He perched on the tree trunk, looking around. He was a robin, and he knew it. He had a bright red chest, and a loud song. He had a sharp eye, and a fast wing. He had everything he needed, and wanted.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 194mm |
| ISO | 64000 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
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 |
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, 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, a donkey that lived in the grounds of Blarney Castle, in 2016.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 6D |
| Focal length | 55mm |
| ISO | 1600 |
| Shutter speed | 1/60s |
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 |
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 |
Walking through the grounds of Blarney Castle late one November evening when the sun is setting. The shadows grow long and black fills the spaces between orange light.
| Aperture | ƒ/9 |
| Camera | DSC-RX100M4 |
| Focal length | 8.8mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/60s |
The golden colours of Autumn are a firm favourite of every photographer. Here’s a reminder of what they look like as trees in the northern hemisphere are now showing green shoots and daffodils are flowering.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | DSC-RX100M4 |
| Focal length | 8.8mm |
| ISO | 125 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
A very busy blackbird stopped still for 5 seconds so I could catch a photo of it. He was digging around, throwing up leaves and hunting around between branches. Building material for a nest perhaps?
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 600mm |
| ISO | 2000 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
A robin calling out in the grounds of Blarney Castle today.
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 600mm |
| ISO | 320 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
This morning is a beautiful start to the week. Fog in the distance and the fiery orange ball of the sun shining through clear skies. Blarney Castle was lit up in a lovely orange glow and I had to spend a few minutes away from the busy bustle of life to get this photo.
| Aperture | ƒ/4.9 |
| Camera | SM-G998B |
| Focal length | 30.6mm |
| ISO | 64 |
| Shutter speed | 1/50s |