when they hit the beach.

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 48mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/125s

Girls Talking

Girls seated on the side of the pavement and on the road deep in conversation at the Ceili Mor in Cork a few weeks ago. Despite the noise of people dancing, an announcer and music playing I think a meaningful discussion was had!

Looks like I’ve made it. One of my photos was used on the snopes.com messageboard without linking back to me or crediting me. I shouldn’t be surprised I suppose, but I am a little angry at the original poster. Thankfully someone linked to it further down in the conversation. Thanks Kathy B.

Snopes.com have now published the picture and the joke description on a separate page linking to this blog. Thank you!

Read what Chris Weeks writes about copyright. I wonder what he has in mind. On a related note, the Orphan Works Bill is dead! This law in the US would have meant that “images on the web in particular as fair game for unauthorised (and thus unpaid) use, as it requires only rather nominal checks to be made to establish the owndership of copyright before material can be freely used.” I like the way Peter Marshall solved unauthorised commercial usage of his images. He sent an invoice and a polite letter to the offending company!

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

Happy child in the water

A very happy boy runs through the incoming tide at Inch Strand, Co. Kerry. The tide came in suddenly forcing all the adults back but it brought a big smile to this youngster’s face!

Originally shot in colour with the sun behind the boy, I had to brighten the image significantly to get any detail in the boy. That blew out the brighter parts of the image so I made it into a black and white image and I’m very happy with the result.

It was competition night in Mallow Camera Club last night. The standard was amazingly high, but then again, a number of old hands, and pros are members as well as newbies like myself. I had to select 15 images for entry and with some difficulty whittled 30 images down to that number. After all that, there was some mix up with the projector and my images weren’t shown anyway. I don’t mind because the deadline for digital images had been during the week, not on the night, and I think images had been copied into the wrong directory. This photo would have been one of those images shown.

Just got an email from Shutterstock, my check’s in the post! Woo!

Aperture ƒ/13
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 48mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/320s

The Sexy New County Hall

Grabs your attention doesn’t it? Exciting design isn’t it? Wonderful work of engineering eh? Well, ok, it’s only the Cork County Hall but it is the tallest storeyed building in the Republic of Ireland at 67m so that must count for something? No?

The County Hall has been renovated over the last few years and does look better than it used to. I saw someone walking around on it’s roof a week or so ago, bet you’d have a great view from up there. Anyone know how I’d do that?

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

Keep a lookout

A father and two sons on St. Patrick’s Street, Cork. I presume they’re waiting for someone from what I heard of the dad talking on his phone as I passed.

Blown out details are on purpose to give it a slightly edgier effect. Hope you like it!

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/1000s

No climbing the poles

A sign that points upwards? It either forbids drivers from driving down a road, discourages people from climbing up a light pole or local government don’t want people to look up. Your guess is as good as mine. I’m stumped!

Aperture ƒ/14
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/400s

Balloon Boy

A boy is dragged by his mother up St. Patrick’s Street at the Ceili Mor. He was playing with a balloon by punching it continually. I saw him approach and as luck would have it, err, I mean, I quickly composed this shot. I love the expression on his face and I’m very happy that I caught this moment!

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/100s

The road to Ceili

People stroll along the closed off St. Patrick’s Street to the Ceili Mor.

Technique: I had to rotate the photo and crop it a small bit to get a straighter horizon, then some dodge/burn to bring out the contrast, and fired off the GIMP lomo plugin that creates two layers – one to highlight the centre, and the other to provide the vignette. I added a layer mask to the vignette and by using a gradient knocked off the top half of the vignette.

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/160s

ESB – Broadband – Eircom

Power, Internet, Telephone. The combination of critical services that keeps my job going. When they work we don’t care but failure in even one is disastrous.

Pictured on St. Patrick’s Street while I was kneeling down and preparing to change lens. Anyone know which shop this was taken in front of?

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/100s