Tag Archives: 2022

Girona Cathedral

I should have done more research before visiting Girona. I would have found out it was used as a filming location for Game of Thrones. As it is, I walked up a cobbled street, rounded a bend, under an archway and saw the magnificent Cathedral, the Cathedral of Saint Mary of Girona, before me.

The staircase is instantly recognisable if you have watched Game of Thrones, and according to that site I linked above, they used several locations around the old city.

Girona Cathedral

The view from the front of the Cathedral doesn’t quite match what viewers saw in Game of Thrones. The sea and a much bigger courtyard appear in the show.

The view from Girona Cathedral

Buildings surround the Cathedral, with shuttered rooms and small balconies.

I really want to come back some time. The old city is full of atmosphere and narrow streets.


Apertureƒ/8
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length16mm
ISO125
Shutter speed1/500s

Hurling in the sky

The mural of a hurler on Anglesea Street on a bright July afternoon. Always great to see this when I walk or drive past. The last time I photographed this mural was in the depths of winter last January!

ACHES did a great job on this one!


Apertureƒ/2.2
CameraSM-G998B
Focal length2.2mm
ISO50
Shutter speed1/3700s

The Devil’s Coach Horse

I spotted this nasty looking fella on a trail in Killarney last weekend. We hoped to catch the rutting but the weather was terrible, and stags were shy. No fights but a few photos to post later..

Anyway, this guy was huge! This page says they’re about 2.8 cm, but I swear he was bigger. His tail comes up like a scorpion, and he scampered quickly across the ground, making him hard to photograph.

A ferocious and fast predator, the Devil’s coach horse beetle hunts invertebrates after dark in gardens and on grasslands. It is well-known for curling up its abdomen like the tail of a scorpion when defending itself.

wildlifetrusts.org

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a beetle like this before, but apparently they’re common!


Apertureƒ/5
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length150mm
ISO1250
Shutter speed1/500s

Mad about Cork Derilicition

In the midst of a housing crisis and buildings up and down the country are left empty and rotting away.

Follow Frank O’Connor and Jude Sharry on Twitter. The Derelict Ireland hashtag is full of photos of crumbling or boarded up buildings all over the country.

Meanwhile, people live, 6 to a tiny room, in Dublin because that’s all they can afford. There’s something really twisted and greedy about Ireland.

One of my Brazilian friends lives in a one bedroom apartment with 5 other Brazilian girls paying 400 euro each…. That’s above what the landlord would get if they just rented it to a couple, I don’t understand how it’s legal. They have bunk beds in a tiny room. It’s inhumane.

notmyrealaccount8373

Apertureƒ/3.5
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length24mm
ISO100
Shutter speed1/500s

The Lights of Llafranc

The lights of Llafranc in Spain shine brightly near 1am in the morning after a wedding ceremony in a nearby hotel.

Swimming there was a highlight of the year for me. Lovely calm and warm waters. As it’s the Mediterranean, there was barely any tide, so you could be sure how much beach was there at any one time!


Apertureƒ/8
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length48mm
ISO400
Shutter speed5s

Red and White Mushroom in the grass

An Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita [*] in the grounds of Blarney Castle yesterday. It’s a poisonous mushroom found throughout temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, according to Wikipedia.

It’s also poisonous, but these days death from ingestion is rare. It has psychoactive uses too, and it’s eaten in various places.

Thanks Catherine for letting me know where these mushrooms were. She posted a nice photo of a mushroom from there recently! The nice thing about these mushrooms is that they are quite large, so you don’t really need a macro lens to get a photo like this of them.


Apertureƒ/6.3
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length194mm
ISO500
Shutter speed1/200s

An evening above Dunquin Pier

Dunquin Pier at the end of the Dingle Peninsula sits below a steep grassy cliff. Last year I saw three teenage girls sitting on the edge of the cliff you can see in this photo. I got dizzy just looking at them but they weren’t in (much) danger. There’s a step below where many feet have worn away the grass.


Apertureƒ/8
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length24mm
ISO100
Shutter speed1/30s

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