A cow and her calf lying on the grass, enjoying the April sun in a field near Blarney Castle in 2022. So serene.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 600mm |
| ISO | 250 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
Tag Archives: Blarney Castle
Griffins stand guard in Blarney
Griffins sit at the points of the roof of the gatehouse at the main vehicle entrance to Blarney Castle. It’s a private entrance, so if you’re wondering where it is, go back towards the village from the tourist entrance and turn right across the bridge and go 20m down the road. It’s on your right and you can’t miss it.
The house sits alongside a long straight road to the grounds of the Castle.
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 115mm |
| ISO | 250 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
Blarney Castle at sunset
Blarney Castle can be seen above the trees of the surrounding area as the sun set last Thursday evening. Blarney Photography Club took the opportunity of a lovely evening to walk around the village and nearby to photograph the area. This photo is, of course, taken from Ring Wood, off Station Road.
Did you know that membership of Blarney Photography Club is now open to all (over 18s)? The new season starts in September and the club is holding an open night on September 5th at the local secondary school. Doors open at 7:30pm. I’ll be there, as will other members of the club. The famous Beginners and Improvers Photography Course will start the following week, and the 8-week course is great value at only €75. You’ll also become a member of the club, so you’ll be welcome to our weekly meetings, outings, competitions, practical sessions and more.
Visit the Club open night web page for further details!
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 240mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/50s |
The Robin with the Attitude
A Robin in November
A little robin looks off to the left in the grounds of Blarney Castle last November. They’re a friendly bird.
If you want more, take a look at the fabulous robin photos that BathNature is posting and follow them!
I think my Blarney Castle membership expires today. I’m uncertain if I’ll renew it as it’s expensive, and I barely used it at all in the past 12 months.
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 240mm |
| ISO | 10000 |
| 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 |
Blarney Castle Through the Rock
Blarney Castle, as seen through the rock they set up in the grounds below the Castle. Not a great shot, but one to mark off the list.
| Aperture | ƒ/16 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 32mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
Ned the donkey
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.
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 194mm |
| ISO | 500 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
The Jellyfish at Blarney Castle
Over the next few days in Blarney Castle there’s a new pop-up garden to visit inside the walls of the building. In it, you’ll find an aquarium that is home to a group of moon jellyfish surrounded by specially selected plants and beautiful art work. The Irish Examiner has published an article on it this morning with lots more detail.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 240mm |
| ISO | 25600 |
| Shutter speed | 1/250s |
