O’Flynn’s Butchers on Marlboro Street

O’Flynn’s Butchers on Marlboro St. Cork is a very popular butchers serving high quality meat with a friendly smile. We rang in our order early because we knew the place would be bare by the time we go in!

Here are the staff posing for my camera, there’s a huge collection of photos on the wall so I’m not the first, or probably the last to wander in with a camera. In fact Brian O Reilly created a 360 degree wrap around image using Apple’s Quicktime engine.

Thanks for the extra comments yesterday! The encouragement is always appreciated!

I like this: 25 years of the Brown Sisters.

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/40s

Temporary Dwelling Prohibited

A Cork County Council warning sign looms overhead at Garretstown Beach, Co. Cork. Luckily I had left the caravan at home and the rubbish was in the bin!

This photo shows one of the disadvantages of shooting in Jpeg – it can’t cope with the subtle shades of blue in the sky, although the ugly bands of colour are made worse by my vignetting of the image afterwards. Oops.

In other news, I ordered Bibble Labs Pro RAW conversion version using a discount code on The Digital Photography Show. The nice thing is, I can use the Pro edition on Linux and the Mac, which will be useful. It’s also a great piece of software and will encourage me to shoot more RAW images.

I also ordered the Canon 50mm f1.8 lens from warehouseexpress.com (via) who were reasonably priced. Hopefully I’ll get that in the next few days and in time to shoot the IT@Cork conference in a week’s time. Eddie Hobbs and various people from the online world will be speaking there and I hope to get some goot shots.

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/320s

Seaside Bubbles

Bubbles in the incoming tide break on the sandy beach at Garretstown about a month ago.

I turned this black and white because I love the abstract feel to the bubbles and it makes the grain of the sand beneath more visible. I had to jump up to avoid getting splashed moments later but such are the risks one takes for one’s art!

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/800s

Carefree on the beach

Shoes off wandering along the beach, the glow of a setting sun and nothing to do but enjoy the moment.

Taken in Garretstown last month on a warm Autumn day.

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 179mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/2000s

Glistening Blackberries

Blackberries glisten in the bright sun of an August afternoon in Co. Cork.

I love blackberry jam, blackberry tarts, blackberry crumble. I don’t like picking the fruit, but I have many childhood memories of wandering country lanes with my family looking for the best fruit for my mother to make delicious jam.
Nowadays, you can buy a carton of blackberries in M&S cheaply. Oh how times have moved on.

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

Wait to cross

Please wait until the green man shows before crossing the street.

I love the shadows on the ground cast by the sun! Shot on St. Patrick’s Bridge, Cork.

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/200s

Wet Wellow Web

Early in the morning dew coats everything and water droplets on spider webs glisten in the rising sun.

I’m not sure where this was taken, it was probably somewhere in Blarney but it was taken with my Panasonic FZ5 last September and I only copied it off a few days ago!

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera DMC-FZ5
Focal length 11mm
ISO 80
Shutter speed 1/125s

The Stephen Pierce Gallery Cafe is open

A large sign outside the gallery and workshop of Stephen Pearce Pottery in Co. Cork proclaims that their cafe is open for business. I didn’t go into the cafe because I was walking around with Oscar while Jacinta was inside looking around. It was a beautiful day so I didn’t mind.

Stephen Pearce is very popular and most recently did a deal with a local supermarket chain, SuperValu, offering his products at a discount with stamps. I don’t care for his work much but a lot of people like it and he’s doing well!

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/200s

The secret life of the Irish blogger

2006-11-06__mg_6390-m.jpg Haydn Shaughnessy’s article on blogging in Ireland is in today’s Irish Times. It’s a lengthy 3/4 page read and in the Arts section so it covers the artistic side of blogging more than the political or mainstream – photography, podcasting and video blogging are the main aspects of blogging that he treats.

Unfortunately the online version is subscriber only but here’s what he wrote about us photobloggers:

In fact, Irish bloggers excel at photography, and two of the most outstanding are the O’Caoimh brothers. Their record of changing Cork city and county are the kind of document we might look back on in a decade with some gratitude. The photographs of Ryan Whalley, meanwhile (www.glasseyalley.com), logging the Cork countryside and coast, are exceptionally well staged works of art and draw attention from around the globe.

In each case it’s their self-taught skills that make blogging a superior distribution mechanism than, say, the local photographic gallery. Is the Irish blogging scene vibrant and creative, as the photography suggests?

Ryan’s Glassey Alley photoblog, and my brother Donal’s blog are referred to above. One of the photos in the article is this one I shot at the Ceili Mor several weeks ago. If this is your first time to this site feel free to browse around and visit again. There’s a new photo here every day!

A sunlit river

The sun blazes over Cork City and the River Lee on a fresh October afternoon.

This was taken on Patrick’s Bridge looking out over the River Lee on a wonderfully bright October day. This bridge was opened on December 12th 1861 by the then Mayor, Sir John Arnott. I read a story that the first vehicle across the bridge was a man driving a horse and cart who rushed in front of the Mayor and the crowd. Does anyone know more about this?

Aperture ƒ/18
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/640s

Little Communion Girl

A girl dressed in a communion dress and veil walks with her mother through the crowds on St. Patrick’s Street Cork on Saturday. Dressed as she is, she looks almost lost but the crowd parted way for her and her parents.

I don’t know why she was dressed like that. First Communion ceremonies aren’t until next year. Is it a communion dress? Could she be a bridesmaid or flower girl at a wedding?

Two of my photos may be entered into the Irish Photographic Federation’s National Shield as part of the Mallow Camera Club entry. They need fairly large prints which is a bit of a problem but of they’re suitable I’ll link to them in a few days. The competition will be held in Portlaoise on the 12th of November so I’ll be eagerly waiting for the results! I’m not the only blogger entering. Jonathan Hill is entering too!

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/400s

Currykippane Cemetery

It’s Halloween, that time of year that the souls of the dead rise up, goblins and monsters are abroad and witches fly about. I’ve already had my barm brack and even got the ring, but tonight is when kids go “trick or treating” looking for treats and avoiding tricks!

I made this image a few weeks ago early one morning in Currykippane Cemetery near Kerrypike. It was the first time I was in the area and I couldn’t resist shooting a few images. In the background is the beautiful Lee Valley. There are a few other nice vantage points up on those hills so I’ll have to go up there some other morning.

November is known as Samhain in Irish, but in Celtic tradition it’s also the end of the Summer and is accompanied by a festival. In modern times this is continued by the tradition of Halloween and All Souls’ Day. This and a lot more are covered on the Wikipedia page on Samhain.

It’s a spooky time of the year!

Hehe. What The Duck today is brilliant, although you may not get the joke in the last frame if you haven’t got a Canon DSLR. 😉

We had an interesting night – no kids called to the house but we went for a walk with Oscar down the road and bumped into several neighbours and spent almost an hour out in the cold talking to different people!

Aperture ƒ/13
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/320s