I was there too
Hues of gold and brown greet the eye in Burham Beeches. Yes I know it’s technically winter but autumn is always associated with falling leaves, while winter is cold and snow falls instead, so please humour me!
I do have a couple of other shots of yesterday’s Burnham Beeches photo but I’ll leave those until later in the year.
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
We visited Burnham Beeches last Friday afternoon, on a day when torrential rain was forecast but thankfully the weather forecast was completely wrong. This large forest close to the city of London is an amazing sight to behold with ancient trees, and at this time of year beautiful, vivid (eh Matt?) and colourful leaves that create a breathtaking canopy.
When I saw the scene you see above my jaw dropped in astonishment and I had to take a few photos of it. This is definitely a photo I’ll be printing and hanging on my wall. I hope you like it too!
Wikipedia says that:
Burnham Beeches is an area of 540 acres (220 hectares) of ancient woodland, located close to Farnham Common, Burnham and Beaconsfield, in Buckinghamshire. It is approximately 20 miles (30 km) to the west of London, England.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/160s |
Waves crash on the beach at Allihies in Co Cork.
| Aperture | ƒ/5.6 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
A sign at the base of the short hill below the white pillar near Bantry in Co Cork warns of high cliffs. Unfortunately Adam was asleep in the car and I couldn’t venture any further so I’ll have to return some day to take photos of that pillar.
| Aperture | ƒ/7.1 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
A small wooden cabin or hut sits in a car park near the houses Automattic stayed in at Breckenridge in Colorado. The original shot can be seen in my Flickr stream or in the Automattic group there. This version has been extensively dodged and burned to bring out the contrast between light and dark.
Late posting of today’s photo because of the camera club tonight. It was model shoot night and I got a few shots but I’m not very comfortable directing so I’m undecided as to how well the photos came out.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 59mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/160s |
A solitary boat in the North Harbour, Cape Clear Island.
PS. Check out Jolt++, a new photoblog created by fellow Automatticer Michael Pick. Great photos, and I really like the Tumble theme. I wonder how I’d squeeze my adverts into such a theme?
PPS. My brother Donal was featured on the envelope of the first issue of new Irish stamps commemorating Irish pipers. If the day job ever fails, you can always try your hand at modelling!
PPPS. Server was down for several hours, sorry. VPS was upgraded to “Xen” and failed to reboot. I didn’t realise I could reboot it until a few minutes ago..
| Aperture | ƒ/11 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 88mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/400s |
Who knows what flies between the trees when night falls, especially around Halloween?
| Aperture | ƒ/10 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/250s |
The sun sets early in Breckenridge Colorado, well slightly earlier than in Ireland anyway. Myself and Anthony were working on one part of our secret project, and Mike Adams was working on the other bit, when Michael Koenig jumped up and went outside on to the balcony. I looked up and saw gorgeous red clouds and followed him with my camera. This is the result.
Tall evergreen trees outside the house, and snow capped mountains on the horizon. The sun set behind them in a blazing ball of glorious colour. Beautiful.
| Aperture | ƒ/4.5 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/50s |
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 in wet and slippery seaweed. The risks I take to get a photo!
Oh yeah, there’s already something gone bust in my new Canon 40D. The pop up flash refuses to pop up unless I prise it open with a fingernail. It tries a few times, gives up and issues an Error 99 and needs to be switched off and on. The same happened to my Canon 20D, but I’m surprised the 40D didn’t last a bit longer ..
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 21mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
A small ferry casts off and heads out of Bantry Harbour with lots of hunting dogs and their owners. This was last February and I watched with interest wondering where they were going.
More QE2 photos to come, when I have time to work on them!
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
The Queen Elizabeth 2, or QE2, flagship of the Cunard Line, docked for the last time in Cobh yesterday and left this evening just after 6pm. Here she is after turning in Cork Harbour and seconds before she increased speed and left the harbour for good.
In 2009, she will become a floating hotel in Dubai. A fitting ending for a luxury ship that has plied the waters of the world for the last 39 years.
I took over 300 shots of the Queen Elizabeth 2 today and filled almost 4GB of space with RAW images. In hindsight, many of the images would have been fine as Jpeg files but I had the space, so I used it. I hope to upload a gallery of my favourite images tomorrow.
| Aperture | ƒ/5.6 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/80s |
Tir na nOg is the house on the right of this photo. It’s a house that Colaiste Ciaran, an Irish summer school on the island, rents during the summer and where I spent a number of weeks years and years ago. The long, low building attached to the left is a canteen.
An Oige have a large hostel further down, near the stony beach. I remember looking with curiosity and longing at the kayaks in a nearby shed. Us students never got anything quite as exciting as those!
| Aperture | ƒ/9 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
