Some of the final riders who passed through Blarney during the Tour of Ireland race last week.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 33mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
Category Archives: Sigma 18-200
And the rain keeps pouring
Rain has been pouring out of the heavens all day with little break. Here’s my neighbour’s car shot through the windscreen of my car this evening. Just back from acupuncture, need to shoot something not sharp to counter the needles I watched being put into my feet and hands, never mind the ones I didn’t see go into my neck, arms, hands, back and legs previously. at least 26 in all. Feel sluggish now.
Phil has amazing rain photos from a few days ago, too tired to link right now, sorry!
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 200mm |
| ISO | 800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/50s |
Photographic Knowledge
A little knowledge goes a long way. It better. I’ve read all these magazines and most of the books here but have I absorbed all of it? Hardly. I’ve since almost given up on buying photography magazines because they repeat the same old guff year in year out. Possibly with the exception of Black and White magazine which still holds my interest.
As I twittered earlier, I’m going to go back to shooting Jpeg again for a while unless the situation is more challenging. The Canon 40D produces 14MB RAW files but only 3MB Jpeg files. I have 285GB of space on an external drive (backed up to another identical drive) so space isn’t an issue, it’s the rate at which space is being used, often for photos that definitely don’t need the flexibility of RAW. Dumping those beauties to DVD is a right pain when each DVD will only store the equivalent of a few days prolific shooting. Bluray here we come!
I was going to post another Tour of Ireland photo today but these magazines are going up in the attic so the opportunity presented itself. Yes, that’s an issue of UNCUT. Spotted that down in Midleton last year. It had an article about Queen’s new tour. Still haven’t read it actually.
PS. Will has canceled the Pink for October event. Instead there’ll be a photowalk on September 20th. As luck would (not) have it, my wife has a driving lesson at 11am that morning. Must comment on Will’s post.
| Aperture | ƒ/3.5 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/25s |
Tour of Ireland blur past
Not the best image I’ll admit, but to the naked eye these guys were just a blur they were going to fast. I think this was shot while I was quickly zooming out after shooting them coming down the road.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 88mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
Tour of Ireland Riders in Blarney
Tour of Ireland riders race through the main street in Blarney at speed. It seems like everyone came out to cheer them on!
Will sent me a text this morning saying the legal requirements for a charity event are too much for the planned Pink for October on the 20th of September, but he wondered if we could organise a photowalk in Cork City on the same day instead. I’m not 100% sure I’m free yet but I think it’s a great idea. I haven’t shot much in town in ages. Anyone interested?
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
Tour of Ireland Leading Group in Blarney
Yesterday the Tour of Ireland rode (quickly) through Blarney village, but the main group was proceeded by these three cyclists by almost 4 minutes. Good thing too, good practice for when the rest sped through in front of us at breakneck speed!
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 28mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
Tour of Ireland
The Tour of Ireland bicycle race passed through Blarney on it’s way to Cork City this afternoon. There was a sprint to the finish line in front of the local Catholic church before the cyclists made their way down the dual carriageway to Cork and up Patrick’s Hill, twice!
I was there ready to shoot the participants, but I was overwhelmed by their speed. It only took the main group about 11 seconds to come around the corner at one end of Blarney and disappear through the other end. I’m kicking myself I shot in Programme mode when I should have been in Aperture Priority mode, but I did get a few nice panning shots that froze the rider while the background blurred into smudges and streaks of colour.
The Canon 40D performed admirably. ISO was set to 100 because it was a bright day, AI Servo focus to track the riders and keep them in focus, and high speed continuous shooting mode which delivered 6.5fps. It was all over so quickly I barely had time to take a breath. I shot around 230 images while waiting and during the short time the racers were in Blarney. I knew I’d go a little mad with the shutter button, so I preselected Jpeg mode rather than my usual RAW mode.
Here’s a transcript of the commentary during the race. This bit, while serious, made me smile:
13.10: The race leader has been to see the race doctor, who reports a very unusual injury. He had a thorn embedded in his tongue – presumably from an overhanging branch, or perhaps even some dried fruit he ate – which was removed by the doctor. The thorn, not his tongue.
Hope you like the gallery, hopefully some of these shots will be posted here in single posts during the week!
| Aperture | ƒ/7.1 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 106mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
Red and White and Cork All Over
Young Cork supporters take the tour bus around the city a few weeks ago. Cork plays Kerry isn’t it today in a replay? Yes, I’m a big sports fan, honest.
| Aperture | ƒ/7.1 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 200mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/250s |
Red and White Flowers
Colourful red and white flowers in the doorway of Supervalu in Blarney. I half thought about posting Damien’s picture from yesterday’s get together, especially after what lexia said but that’d be too cruel!
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 144mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/250s |
All locked out
A neighbour’s gate is securely locked. As secure as a 3 foot high driveway gate will ever be I suppose.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 200mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/320s |
No Alcohol
No drinking on the street. This reminds me of an incident several years ago when I was in town with a group of friends on a Saturday night. This was before I started drinking, and my friends bought cans of beer in an off-license.
The guy behind the counter warned them the Guards were about watching for people drinking alcoholic beverages in public and they seemed to heed his warning until they got across the road and popped open their cans.
Sure enough, within 2 minutes a Garda was there! He took their names and addresses, and asked them to stop drinking, and of course gave them an awful fright. I followed a chastened group of lads to the pub. Don’t even know why they wanted to drink outside as the pub was just around the corner. Could have been the “poor student” in each of them trying to save money.
Not drinking was great of course. Cost me all of about 6 or 7 quid on a night out, and I could drive home too!
| Aperture | ƒ/5 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 48mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/1000s |
Hello! Brad and Angelina!
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie on the cover of Hello! in the window of a hairdresser in Kinsale. That was some crazy amount of money to buy the rights to the first pictures of their twins, Knox and Vivienne. At least it’s going to charity, but as soon as Hello! published them the same shots were everywhere online.
I shot a lot of images in Ballycotton this afternoon with the Panasonic FZ5 compact camera. Didn’t really miss the Canon 20D at all, especially the weight of that camera. The FZ5 has a fairly ok macro capability and I got a few nice shots of knots in rope that I just could not do with my Canon mount lenses.
| Aperture | ƒ/5.6 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |