I was there too
A hand raised in greeting, with a smiling face, or is it a hand raised in anger?
Luckily, it was the former, with the smiling face of a friendly man just out of the shot greeting his friend in the plaid hat.
| Aperture | ƒ/1.7 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 6.3mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/1500s |
If you don’t like crowds, you should avoid Valencia during the Fallas festival. I rarely saw any trouble. The crowds were almost always in good mood or, at the very least, resigned to not moving very fast. It appears that moving fast can be accomplished if you hire someone in a high-vis vest who will barge through the crowd, dragging a well-dressed family behind them to the front of the crowd. I saw that once as I waited for the Mascletà one bright sunny day last week.
| Aperture | ƒ/1.7 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 6.3mm |
| ISO | 10 |
| Shutter speed | 1/230s |
If you visit Valencia during the first 19 days of the month of March you’ll be bombarded by the loud bangs of bangers going off, and fireworks every day. You’ll also come across elaborate Falla, or statues, dotted around the city.
In the past, they were built of papier mache, but these days the main construction material is styrofoam. On the 20th of the March, all the Fallas in the city are burnt to the ground, with only one item from each saved.
The best Falla in 2025 was the one built at Jerusalem Convent-Matemático Marzal, and luckily, I was staying about 100m away. In reality, that didn’t help much because the crowds visiting there during the day meant it was almost impossible to walk past it quickly. The only time the streets were nearly empty was at 5am one morning when I was going to take sunrise photos.
Here’s only a small selection of photos from that area. There’s more to come, mostly of crowded streets, but the Falla will feature again, probably.
| Aperture | ƒ/2.4 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 7.9mm |
| ISO | 50 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
A glass fronted building on Wilton Terrace is reflected in the waters of the canal in Dublin earlier this month. I thought it might be the Canadian Embassy, but Google Maps shows it’s a slightly different building.
| Aperture | ƒ/2.2 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 2.2mm |
| ISO | 1600 |
| Shutter speed | 1/8s |
DMode, Depeche Mode Experience, is a Depeche Mode tribute band. They played in Cyprus Avenue on Saturday night. As expected, most of the audience was a bit older, around my own age, or older. Well, Depeche Mode have been around for a while!
I learned that I really don’t know anything but Depeche Mode’s major hits. The rest of the audience were fans and sang along and had a blast. If you love Depeche Mode, you’ll love DMode!
| Aperture | ƒ/1.7 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 6.3mm |
| ISO | 320 |
| Shutter speed | 1/50s |
A little orange or ginger kitten stood guard just inside the tourist entrance to the grounds of the Beylerbeyi Palace in Istanbul.
| Aperture | ƒ/1.7 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 6.3mm |
| ISO | 12 |
| Shutter speed | 1/570s |
Obviously, this cat’s human hadn’t got his chair ready for him to sit on yet.
| Aperture | ƒ/4.9 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 27.2mm |
| ISO | 50 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
We visited the Çamlıca Tepesi yl (Çamlıca Hill) in Istanbul last week. It’s a hill on the eastern side of the city. There is a huge Turkish flag flying from a massively tall flagpole, and you can see out over the Asian side of the city from the nearby park. The city just seems to go on and on.
Thanks, Peter, for showing me the yellow lines on the ground make for good leading lines. I’d originally shot this much closer to the taxi.
See where I took this photo on Google Maps here.
| Aperture | ƒ/2.2 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 2.2mm |
| ISO | 50 |
| Shutter speed | 1/2900s |
The curves and textures of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre in Paris are evident in this close up photo of the roof. I love how the curves flow, and the patterns repeat.
| Aperture | ƒ/4.9 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 27.2mm |
| ISO | 50 |
| Shutter speed | 1/540s |
The Ring Wood in Blarney last night just after the sun set behind me and there was a lovely glow at the horizon.
In the next few years, houses will be built in that field, possibly obscuring this view from across the valley.
| Aperture | ƒ/4.9 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 27.2mm |
| ISO | 64 |
| Shutter speed | 1/50s |
After the Pro Palestinian march walked past and down Oliver Plunkett Street in Cork. There is so much anger at what the Israeli army is doing in Gaza.
How can anyone in their right mind support Netanyahu and his Government after all they’ve done? Hamas are terrorists, but Israel bombing cities and homes and hospitals to rubble and killing tens of thousands of people is not going to address their problems. They’re just laying the groundwork for a perpetual war that will never end.
| Aperture | ƒ/4.9 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 27.2mm |
| ISO | 50 |
| Shutter speed | 1/270s |
Visiting the Mural Room in the Courthouse of Santa Barbara was a treat I was not expecting. The murals depict the history of the region, sometimes inaccurately, as they include Peter Pan, Robin Hood and Errol Flynn!
| Aperture | ƒ/2.2 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 2.2mm |
| ISO | 500 |
| Shutter speed | 1/30s |
