Seaweed rope

I like the dreamy diffused glow of this image. It was shot down in Inchadony Beach a few weeks back.

Howto: First of all, I had to straighten the horizon because it was at a precarious angle. I used two layers, I saturated the colours slightly in the bottom layer to bring out the green of the sea weed.
I blurred the top layer and converted it to black and white using the channel mixer. I applied a layer mask of a gradient to make the bottom half of the lower layer visible and changed layer mode to screen with an opacity of 100.
I then corrected lens distortion using ptlens running in Wine. The horizon was noticeably bent but this program did a great job correcting that!

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/125s

Water falls in Blarney

A river runs near my home in Blarney and a small stream feeds it as it meanders through a nice wooded area on my doorstep.

I froze the water in this image as it fell into the river while we were out for a walk there a few weeks back. It could be better but it’s my first go at this in a long while. Freezing water in motion in a kitchen sink is a lot easier than when you’re outside and there are so many unknown elements.

One last note, my linux.ie email is down right now. If you’re trying to get in touch, use donncha @ inphotos.org instead!

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/1000s

Tithe Eireannacha

Nestled in between the city centre of Cork and Blackrock lies an old and historic part of Cork City. Albert Road and Hibernian Buildings are only two streets in this area and should be familiar to anyone on the south side of the city.

Welcome everyone from tportal.hr and htnet.hr! Can someone translate what they said about my blog there and leave it as a comment on this post please? 160 hits from those sites this morning already so I’m hoping it was complementary!

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/320s

Your vehicle has been clamped

This is the sign that drivers hate to see. Clampers are a relatively new phenomenon in Ireland but are reviled even more than traffic wardens now.

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 144mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

Ireland Today: construction

Ireland today is defined by construction. A huge portion of the Irish economy is driven by the residential building trade. An acre of land can go for €50m and up in Dublin. Two rate hikes by the ECB hasn’t dampened Irish interest in owning their own property.
This crane was pictured at University College Cork where building work on new developments continues.

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/200s

Blarney Horses

Three horses appeared in a field close to Blarney village about a week ago. At first, a mare, her foal and another horse were there, but the mare is gone now and three young looking animals are in residence. I took this photo one morning a few days ago.
One of the horses was exceptionally friendly, looking for attention and pushing the others out of the way to sniff my hand and be rubbed!
They’re lovely animals and hopefully they’ll be close to the fence next time I walk past.

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/160s

The Craft Fair is now on!

A craft fair was recently held in the Unitarian Church on Prince’s Street. I have been dying to get into the building and see what it’s like on the inside for ages so we jumped at the chance. We like visiting these fairs too so it was doubly good.
This rather tall and cheerful man was advertising the fair on St. Patrick’s Street!

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

A boy on St. Patrick’s Street

Just outside Boots he stopped in front of me, what could I do but make this image?
He was waiting for his parents to catch up but I liked the contrast between him and the busy world around him. He rejoined that world moments later.
A moment in time.

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/200s