Points to relief

A sign points the way to the public toilets, or restroom, at Inch Strand, Co. Kerry.
This sign can be a much sought after sight on a long journey!
“Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”
“Mom! I need to go!”
“I can’t hold it any more!”

Everyone rushes to the public convenience when they hit the beach.

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 48mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/125s

Happy child in the water

A very happy boy runs through the incoming tide at Inch Strand, Co. Kerry. The tide came in suddenly forcing all the adults back but it brought a big smile to this youngster’s face!

Originally shot in colour with the sun behind the boy, I had to brighten the image significantly to get any detail in the boy. That blew out the brighter parts of the image so I made it into a black and white image and I’m very happy with the result.

It was competition night in Mallow Camera Club last night. The standard was amazingly high, but then again, a number of old hands, and pros are members as well as newbies like myself. I had to select 15 images for entry and with some difficulty whittled 30 images down to that number. After all that, there was some mix up with the projector and my images weren’t shown anyway. I don’t mind because the deadline for digital images had been during the week, not on the night, and I think images had been copied into the wrong directory. This photo would have been one of those images shown.

Just got an email from Shutterstock, my check’s in the post! Woo!

Aperture ƒ/13
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 48mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/320s

The Fish Box

An abandoned fish box on Inch Strand, Co. Kerry. Clouds and a storm loom over the mountains across the bay but it was a bright blue sky that greeted us with only fluffy white clouds. I expect this box either fell overboard off a trawler or may have been used by a fisherman on the beach but left behind.

Technique: Split into two layers, darkened the top one to bring out the sky and cloud, used a gradient to make a smooth transition. Merge layers, burned the whole image, then created a new layer, set the mode to overlay and used another gradient to darken the sky further.

I like this: Oh oh, I’m caught!!

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/250s

Homely House: Brian and EagleSpirit

Homely House in Dingle

EagleSpirit and Brian pose for a photo on their last day of business running Homely House, a small cafe in Dingle, Co. Kerry. Brian ran it for eight years, while his partner EagleSpirit has been an integral part of the charm of the little establishment for the past four. It closed on Saturday for the last time. They’re off to Hawaii in the next few weeks. Quite a change from Dingle!

They ran a very successful business. I was in Homely House a few times last year when I stayed in Dingle and it had always been packed! Last Saturday, Jacinta and I popped in for a quick snack and a chance to get out of the short-lived shower that morning. EagleSpirit greeted us with a huge smile and we really enjoyed our food. Jacinta is still thinking about the five-berry cake we shared after. Yum!

Good luck in Hawaii the two of you! Go n’eiri an bothair libh!

Aperture ƒ/4.5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/60s