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 |
Category Archives: Urban
The light fantasic loo
The toilets in the Cork International Airport Hotel are a pretty amazing sight to behold. Here’s the gent’s loo. The lighting changes constantly. I took a few shots within seconds of each other and they were all different. Luckily it wasn’t in use when I wandered in ..
This is the first shot I’ve posted from the Canon 40D. Unfortunately it’s quite noisy as it was shot hand held at ISO 1000, but the noise really only became noticeable after I applied the Lomo plugin to it. Love this camera. This photo and others taken at the hotel are also in this post. I used my 580EX flash for most of the people shots, but one or two were in available light with the ISO pumped up.
| Aperture | ƒ/3.5 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 40D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 1000 |
| Shutter speed | 1/15s |
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 |
Ye olde church
This church in Castletownbere in West Cork looks like it may have seen better days but by the looks of the mowed grass it’s probably still in use.
The Canon 40D was delivered today. I could have posted a sample picture but I didn’t have time to shoot anything interesting besides a few snaps of family. Loving the 3″ LCD on the back of the camera, it’s so quiet compared to the Canon 20D, hardly any noise at ISO 400, and experimenting with the auto ISO mode. That should help with street photography where light conditions change so rapidly.
| Aperture | ƒ/4.5 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/50s |
Excavating
No comment, except he’s having a fine root around there …
| Aperture | ƒ/5.6 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/6s |
The basement of Trump Tower
In 2001 Donald Trump announced he’d build the tallest building in the world in Chicago, “Trump International Hotel and Tower”. After the attacks on the WTC in September that year the plans were changed however, but it’s still an awfully high building. Check out the Wikipedia page for further details.
This is the building site of the “Trump Tower” as it’s known locally. I shot this in 2005, and they’ve made quite a bit of progress since then as you can imagine, but this is a piece of history, and a patch of bare ground that won’t see daylight again for many many years.
| Aperture | ƒ/7.1 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
Tall trees in Oracle
These tall evergreens planted in front of a set of small houses in Oracle were almost gone before I saw them. The scene looked bizarre. Tall trees, tiny houses. I wonder who lives in them?
Here it is on Google Maps. Try the Street View, you’ll see two cars pulled up in front of the same house as in my photo. Spooky.
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
Sears Tower
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. Dunno.
Anyway, this is only the second shot of the building I’ve posted. The first, taken near one of the flagpoles pictured here was unusual and was fairly well received. This is a more traditional architecture shot, though I do like the flags waving in the wind!
Oh, my Canon 20D is still broken. On advice from Ryan, I’ll give Canon in the UK a ring, and I’m also on the look out for a Canon 40D. ac-foto in Germany sell the body only for €795 which seems to be the best price I’ve found so far. Prices in Ireland are around the €1,200 mark. Ouch. Where would you buy a DSLR? (that’ll ship to Ireland!)
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
Why does my Canon 20D keep clicking?
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 pictured Wine Bar on Washington Street, Cork. I had just taken the shot, decided it was time to put the camera away and get Adam out of the buggy. I put the lens cap on, and click, click, click, click..
The clicks would only stop when I took the battery out. It appears from this thread that I’m not alone. I know that in the old days, cameras would last decades and “they don’t make them like they used to”, but I never expected the Canon 20D to break down on me in just 3 years. At a guess, I’ve probably shot 75,000 pictures with it so perhaps it was about time the shutter complained.
Anyway, I’m going to ring Canon in Dublin tomorrow for a repair quote. If it’s too expensive I’ll have to look into getting a replacement camera. Hope the house insurance will pay out in that case.
| Aperture | ƒ/7.1 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 28mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
Desperate plea for help
A short hand written note on the notice board in the Quay Coop Restaurant in Cork reads:
Woman 39 and six week old baby boy who is in foster care at the moment needs a family with great experience with babies to foster the two of us as we need to be together.
Or do you know anybody that can help, please call me on …
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 21mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/60s |
Restaurant
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 features.
In other news, the Guinness Storehouse photowalk was yesterday. I couldn’t make it but a number of bloggers did, including Will Knott, Darren and Alexa.
You can see some of the amazing shots from the day here, but that url may go stale in a week or so I guess. Well done to Marcus who had a huge hand in organising the trip.
Another Cork photowalk is out of the question in August unless someone else wants to organise one. I’m busy both weekends that are left this month. Perhaps in September? What about constraining it? Make it b/w only? Or portraits only, or architecture, or “secret” places in the city that people won’t recognise perhaps?
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |