Church Steps in Castletownbere

Steps to a church in Castletownbere, Co Cork.

I tried finding out more about this church but any attempt to find info on it returns this church I blogged a while back. Anyone know it’s name?

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/125s

Moving from Chicago to Washington

Barack Obama’s family probably had some help from America’s Secret Service when they moved from Chicago to Washington but for the rest of us, that journey would be a lot more mundane and would involve the services of a company like Hollander.

Photographed somewhere in Chicago in May 2005.

PS. Thank you if you nominated this blog for the Irish Blog Awards!

Aperture ƒ/5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/60s

Bright Idea

You don’t need to be smart to have a bright idea, just a Posca or paint and a blank wall.

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 48mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/125s

Angela’s Shop in Fountainstown

Angela’s Shop and Coffee Dock in Fountainstown Co Cork. This shop has been at the beach in Fountainstown for the last 20 years (according to the owner) but I had never ventured inside until today. We were served lovely cups of tea which we enjoyed outside in the blazing sun.

I had hoped to shoot the women’s mini marathon earlier in the day but we had a busy morning with the baby and weren’t ready to leave the house until 1pm. Sorry Ciara, would love to have seen you and the girls in wedding dresses!

Aperture ƒ/14
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 22mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/320s

The cars of Cape Clear

Cape Clear Island, or Oilean Chleire, is only 3 miles long and 1 mile wide, but it’s only 40 minutes by ferry to the mainland so it’s fairly easy to bring out vehicles. In fact, I saw many more cars on the island than I did on my last trip.

As you may have guessed by the photo above, once the cars get here, they really don’t go anywhere else, and many of them are in a bad state of repair. On a previous trip, my father and I were driven up a very steep hill above the harbour in a multicoloured VW Beetle that was literally falling apart with rust. I’ll post a photo of the hill in a few days.

There also isn’t a police force on the island. I don’t think cars here are insured or taxed and you can forget the NCT ..

Apart from the two taxi vans sitting on the quay when we arrived, the newest car was a 1999 model. The oldest was a 1986 Renault. The taxis were had 2004 reg plates and in good condition.

I’d love to how or why the van in the far background got to the Island. It looks abandoned now.

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/125s

Tall trees in Oracle

These tall evergreens planted in front of a set of small houses in Oracle were almost gone before I saw them. The scene looked bizarre. Tall trees, tiny houses. I wonder who lives in them?

Here it is on Google Maps. Try the Street View, you’ll see two cars pulled up in front of the same house as in my photo. Spooky.

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/100s

Cloudy Carpark

A lone car parked on the top floor of the carpark at Paul Street in Cork. Black clouds hovered ominously but the rain held off!

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/125s

Set me free

A car leaving the Paul St. car park last Saturday while Phil, Chris and myself took photos from the top floor.

Aperture ƒ/5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/80s

Starlight headlights

A long five second exposure at f/22 captured cars stuck on Patrick Street about a month ago.

They’ve done some fabulous work on the pavements of Cork’s main thoroughfare but it hasn’t made a jot of difference to vehicular traffic, except to make it more dangerous to pedestrians as they saunter across junctions blissfully unaware of the cars bearing down on them ..

Aperture ƒ/22
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 5s

So many light trails

Light trails from passing cars fill the frame with a golden glow on the corner of The Grand Parade and Washington Street, Cork.

Long exposure shot made possible by the traffic light switch on which I rested my camera!

Aperture ƒ/22
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 13s

A busy moment

Freeze what you’re doing. Right now. The world has stopped.

A busy moment on Patrick’s Street, Cork captured forever.

I liked this image because of the solitary motorcycle rider, but then I noticed all the activity: the people walking, cars *all over* the frame, the parked security truck with the driver leaning over to get his papers.
All frozen.

Ready to go!

You better be good at hill starts if you live in San Francisco! I presume it’s slightly easier with an automatic transmission rather than manual?

Highly processed image via multiple tools in the GIMP until I came up with an effect I liked – multiple layers, b/w, gaussian blur, layer modes and more.
I had to rotate the image at first and reconstruct parts of the image, but I think it came out reasonably well!

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/250s