Go faster! Go faster!

A young girl in a buggy leans forward as her mother pushes her along St. Patrick’s Street, Cork. Looks like her mother was busy shopping in Penney’s and elsewhere so I’m sure she’ll look forward to getting home!

I like this: This Flight Tonight, and make sure you download the linked video tutorial. The statement that an “adjustment layer is a normal layer with a layer map on top” struck a chord with me. The GIMP doesn’t support adjustment layers and the technique he used, by rubbing out some of the map of an upper layer is one I’ve used in the GIMP previously.

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

Playing with the sea lions on Pier 39

A girl clambers over the statue of two sea lions on Pier 39, San Francisco. This pier is where people embark on the journey to Alcatraz Island and it was packed with tourists. Luckily Toni booked our tickets a few days previously and we were able to walk straight onto the boat!

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/320s

Rusted and abandoned

An old oil drum stands on the quay at Ballycotton rusting away as the exposed metal is beaten down by the elements.

Technique: I increased the saturation of the reds to bring out the rust of the drum. I desaturated other colours so the drum would stand out.
I then duplicated the layer and darkened the top one to bring out the clouds and sky before using a layer mask to expose the ground on the bottom layer. After that a simple gradient at the top of the image provided a nice dark effect and finally, I dodge and burned the rust until I was happy. Was that useful?

I used CocoViewX to view my work directory from my Linux box on my Macbook. I was surprised that Finder didn’t display thumbnails and I didn’t want the iPhoto heavyweight when all I wanted was to know which image was which.

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/160s

A visit to Pineapple Studios

I visited Pineapple Studios last night with Mallow Camera Club. Jessica Jones and Tina showed us around and it was an eye opener for me. Jessica is rightly proud of the lighting in her studio and went over each system answering questions as she went. A shooting session followed and I was roped in to model for a couple of shoots but unsurprisingly the guys seemed more interested in shots of Jessica and Tina!

Tina then showed us their lab and went through the process of working a photo in Photoshop. They have two large printers and plenty of facilities for printing all sorts of size images. Tina printed off an 8×10 and 8×12 explaining that they calibrate their printers several times a day to cope with changes in temperature as the day gets warmer from morning to evening.

The visit was great fun and very interesting. If, like me, you’re not very familiar with portrait photography, you’ll be shocked at how complicated it is and all the skills the photographer has to call on. As Jessica said, “if you don’t like people then don’t photograph them.” A huge part of the job is getting people relaxed and forgetting that it’s a photoshoot. She spends an hour making a portrait so the customer relaxes and the shot looks natural. She took a group portrait of us and hopefully she’ll send the image on to me soon. I asked everyone if they minded having their photo on the web and thankfully nobody dissented. I’ll update this post with the photo when I get it!

Thanks Jessica and Tina for showing us around!

Jessica has already sent me on the photo. Thanks, nice job!

Mallow Camera Club

The Golden Bay Bridge in San Francisco

The Bay Bridge in San Francisco all lit up at night. The lighting on the bridge casts a golden glow over the water that is beautiful to watch and photograph. More on Wikipedia.

Niall Kennedy walked with myself and Bryan Veloso around the Ferry Building on the night before WordCamp and we got some great shots.
You can see the pier to the right of this image here in more detail with a super reflection.

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 20s

Moo Magnets

What will you do with those hundreds of Moo mini cards? You can’t possibly give them all out. Why not make cute little magnets out of them? Meg Pickard explains how using magnetic tape. It’s so simple but I can imagine that this would be a nice birthday card filler especially with a personal photo (along with the obligatory gift of lottery tickets or money of course!)

I’m going to make a few and stick them on the fridge!

What else can we do with the moo mini cards? (Thanks Damien)

The lone daisy

A solitary daisy grows in front of a small house in Fountainstown.

This was an interesting photo for me to take. I spotted the daisy while walking out the road but I didn’t stop to shoot it until returning. I’m glad I remembered it! I’m really happy with the way this came out.

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/80s

Gone fishing

Two fishermen enjoy the sun while a huge container ship, the Maersk Derince, passes by in the background. You can see they’re very busy. Even the gull that has landed close by is watching intently.
It’s another hectic day in San Francisco.

Technique: I wasn’t sure what to make of this photo. I love the composition, especially the background to this sedentary activity. Unfortunately it was very misty and colours looked washed out. By converting to b/w and playing around with the exposure I think I produced an interesting looking photo. Finally, adding a vignette around the edges focuses the eye on the fishermen in the foreground.

I like this: Plane landing via Podz

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/2000s

Naturafit at the Cork Modern Homes Exhibition

A young visitor to the Modern Homes Exhibition in City Hall Cork flings himself enthusiastically on the very comfortable Naturafit bed covers while Naturafit representative Kurt Gamper looks on in amusement.

We bought one of those bed covers a few months back and it’s great. It helps keep the bed warm and it’s very comfortable. My wife Jacinta bought one of their pillows and she swears by it.

Disclaimer: Other than being satisfied customers we don’t have any connection with the company.

If you visit the exhibition this weekend make sure you buy some chocolate from the Fosters Chocolate stand by the entrance. It’s delicious!

There are hot spas on display too, but if you’re thinking of buying, please read about Carl Fogarty’s experiences. It might make you think twice!

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/60s

A coven of halloween photo tips

It’s not long now before witches, goblins and fairies will be abroad and children will be out looking for treats and even the occasional trick! All these people dressed up in costume, the decorations and accessories that go along with Halloween are perfect fodder for the hungry photographer!

If you are shooting photos this season these tips will come in useful:

Finally, Ireland, the land of the banshee has a wealth of Halloween traditions. Makes for a good read!

Looking down from on high

Looking down on a street in San Francisco. You wouldn’t want to be afraid of heights walking around on top of a building!

We all want to see what the neighbours are up to and living in a high building is the perfect opportunity of peeping-toms everywhere. You can see all sorts of things – a parasol with lounger across the street, garden furniture, a tree; all invisible from street level.

The postman has been and delivered 100 minicards from moo.com! I ordered 100 duplicates in the order as well so I hope they’re on the way too. I got in touch with their customer service people just in case and am waiting on a reply from them now. Later – I got my reply. The duplicate cards are a separate order and were shipped separately. Should be here in a day or two!

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/125s