The funnel of the Queen Elizabeth 2 looms over Cobh as seen from near the Commodore Hotel.

The QE2 docked in Cobh last Thursday. This was shot at the bottom of steps down to the water where seaweed made footing precarious. I saw a few people venture down the steps but none went further than half way down. The tide was well out so I was maybe 3m below the quayside, standing…

The Queen Elizabeth 2 is a British ship, and it’s likely that many of the passengers were British too. I spotted one large Union Jack flag draped over a railing and people on the ship waved mini Union Jack flags too. That sort of gets under the skin of many Irish people. A huge crowd…

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.

Sears Tower is one of the famous landmarks of Chicago I photographed while in the city. Remarkably, despite the months I spent in the city, I never actually went to the top of the building. I almost did once, but turned back for some reason. Could have been the long line to get past security….

Bord Gais, fuelling the passion for Camogie in Cork. Or is it the wine? I couldn’t resist taking this shot this evening! This is the second last photo I took with my Canon 20D before the shutter started clicking continuously. The last one is a slightly blurry shot of my family and inlaws in the…

A restaurant on St Patrick Street in Cork has this architectural feature over it’s door. You’re either going to love the lomo+vignette+colour effect or you’re going to hate it. This is an experiment with the newly enhanced GIMP Lomo plugin I had originally updated to work with GIMP 2.4. Elsamuko has added a few nice…

A public walkway over the railway tracks in Cobh, Co. Cork. Walking down by the quay in Cobh is a nice relaxing way of spending an evening, at least before it gets dark. Despite the presence of the nautically shaped Garda station close by it’s a bit too secluded and remote for my tastes. I…

An old sign reflect in the windows of a new building, somewhere in Chicago.

I went searching and found a few pages describing how to shoot the sun during a solar eclipse. All warned against looking at the sun directly. So, I ignored all that advice and got out my 75-300mm lens and grabbed a couple of shots of the sun with a chunk bitten out of it by…

The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) is the world’s oldest futures and options exchange. It was established in 1848 and since 1930 has operated out of this building on 141 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago according to this Wikipedia page. Possible Batman “The Dark Knight” spoilers ahead. Don’t read on if you’re going to watch the…

You’re in town and desperately looking for a parking place. Where do you go? All the on-street parking has either been removed because of road works or taken by everyone who went shopping at 9am. Just look up. There’s a multi storey carpark somewhere near you. Probably. Front of the car park on The Grand…