2006 – Page 27 – In Photos dot Org

Waiting for Passengers

People wait expectantly in San Francisco International Airport for the first sight of someone they know to appear in the crowd off a plane.

Toni, Andy and I were there to meet Podz off his plane. I had flown in earlier in the day and was almost asleep on my feet but I managed to make this hand held long exposure shot!

I like this: Daft Punk at Marley Park because I wanted to go, heard that they were brill in Scotland, but Donal didn’t think much of their gig in Dublin. Nice shots of their light show though!

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	800
Shutter speed	1/8s

Sowan’s Organic Bread Mixes were a big hit with everyone who sampled their bread, including Jacinta. She bought a packet of the stuff and I’m going to sample the finished product this morning! This is their stall at the Midleton Food & Drink Festival.

Their website is sowanorganic.ie and I discovered this positive post about them from a WordPress.com user, Keith. It always gives me a tingly feeling whenever I come across those because of my involvement with WordPress.com.

The September issue of the Digital Journalist is just out. This picture just screams at me – the contrast between the normal living room and the huge cloud of one of the collapsing Twin Tower is alarming.

Late in the day, but I like these: Randy for you, a truck with a message, and Back from the dirty, photos by Chris Weeks of Paris Hilton and others at a party.

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/160s

This city’s a drag

This city’s a drag

Two women, dragged along by a young girl so they won’t stop at the market on Cornmarket Street, Cork. I can just imagine the conversion:
“But I want to go home noooowwwww.”
“No, hold on, we went to all your shops, I want to look at more boots.”
“Ummm, that stall over there has delicious breads.”
“I’m tired!”

Maybe.

I’m really happy with the way this image turned out because we were right next to them and I wasn’t sure if I would get them all in. In the end I had to crop to get the composition I wanted. I duplicated the layer and darken the top one before removing the non-cloud portions of it. I added a slight lomo effect too which did wonderful things to the sky too!

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

The Yellow Helmet

The Yellow Helmet

A father picks up the yellow helmet dropped by his son in front of the Body Shop on Patrick’s Street, Cork last Saturday. I was sitting on one of the marble blocks that pass as street furniture on our main thoroughfare. I had my camera ready to shoot when I saw them passing and within a heartbeat had snapped off a few shots.

I like this: King Corner – great sky and architecture shot. All in your hands…. – keep on smiling!

Aperture	ƒ/6.3
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/320s

Courtmacsherry Dead End

Courtmacsherry Dead End

The little town of Courtmacsherry in Co. Cork is a picturesque tourist village with pretty looking multi-coloured houses visible on the way into the town from Timoleague.

This makes the attitude of the people we met there all the more confusing. We parked in the middle of the town, Jacinta wanted to check out a pottery shop, and walked with Oscar down the road. We passed by several people, mostly tourists by their clothes, and unusually, they kept their heads down watching the ground and never said “hello” or even commented on Oscar! We’re used to people stopping us and asking about him so this was disconcerting.

Later on we rested on the wall of the harbour and a few people did greet us thankfully.

The image was processed using two layers. One for the sky and the other for the ground. Sky was burned heavily to bring out the clouds while the ground was dodged and brightened with the Curves tool.

I’ve geotagged this photo on Flickr. Works well enough. It even knew where “courtmacsherry ireland” was!

Aperture	ƒ/13
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/320s

Denis Murphy, Castle Street

Denis Murphy, Castle Street

There’s something fascinating for me about old buildings. Perhaps it’s the history they have seen and the memories they hold. Some of the old buildings on Castle Street, Cork are really interesting. I noticed this small building nestled in between it’s larger brethern and when I saw some people walking by I took my shot.

It was processed afterwards with the gimp Wide Angle plugin and I did a little work changing colours but not much else.

I like this: downtown strips, simply because it’s a neat idea I haven’t seen anyone else do yet.

Aperture	ƒ/7.1
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/200s

Staring at me

Staring at me

Am I feeling conspicuous or what?

I tried shooting from the hip yesterday with the strap of my camera over my shoulder and my camera in a horizontal position instead of being wrapped around my hand in a vertical orientation.

It proved useful, but I found that:

More of my shots were blurry, perhaps because either the back and forth movement of me walking. I tried shooting in Tv (Shutter Priority mode) and even at 1/200sec and higher there was shake.
It’s great getting more of the surroundings in but I miss the feet.

Aperture	ƒ/6.3
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	800
Shutter speed	1/80s

Cobh Train Station

Cobh Train Station

Cobh Train Station, taken just before closing many months ago. It’s a long exposure shot of the interior of a fine building on the quay-side.

“The Queenstown Story”, a museum in the background of this shot is worth a visit and tells the story of the port of Cobh as the last place 3 million Irish people saw before they sailed for the United States. Some of those sailed on the ill-fated Titanic.

The Queenstown Story on virtualtourist.com has more reviews, and pictures of the museum if you’re interested.

Techincal details:

Duplicate Layer
Brighten new layer with Curves tool.
Blur with Gaussian Blur and a radius of 15 pixels.
Black/White conversion with channel mixer.
Change layer mode to Grain merge, 82.5% opacity.
Resize and unsharp mask the lower layer.

I like this: Shandon Tower.

Aperture	ƒ/16
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	18mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	8s

A Golden Glow over Cobh

A Golden Glow over Cobh

Last night we went down to Cobh to walk around and lucky for us the rain disappeared as we approached the town!

It was strange. There was lots of localised rain yesterday. Blarney was mostly dry, the roads were dry as we drove down but as soon as we crossed the bridge off the main road a steady drizzle enveloped the car.

I gloomily predicted that we’d spend our time in the Cobh in the car or sheltered under an umbrella but just as I parked the car, the drizzle let off and a little blue sky and sunlight peaked through the grey clouds! We had a nice pleasant walk after all!

This was shot at the end of a private row of houses that look on to the harbour. There’s a high chimney near the end of the road that I’d like to find out more about. I’ll have to do some research later on.

I like this: Wyre Wreck #5 – nice use of HDR to create a dramatic image.

Aperture	ƒ/7.1
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/100s

Joyce and the Spire

Joyce and the Spire

James Joyce, forever forced to look upon the Spire on O’Connell Street Dublin. Here’s a humorous look at the names of the statues and monuments in Dublin. I had heard that the Spire was nicknamed the “Stiletto in the Ghetto”, but I hadn’t heard it called, “North Pole”!

Overhead wires destroy urban photography and this is no exception. I could have tried to clone it out but it’s notoriously difficult to clone out objects against a varying sky. Ah well.

I like this: self-portrait with 6×9 ultrawide pinhole camera

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/4000s

Reflection on the Spire

Reflection on the Spire

O’Connell Street in Dublin is reflected in the polished surface of the Spire. A young teenager leans on the edifice in the shade away from the glaring sun. This was inspired by a shot I saw one another photoblog, can’t remember which one now. Does anyone know the image I’m talking about?

Here’s another picture of the Spire showing it’s full 120m height!

If you’re curious, the Spire can just about be seen from space as Google Maps shows!

Aperture	ƒ/5.6
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/400s

Cobh Peoples Regatta – Flash Harry

Flash Harry, a Queen tribute band played to the crowd at the Cobh Peoples Regatta last weekend after the fireworks. They were great, driving the crowd wild!
*phew* This post took ages to do, had to get up early to work on this one. Hope you enjoy the photos!

You can find out more about Flash Harry on their website.
Sorry if you’re on dialup, this may take a while to download!

Cobh Peoples Regatta – Flash Harry