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St Patrick’s Day 2008 in Cork

A flavour of the St Patrick’s Day festivities and people who attended the Parade in Cork yesterday.

Some of the Special Olympics Team took part in the parade and as I said yesterday, it was strange to see only them on the street with nobody else about. Everyone cheered them on however and clapped as they passed! The next group took at least 5 minutes to appear leaving me to wonder if the parade had already finished.

Kids and flags

You normally don’t see Irish people waving flags about unless it’s a special occasion. St. Patrick’s Day is one of those times when the the Irish Tricolour comes out!

Dodgy looking souvenier seller

If there’s a buck to be made ..

Crowds on St. Patrick’s Day 2008 in Cork

Crowds lined Patrick’s Street in Cork to watch the Parade. It was crazy! To get any sort of shot I had to either hold my camera in the air and shoot blind or grab quick shots with the zoom from between the bobbing heads of those in front of me. If you were in any way uncomfortable with crowds then it wasn’t the place for you.

More tomorrow and for a few days probably.

Aperture	ƒ/11
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	33mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/200s

St. Patrick’s Day is for the kids

St. Patrick’s Day is for the kids

A young girls waves her Irish flag in the air after spotting part of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Cork approaching.

I shot several decent shots but it’s late and I’m tired. I was quite disappointed with the parade and left after half an hour. Like previous years there were huge gaps between some of the groups partaking in the parade.

It was strange to see the Special Olympics group striding up Patrick’s Street all alone with no other group in sight. They proudly showed off their medals and the crowd cheered and clapped for them. I’ll have a photo of them up here later in the week.

Aperture	ƒ/10
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	125mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/320s

Church Flowers

Church Flowers

Flowers outside The Lough Parish Church, “Church of the Immaculate Conception”.

You can read more about the church and mass times at the The Lough Parish page on the Diocese website.

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

Heads up at the Lough

Heads up at the Lough

This was shot from a precarious position. I jumped up on one of the concrete posts dotted around the pond and very carefully snapped a couple of shots. I just about managed to balance there for a few minutes! See the two black swans everyone else was shooting?

From left to right: Donal, Ryan, Kevin, Katie and Sean spotted me and started shooting the biggest birdbrain there ..

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

A big head is natural

A big head is natural

I was setting up a shot by placing that wheel cap leaning on the bus shelter when these two teenagers ran across the road carrying a football goal between them!

Anyway, there’s the Murphy’s stout advert I wanted to shoot. I wonder if they advertise anywhere else in the country?

Aperture	ƒ/6.3
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/125s

The pigeon flies away!

The pigeon flies away!

Besides the beautiful swans, there’s the usual gathering of pigeons waddling along on the path picking up bread crumbs.

Too tempting. I had to chase after them and encourage them to fly a little. Some of them need the exercise!

Aperture	ƒ/6.3
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/800s

Feed the swans at the Lough

Feed the swans at the Lough

Girls feed the swans at the Lough on Sunday afternoon.

Urban acid 🙂

Will posted his first photo from the day on his blog. He did arrive late, but he made up for lost time!

Aperture	ƒ/6.3
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/500s

The Swan’s Wings

The Swan’s Wings

You really only appreciate how large and imposing a swan is when they rear up out of the water and spread their magnificent wings. While at The Lough on Sunday there were a number of fights between swans. Guess it’s that time of the year again, eh?

The swans were fairly tame towards us humans, and allowed us to shoot quite closely, but I’ve had run ins with swans before and I’m always suspicious of them!

Katie caught me as I lay on the ground to get a shot of The Lough Church. Embarrassed? Me? Never, I’ve been in many other more compromising situations just to get a shot!

Ryan posted a whole set of photos from the day and Kevin has posted his first shot.

Aperture	ƒ/6.3
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	21mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/320s

That bread is mine!

That bread is mine!

A heron swoops in on a bunch of greedy gulls at The Lough yesterday!

For more pictures, check out Katie’s set and Will’s photos!

In retrospect, we were very lucky with the weather for the photowalk. Just after I got home the downpour started and 60mph winds ravaged the south of the country!

I was going to upload a bunch of the photowalk shots today but I’ll let them trickle in and then post the remainer on Friday.

Aperture	ƒ/6.3
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	88mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/500s

Professional Myspace Photographer

You may have thought that a fashion photographer had an interesting life and job, but wait until you get a load of Sheffield Quigley. The one and only Myspace photographer in the whole world. I so want his job!

The Lough Photowalkers

The Lough Photowalkers

We had a great day today. 11 people showed up at the Lough in Glasheen today for the photowalk. Pictured above are some of us. Unfortunately Patrick and Amy, and then Brendan left earlier. Thank you all for taking the time and making the effort to come. It was freezing cold and windy and it would have been so much easier to sit inside with a good book or in front of the telly!

From left to right: Sean, Kevin, Katie, Will, Donal, Sandy, Ryan and that’s me Donncha kneeling down in front. Ryan & Sandy – what’s your dog’s name again?

We stayed at the south end of the lake most of the time, probably because there was most activity there. I got plenty of shots of swans, ducks, herons and small strange black birds with a white mark. Even got a few shots of swans fighting! You can really only appreciate the size of these birds when they rise out of the air and spread their wings! Thankfully they’re very tame.

After about an hour we headed off to the Lough Church where we were filmed on CCTV taking shots of the church exterior. I wonder what the parish priest will think if he reviews those tapes in the morning. Anyway, it was getting late, I set my camera on a post, took the above shot, and afterwards myself, Kevin Will and Donal retired to The Hawthorn for some light refreshment.

If you post any photos can you tag them “corkphotowalk”? You can subscribe to the feed on the Flickr tag page or this Google Blogsearch query to see what others have posted from the day. (Google hasn’t picked up on the tag just yet.)

I had a quick look through my shots, I took 199, and there’s a couple of good ones.

Suggestions for the next photowalk? Fota perhaps? Maybe Doneraile Park?

Aperture	ƒ/6.3
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	15mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/60s

Learning the ropes

Learning the ropes

Ropes tie up small boats in Bantry, Co Cork. The tide is very far out and many boats are stranded in the mud.

I love the texture of rope. Yummy.

Looking forward to meeting you all at the photowalk tomorrow!

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