Shadows of prison and freedom

A crow flies off into the freedom of the air with a crumb of bread he found on the pavement. The railings of nearby houses are like those of a prison keeping humans in and trapped and closed off.

Who is free?

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/200s

The eyes in the bus

A child looking out the back window of a bus.

Weird colours and look due to some experimenting with new plugins. Way overblown I know but I gotta have some fun sometimes!

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/100s

Public Telephone

An old and empty phone booth lies neglected. Notice the lock and bolt on the door? I get the feeling this booth hasn’t contained a phone in a long time..

This is the other side of the window pictured yesterday in the mystery hospital.

Aperture ƒ/3.5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/10s

I love you

A love message written on a wall for someone special.

“I love you”

This is the second time I’ve posted a love message on my blog. Those messages are the most basic human communications of our age and before. Many thousands of years ago men were writing on cave walls. How little has changed? Graffiti is everywhere and it doesn’t take much imagination to scrawl a message to a loved one. I wonder who made this message and for whom? Are they still together?

This message is written on a wall in an old building on the grounds of a Cork Hospital. After I took a number of photos around those ruins a security guard approached me and asked what I was up to and that I stop shooting. He was nice enough and friendly, but he said I’d need a permit to shoot on hospital grounds. I didn’t argue with him, and thankfully I was almost finished anyway.

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/100s

Clouds over the Lough

Clouds gather and block out the sun over the Lough in Cork last year. The display was beautiful as light wispy clouds and dark brooding rain clouds skirted across the sky.

The sun made one final effort to shine, but the clouds won out and it started to rain moments later.

Aperture ƒ/13
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/500s

Sleeping it off in Cork City

As a rule I don’t photograph the homeless very often but I don’t think the sleeping gentleman in this photo was homeless. Rather a heavy night on the town I suspect.

This was snapped while walking past Marks & Spencers on Patrick’s Street last year. I spotted the security people and had the camera ready without breaking stride.

I wonder what happened next?

Aperture ƒ/3.5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/500s

I’m still waiting

A dad waits for his better half to come out of a clothes shop on Patrick’s Street.

Aperture ƒ/3.5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/1000s

Chris 64

The crowds watch a festival in Union Square, San Francisco. I’m not sure who Chris is but I’m guessing he’s a rugby player?

Hmm, Flickr are still mangling the image URL. I hope they fix it soon.

Aperture ƒ/14
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 20mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/200s

Fianna Fail in Cork

Fianna Fail, “The Republican Party”, had an office on the Grand Parade in Cork for years. Last time I looked the building was derelict. Anyone want to compare the state of their Cork office to their policies or chances in the next election?

Fianna Fail have been in power almost continuously for as long as I remember and before that of course. Will you vote for them?

This is next door to no 48 pictured yesterday.

I like this: May Day in California. Great street shots.

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

The red door at No. 48

No. 48 on Grand Parade Cork is an old disused building near the Goat Broke Loose. It’s also next door to the old location of Fianna Fail’s Cork office.

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/100s

City flowers in the sun

Flowers in the Peace Park in Cork flourish in the early April sunlight last year. Does anyone recognise this one?

Good luck to everyone competing at the Blog Awards tonight and have a great night regardless!

What the hell! Flickr gave me a dud URL again. That’s three in a row. Time to complain.

City flowers

Kristy asked for a desktop sized version so here’s a 1024×768 version that is the proper dimensions for a standard desktop. Most of my photos have a 1.5 ratio between sides so I had to crop this to 1.33. Please if you use it, leave in my name and URL at bottom of the image. Thanks!

Aperture ƒ/3.5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/800s

Innovative Streets

It’s good to look down sometimes. I think this was used to hold a decorative safety pole but I don’t remember ever seeing it used. There are poles on the other side of this narrow street however.

The street of course is Paul Street behind Waterstones.

I was going to blog that yesterday was World Book Day but time ran out for me and the power cut didn’t help my motivation much. Nevertheless, Cearta.ie blogged it. Check out some of my photos from last year’s World Book Day celebration!

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/400s