Two kids walk past a huge bunch of balloons. I’m quite sure their parents were subsequently asked to buy one!
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 6D |
| Focal length | 20mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/400s |
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My 2020 Spy
Far back in time, to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a film called My Spy was due to appear in cinemas on March 13th, 2020.
Unfortunately, the country went into lockdown on March 27th. This photo was taken in May that year. Adverts hadn’t been changed in most places. Hoardings still had the same slogan for months, buses were the same. The banners on the Cork Opera House looked the worse for wear. A surreal time.
Aperture ƒ/8 Camera ILCE-7M3 Focal length 16mm ISO 400 Shutter speed 1/250s -
Robin on the Ground
A few weeks ago, I visited Blarney Castle to take some photos of the Autumn colours. Unfortunately the light was dull, and the ground was wet, but I had my tripod with me, so I set it up for some long exposure shots.
After a few minutes of that, I noticed a flicker out of the corner of my eye. I spotted a robin almost right in front of me! He was literally standing on the large log next to the mushrooms I was photographing. And of course, my camera settings were completely wrong to photograph him. In the 10 seconds it took me to swivel the camera around, fiddle with the settings and look up again, he was flying off to a nearby tree. This time I got a couple of shots of him, and then his friend approached and landed on the ground right by my feet! This time I was ready!
Why do settings change so much? In low light, you have to amplify the light hitting the camera sensor. Sort of like turning up the volume. You know how if you turn the volume up really high you’ll get distortion and crackling (and a headache and sore ears), the same thing happens with cameras. The best quality photo comes when the volume (called ISO for cameras) is turned down to a “normal value” but then it takes longer for the camera to “hear” an image. Damn, I’m straining an analogy here. For most cameras, that’s 100. This photo was taken at ISO 12800 and the only reason you don’t see lots of crackling (noise) is because of the magic of software called Topaz Photo AI. A previous ISO 100 image took a whole 1 second to make a photo. This robin photo was 1/160 of a second. He wasn’t going to hang around long!
Aperture ƒ/11 Camera ILCE-7M3 Focal length 240mm ISO 65535 Shutter speed 1/160s -
Sparklers! 2 for €3!
A man selling sparklers on Henry Street, Dublin on Halloween this year. He promised that 2 for €3 was better than in the shops where they are 1 for €2, and he was right as we were in a Eurogiant later on!
We didn’t buy any sparklers. He had plenty left over when we passed him again.
Aperture ƒ/3.2 Camera ILCE-7M3 Focal length 24mm ISO 5000 Shutter speed 1/500s
Look Mommy! (2006)
The Moonlit Shipyards (2007)- I’ve been using Bibble Labs Pro for a few months n
- I wondered why traffic was slow to the site today
Girl on dad’s shoulders (2008)
Racist Fools (2009)
Parnell Place Bus Station (2014)
Fountainstown Gold (2015)
Streets of Cork (2016)
Ferris Wheel Speeding By (2017)
Flying between buildings (2018)
Cork at Christmas Time (2020)
The view from Quinta da Foz (2021)
Amsterdam City Tour (2022)
Expressway back to home (2023)
A Thirsty Ostrich (2025)