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Canon 20D Cork Cork Circus Fitzgerald Park Ireland People Photography Photos Sigma 18-200 Urban

Circo Copia Performance

Two members of Circo Copia performed for adults and kids alike at Fitzgerald’s Park yesterday during the Lord Mayor’s Picnic. Have you ever seen someone balance an umbrella on his forehead and play the mandolin at the same time? I have! This crazy bunch of performers had the crowd well entertained!

They’re playing in the Spiegeltent later in the month so if you didn’t catch them yesterday you have another chance. I spotted a Cork Circus van nearby so I’m pretty sure they’re part of that. Also, I think the face in the background belongs to the tall fella in these pictures of my wife and her “royal retinue”. I think the woman sticking her tongue out in the linked post was the 3rd member of Circo Copia yesterday. 🙂

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/500s
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Photography Words

Professional Myspace Photographer

You may have thought that a fashion photographer had an interesting life and job, but wait until you get a load of Sheffield Quigley. The one and only Myspace photographer in the whole world. I so want his job!

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Funny Photography Words

What The Duck flew away!

OMG! During a test flight of the What the Duck balloon for a parade it broke it’s tether and the wind blew it away! Yikes!

Hehe. Yes, yes. it’s fake. Good video though! Via TOP.

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Funny Photography Words

Photoshopped in real life

If you don’t read xkcd you’re missing out 🙂

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Canon Equipment Photography Words

The ultimate Canon EOS camera

Leaked photos of the the as yet unreleased Canon EOS-0 have surfaced on the ‘net and are sure to make their way around all the usual blogs in no time but I got my hands on them early just for you.

Details are sketchy but from the photos it appears to come in different lens mount flavours to support Nikon, Olympus, Sony and Sigma as well as the usual Canon EOS mounts. The inspiration button should come in handy for all those tired hacks who are too bored with their “yet another school fete” assignments.

Canon EOS 0

Coming around to the back of the camera, Canon have filled every square inch with new functionality and a super wide touch screen. I can just hear the Apple iPhone owners gasping with delight. I’m not so sure about running Windows Vista on it. Can I put Ubuntu Linux on it? Is that Photoshop running on it? I would like to see Walter run Pixenate on there if the new camera has wireless support. Tom reports it works on the Apple iPhone and Walter has created a Facebook photo editor out of it so I don’t see why not.

I think Mike Johnston may require breathing space and a respirator when he hears that this new Canon camera is the first to have a built in image stabilizer. In camera image stabilization is one of his pet loves and I’m sure he’ll be signing up to buy one. Exciting times!

Canon EOS 0

Other notable features are the three hard drives, the HDR function and the capability to shoot ISO 12800. Hopefully they’ve solved the noise problems! I’m not sure if I’ll use the TV feature but I’d happily listen to the radio or MP3s while out shooting. Should be plenty of capacity on all those drives.

Image credit: Emin, via

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Black and White Blarney Canon 20D Cork Ireland Photos Sigma 10-20 Signs

Beware the giant duck!

If you come down to Blarney today you should watch out for the giant ducks, and if you sit on a bench look behind you, there’s a good chance a tree is reading over your shoulder.

Don’t get me started on the dastardly Parking signs!

Yes, walking around Blarney can be quite dangerous especially if you meet some of the little people. The leprechauns are out and about these days. If you go to kiss the Blarney Stone, you’re almost guaranteed to see them in the grounds of the castle. Unfortunately due to the high cost of living and the price of property, their crock of gold has been sadly depleted to the extent that they are forced to entertain tourists. ’tis a sad day!

Just remember, always look out for the giant ducks!

PS. on a more serious note, the August issue of Digital Journalist is out now!

PPS. Alex Shiels, who I work with at Automattic, has a photoblog called Flight Path hosted on WordPress.com. He’s done a nice job of making a photoblog theme out of the Sandbox css theme! He’s already posting photos from San Francisco. His latest shot, street level 2 is a dark foreboding image taken over there. I’ll have to start working on some of mine, but the last few days have been hectic. I don’t know how Alex managed it!

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/160s
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Funny Gimp Photography Words

Bring out the gimp!

Some people find the name of the most popular open source and GPLed image manipulation program slightly funny or rude, others as a derogatory term, while others just see it as the acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Programme. I think a lot of English speakers fall into the first or second camp unfortunately.

Wikipedia has all bases covered, from the sadomasochism definition to the more familiar GIMP definition.

Gimp is a usually derogatory term used to refer to a (male or female) sexual submissive person, typically dressed in black leather (or rubber), often in a gimp suit, and wearing a bondage hood or mask of the same material. This apparel emphasises sexuality by drawing attention to the crotch and chest, and also sexually objectifies the wearer. Sadomasochistic practice often features in the notion of the gimp, with a partnership of power exchange between gimp and dominatrix or dominant. It can also imply that a male has a smaller than usual penis.

Yeah, I use the Gimp to draw everything…

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Advertising Candid Canon 20D Cork Funny Ireland People Photos Sigma 10-20 St Patrick's Street Street Urban

Wow! A super hero!

This is for all the fans of Marvel and DC Comics publications! Super heroes do exist. They live in Cork, and hand out leaflets on Patrick’s Street in front of Dunnes Stores!

Aperture ƒ/4.5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/320s
Categories
Funny Photography Words

Five more common digital photography mistakes

Jim posted his 5 most common digital photography mistakes and I knew I could come up with a further five, so here goes:

  1. I’m not ready!
    How many times have I missed a shot because my camera was at home or in the bag? Lens covers can be a nuisance too.
  2. Leaving the camera in timer mode.
    I can’t remember how many times I’ve left the timer mode on after taking a self portrait, a group shot or a long exposure shot.
  3. Flash photography in AV mode
    This usually happens when I’ve come from an area where flash photography is not allowed and I’ve shot in AV mode because of the low light conditions. Canon cameras expose for existing light in AV mode so you get a long exposure with a flash. Jim already covered not changing ISO rating, a related topic.
  4. Help! My flash is dead!
    I have a fancy pants Canon 580EX flash. When I bring it out at public gatherings people look at me as if I’m a pro, and they ask what newspaper I’m with. It really shatters the illusion when the batteries are dead.
  5. Deleting or formatting camera media before everything is copied off.
    It has happened a few times. Out in the field I’ll review my images, and sometimes delete ones I don’t want. Sometimes my finger nudges the next photo button and I delete the wrong image.

Not all strictly digital photography mistakes but I make them all the time. It’s a wonder I have any photos to show here at all. What’s your number one annoyance about digital cameras?

PS. Thanks Jacinta for reviewing this post! (via Photographyvoter.com)

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Funny Photography Words

I just press the little doohickey

Cameras get easier to use all the time, even a pig could use them! Pearls Before Swine on May 8th featured this comic strip.

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Not quite in the same league as What The Duck for photographers but a very funny comic for everyone else! 🙂

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Funny Street Words

Street photography large format style

Choosing the right equipment for the job is half the battle. If you don’t choose carefully you could be making a lot of extra work for yourself as you battle with your tools.

Actually, I don’t think this is one of those situations because he handled that camera rather well and didn’t try to use classic street photo techniques. Loading the film on a busy street is a bit awkward looking however, and forget about shooting from the hip! (via auspiciousdragon.net)

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Photography Photos Words

The most sent around duck photo

I would love to know who made an email attachment of my thieving duck and thank them. The Aflac Duck seems to be a well known part of American insurance marketing and people got a kick out of these ducks stealing money from a lady on the street!

Apparently my thieving duck has become “the most sent-around-ha-ha-look-at-the-duck photo evar” but I wish I had watermarked the image with my blog url. It has appeared on:

To those that linked back here, thank you. To the rest, shame on you, why didn’t you use Google and find my blog?

I’m still chuffed that an image of mine is now an “urban legand” of sorts. Not many can say that! More comments on flickr but please link here if you’re going to link anywhere!

Update – welcome visitors from the Zefrank forum!

Update on June 14th. It appears the News of the World newspaper used the Thieving Duck last Sunday. I sent them off an email this afternoon so hopefully I will hear from them within a day or two.

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 55mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/80s