Sigma 10-20 – Page 51 – In Photos dot Org

Press the button and walk

A pedestrian traffic light on St. Patrick’s Street, Cork. The green man is strutting his stuff and people are walking across.

Does anyone else have a dislike for the design of this button? Sure, there’s a big arrow pointing to a large white dot, but it took several years for people to realise that they press the white button instead of the light at the bottom of the unit. The problem is that people are used to pressing a physical button, something that sticks out and can be pushed in. The white dot is flush with the surface of the unit, and people go to press the only thing that looks vaguelly button-like, the light. I still see people do it, and yes, this is one of my pet peeves, thanks for reading!

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/640s

Different lights

Different lights

Traffic lights and street lighting vie for attention. This is across the road from where Bord Gais used to have their showroom. Bet you never realised the titanic struggle for recognition that was going on?

Aperture	ƒ/13
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/320s

No climbing the poles

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

Cappuccino Morning

Cappuccino Morning

A beautiful misty morning greeted us a few days ago. The mist rolled down the valley outside and when the sun rose it produced these amazing shades of brown through the fog.

Thanks Jacinta for the name, it fits!

I added a tag cloud to the site this morning. It’s quite obvious from it where I live, and what I take pictures of!

Aperture	ƒ/13
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	20mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/200s

The Ryder Cup – Eye on the prize

The Ryder Cup – Eye on the prize

Golf’s “biggest competition”, The 2006 Ryder Cup will begin this weekend with an influx of thousands of people to the K Club in Straffan, Co. Kildare, Ireland. Games between Team Europe and Team USA begin on September 22 and continue until the 24th.

I have to admit I have next to no interest in golf but the media here have been going crazy over it for the last three weeks. The one report about the Ryder Cup which I do recall is a correspondent from the US reporting that interest over there is non-existent. People will be watching football, baseball or basketball. He continued by saying that the people who might be interested won’t be watching either because they’re not going to spend the weekend stuck indoors watching a golf tournament thousands of miles away when they can go out and play a few holes themselves in the sunshine. I’m sure that won’t stop rich business men and politicians flying in via helicopter and spending lavish amounts of money at the K Club.

For a little light hearted entertainment you should listen to the Gift Grub report (.wma file) from the Ryder Cup. It’ll make you smile.

It’s all a little silly.

Later .. Liam Morrison asks “Who cares about the Ryder cup?” and uses Google Trends to find out just who cares. The results aren’t surprising given what I said above but it’s nice to have some solid proof.

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	20mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/60s

The road to Ceili

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

Bay Bridge San Francisco

Bay Bridge San Francisco

This is the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. It’s the view from Matt’s apartment building. He brought Andy and myself up there to enjoy the view, and probably in my case to keep me awake after the long flight!

Aperture	ƒ/7.1
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/100s

Waiting for Passengers

Waiting for Passengers

People wait expectantly in San Francisco International Airport for the first sight of someone they know to appear in the crowd off a plane.

Toni, Andy and I were there to meet Podz off his plane. I had flown in earlier in the day and was almost asleep on my feet but I managed to make this hand held long exposure shot!

I like this: Daft Punk at Marley Park because I wanted to go, heard that they were brill in Scotland, but Donal didn’t think much of their gig in Dublin. Nice shots of their light show though!

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	800
Shutter speed	1/8s

O’Connell and Quane

O’Connell and Quane

Daniel O’Connell and Michael Quane on the beach at Fountainstown. They’d been out on the kayaks for several hours but were kind enough to chat to us and allow me to take their photo.
Michael Quane is a celebrated artist who has exhibited internationally and has many public works to his name including the statue, “Horses and Riders” , on the roundabout in Mallow! You can find out more about his work by searching Google.
Daniel O’Connell of course shares his name with a famous character from Irish history.

I forgot to mention. the photo of the kayaks had to be rotated about 1.35 degrees right to get a horizontal horizon. I filled in the white spaces left behind with a liberal use of the clone tool. Thankfully a sandy beach is easy to clone! To get an even exposure I copied the image into a new layer where I brightened it up. The sky was over-exposed but by using a layer mask and a gradient I hid that sky and was left with a nice bright area right at the sea shore.

I like this: What the soldiers see

I have been deployed all over the world from Bosnia to Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq for the first part of the wars with the 101st Airborne Infantry. Currently I am back in Iraq in OIF 3 attached to a Signal unit to help them out, I have been here since May 2005, I have just volunteered to stay till Jan 2007 well I hope you enjoy these pics I will have more of the day by day

(via)

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	800
Shutter speed	1/30s

Sowan’s Organic Bread Mixes

Sowan’s Organic Bread Mixes

Sowan’s Organic Bread Mixes were a big hit with everyone who sampled their bread, including Jacinta. She bought a packet of the stuff and I’m going to sample the finished product this morning! This is their stall at the Midleton Food & Drink Festival.

Their website is sowanorganic.ie and I discovered this positive post about them from a WordPress.com user, Keith. It always gives me a tingly feeling whenever I come across those because of my involvement with WordPress.com.

The September issue of the Digital Journalist is just out. This picture just screams at me – the contrast between the normal living room and the huge cloud of one of the collapsing Twin Tower is alarming.

Late in the day, but I like these: Randy for you, a truck with a message, and Back from the dirty, photos by Chris Weeks of Paris Hilton and others at a party.

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/160s

The Apple Store

The Apple Store

An apple stall at the Midleton Food and Drink Festival last weekend. It was a wet morning and when I saw the water glistening on the apples I just had to make this photo.

Technique: Photo was levels adjusted manually because the GIMP thought there was too much green in the image, it gave a blue tinge to the whites in the image. I then burned the scene and did the apples over a little more to really bring out the rain drops. Saturation increase of everything but the blue and cyan channels helps to warm up the image. Finally resize and unsharp mask to sharpen. (Was that useful? I’ll add this more often if it was!)

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/800s

Tourquoise Doors

Tourquoise Doors

Turquoise doors in Courtmacsherry, Co. Cork, Ireland. The owners made some effort to grow plants in their front yard and I really love the doors!

Later .. Jacinta and I went to see the Midleton Food and Drink Festival and besides buying a few cakes and lovely hotdogs I went to see the gallery set up by the East Cork Camera Group. This year it was tucked away in the peace and quiet of a square off the main street where it was a pleasure to view their work. I spoke with Thomas Tattan there who was very happy with the weekend. Pictures tomorrow!

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Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/125s