The Big Issue

A Big Issue seller sits on a plastic chair outside a shopping centre in Maidenhead, in the UK.

Aperture ƒ/3.5
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/250s

Do not trespass on the railway

Do not trespass on the railway, Penalty £1000, or if there’s a train coming you’re going to get squashed! Thanks Matty for the Pound sign help!

Shot at Paddington Station, London this afternoon.

Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 250
Shutter speed 1/5s

Customer Parking Only

The Organic Shop in Douglas Cork obviously has problems with non-customers parking in front of the shop. Why else would they put a wheel clamp on prominent display next to their warning sign? Lucky for us we were buying something ..

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/160s

N0bama

I’d vote for the husky.

BarCamp Cork II was brilliant. I got my talk on WordPress and AJAX over and done with early on in the day, mingled, fixed @icedcoffee’s Tweet Tweet plugin and updated the Tweet Tweet plugin to support Twitter notification via O2 Ireland’s free webtexts. Thanks Enda for the u/p while I wrote the curl script!

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 40mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/125s

Glengariff Cemetery

It’s Halloween again and ghosts and zombies are about. Would you spend a night in a cemetery, tonight? What sorts of noises do you hear if you live next to one? oooer!

I’m going out tonight for dinner with a friend, I wonder if they’ll be serving Halloween Brack?

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/125s

Shame on Fianna Fail

“Shame on Fianna Fail!” declares a sign propped up against the wall of the Crawford Art Gallery in Emmett Place, Cork last weekend. It was left there by someone attending a protest demonstration organised by Alliance for a Better Health Service. I was handed a Socialist Party leaflet, Kathy Sinnott was there and a small crowd cheered and listened to the speakers in the light drizzle that day. I guess it’s no coincidence that Fianna Fail is the second result in a search for fail.

While working on the photo I did notice something unusual about the sign. The “on Fianna Fail” part is separate from the “Shame” section. I wonder if they have the names of all the political parties, politicians, celebrities, etc stored away in a cupboard somewhere ready to be pasted to the sign.. I jest of course. They probably only have “Fianna Fail” and “The Green Party”.

PS. Like the new “Tumblelog” type theme? It’s called Pockett. Beware if you’re unzipping it, it doesn’t create a directory!

Aperture ƒ/3.5
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/320s

Pumpkins For Sale

Pumpkins for sale in the local store in Breckenridge, Colorado. I post this today because Dunnes Stores are selling pumpkins and they’re only half the size of the large pumpkins pictured here!

Does anyone actually eat pumpkins? They’re a new sight in Irish shops, and are only ever for sale in the large chains around Halloween.

Aperture ƒ/5
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/60s

Shell To Sea

The “Shell to Sea” stand in Bishop Lucey Park during the “Peace in the Park” event a few weeks ago.

Like a lot of people I’m sick and tired of the protests in Co Mayo against the pipeline Shell want to build to bring gas to an onshore facility. This story and photos of an exploded natural gas pipeline in Virginia, USA almost changed my mind. Then I realised there must be tens of thousands of natural gas pipelines and they very rarely blow up in such a spectacular fashion.

Still, does make me think twice about dismissing the protesters as a bunch of crazies.

Aperture ƒ/4.5
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 22mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/80s

Directions to Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle is that way. Go out the gate, turn right, turn left and park. Right in front of you.

I got back to Ireland yesterday afternoon. A mostly uneventful flight home, except for some problems with check in and I had to check in twice more. On the last attempt I got bumped to Economy Plus with more legroom and to an aisle seat thanks to the very nice lady at the gate.
The check in computer should be smart enough to offer an aisle seat in Economy Plus to me, even after I’ve declined that upgrade first. An aisle seat is worth the extra $109 because I was late checking in.

I hope Lenny and Eoin got home without much hassle. We had hoped to meet up in Heathrow but my text to Lenny only delivered moments before I boarded the Aer Lingus flight to Cork. Guess United is faster than BA? I saw a flight around the same time to Dublin was cancelled so they may have had a wait.

I love that I can run up the stairs now without getting winded. Wet? Damp? Oh yes! I don’t know how many bottles of water a day I consumed in Breckenridge because the air was so dry. Lovely people there, shame about the altitude!

I have at least 100 photos to post to Flickr from this blog. I should write a plugin that emails the image there with description and tags from the WordPress interface.

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/125s

Cobh Street Entertainer

A singer outside the Commodore Hotel in Cobh kept the crowd entertained and attracted the attention of my son Adam who wasn’t happy unless he was outside listening to him.

Photos of Breckenridge, Colorado to follow, although I didn’t take that many. Too busy to leave the house much unfortunately!

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 24mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/125s