I was there too
A small house is stuck between two larger buildings in Dingle, Co. Kerry. I’m not sure what caught my eye in the first place but I think it was the red door.
Shot on a wet morning that brightened up after an hour of intense rain.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/400s |
Swans rush to the bank of the Lough looking for bread from the crazy guy hanging over the water with a large black object…
This shows off one of my favourite night-time techniques. Long exposure with a flash. The long exposure captures the background while the flash illuminates the foreground objects, along with some nice movement blur.
It works really well at parties when people are dancing, especially if you’re lucky to capture a laughing face while the body is in motion.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1.6s |
A small girl walks mournfully into the shopping center on Paul Street clutching her “BT Kids” balloon, probably handed to her by this lady.
| Aperture | ƒ/5.6 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 162mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
A charity collector stops to watch street entertainers on Patrick’s Street last October. The orange and red costume stands out just a little bit next to the dark clothing of those around him.
I almost jumped with glee when I saw this scene in front of me but the image itself paled when viewed later. The background buildings were too sharp so using layers and a layer mask I blurred the background and cropped the image a little.
Black and White Photography magazine has two articles on street photography this month.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/640s |
Studs on the ground lead down to the traffic lights on the South Mall, Cork.
In this long exposure shot a couple of cars passed by providing a nice light trail in the background. The twinkling of the street lighting is from the narrow aperture. Setting the aperture as small as possible is definitely the best thing you can do when making long exposure shots at night.
This was taken while out with Mallow Camera Club last December. More to come from that night too!
| Aperture | ƒ/16 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 10s |
A witch hands out balloons to young kids outside Brown Thomas on a late October Saturday.
Just out of frame of this shot is a woman who has asked for a balloon. The witch explains that the balloons are just for the kids.. I wonder why? More on this later.
| Aperture | ƒ/5 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 48mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/250s |
A child is carried atop his parent’s shoulders on St. Patrick’s Street, Cork a few weeks ago.
I really like this shot, for what reason, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s the brightness and flowery design of the clothing worn by parent and child compared to the passers by. I’m sure both parent and child are in a happy place wandering around town.
“Here’s Health” and a sign advertising the Mutton Lane Inn can be seen in the background.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/400s |
Friends talk and laugh on the street while busy shoppers pass on either side.
Pictured on St. Patrick Street, Cork last October in front of Penneys. I love my wide angle lens!
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/1000s |
A girl steps away from the maddening crowd on a busy street.
This was a bit of an experiment for me. I blurred the background by making a duplicate layer, blurring, adding a layer mask and then revealing the girl through the layer mask. It’s not perfect, and in fact, the closer I look the more imperfections I see. Unfortunately I never saved a .xcf file preserving the layers so this is the final product.
I like it. The blur successfully separates the girl from the backgrond and even the zone of sharpness takes in some of the ground around her which exaggerates the effect!
Taken on St. Patrick Street, Cork last October.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/800s |
A man bends over and adjusts his shopping bag outside Tesco shopping center on Paul St. I was waiting outside the shopping center and this scene enfolded in front of me.
On a busy street people studiously ignore each other. Strangers pass by without a glance, busy with their own lives, friends gather to chat and gossip. The man bending over and checking his shopping bag was an incongruous sight in the midst of all this bustle.
I like these – Chris Weeks has some great shots of Britney Spears and party-goers at Caesars Palace’s nightclub, Pure. She played host and here’s what Chris says of her.
All this shit about Britney Spears passing the fuck out is fucking bullshit. I was 20 feet from her from the time she “walked the carpet” to the time she “gave the nod” to her security detail … and was whisked away …
She was not carried out of the club. I watched. I was there. Most of the people spewing bullshit weren’t even in Vegas.
| Aperture | ƒ/7.1 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
I’ve been bursting to tell everyone for the last few months that in 2007 I will become a father!
Jacinta, my wife, is pregnant and she’s due in the middle of April! We’re very excited about it but also nervous. We don’t want to know or care if the baby is a boy or a girl. A healthy baby is all we want. Guys – look out for the book, “A bloke’s guide to pregnancy”. It’s a great read, very entertaining and will explain a bit about what to expect and what’s going in your partner’s body! Now you know why I was more than a little interested in who was pregnant on Today FM!
Don’t be surprised if my blogging slows down a little bit around April, but I will try and have about 2 months of photos ready to be posted for late April and on to May. Hopefully things may quieten down and get into a routine after that.
And now I can reveal the only event that marred what was a great year in 2006. The main reason I didn’t attend the Irish Blog Awards last year was because Jacinta was pregnant at the time and the pregnancy wasn’t going so well. Unfortunately, she had a miscarriage soon after.
I find that miscarriage is a taboo subject to talk about. Very few bloggers will talk about it even though 1 in 4 pregnancies will probably not go full-term. Maybe it’s superstition and considered tempting fate to even bring the subject up. Whatever the reason, it’s an awful tragedy for expectant parents to go through.
Happy new year!
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
Cork City Hall at night as viewed from across the river. It was all lit up for the Modern Homes Exhibition and as it was such a calm night the reflection on the River Lee was beautiful.
If you watch the RTE news at 6pm or 9pm tonight, watch out for the photo on the weather forecast. A friend of mine, Catherine Cotter, sent in a few entries to their photography competition and one of her photos will be shown tonight! I must set up the Sky+ to record it just in case. I might be able to get a screen capture somehow!
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 4s |
