The Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin and the lights of the Convention Centre Dublin fight for attention. Red and Green lights reflect off the River Liffey on a warm October evening earlier this year.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 10s |
The “Nollaig Shona Duit” signs at both ends of St. Patrick’s Street in Cork are all lit up again this year.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/1.3s |
The Ferris wheel on Grand Parade in Cork on a freezing December evening. The whole scene is twisted upside down in a small crystal ball.
Thanks Henry for all the help, and the crystal ball!
| Aperture | ƒ/18 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 38mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 3.2s |
Cars passing over the Michael Collins Bridge in Cork produce light trails in the fog.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 6D |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 50 |
| Shutter speed | 1s |
Tivoli Docks on the River Lee as seen from The Marina in Blackrock in January 2020.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 8s |
The lights of Llafranc in Spain shine brightly near 1am in the morning after a wedding ceremony in a nearby hotel.
Swimming there was a highlight of the year for me. Lovely calm and warm waters. As it’s the Mediterranean, there was barely any tide, so you could be sure how much beach was there at any one time!
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 48mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 5s |
When we stayed in Valletta in Malta a few years ago there were several thunder storms. I hardly saw any lightning but dark clouds accompanied them and in the evenings blotted out the sun as it set over the city and The Grand Harbour.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 70mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 6s |
I barely made it to Cobh on Sunday night to photograph the fireworks display that started promptly at 10pm. On the way there, the cloudy sky was lit up by peals of thunder and flashes of lightning. Rain fell in light spatters on the car, and I’m told there was a downpour just before I arrived.
Luckily the rain held off for the duration of the fireworks that night. I met Vivian and Michelle in front of the Cathedral where they had saved a space for me. I set up my tripod quickly and grappled with an umbrella while I secured my camera to the tripod and connected a remote release.
Before I could manually focus the camera, the bells of the Cathedral rang out and the first firework flew into the sky and burst with a bang.
If you’re interested. I shot at around f/5.0, ISO 400 and timed the exposure manually with the shutter release when I saw fireworks fly into the air and explode. It worked most of the time, and to help focus I tapped the screen on the water in front of the fireworks, which adds a focus square there on my camera.
| Aperture | ƒ/5 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 38mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 2s |
A few photos from the fireworks display on Spike Island in Cork Harbour last night. 1300 fireworks were launched in just under 10 minutes!
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 124mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 4s |
The enormous (for Lanzarote) Arrecife Gran Hotel & Spa sits in the harbour of Arrecife and dominates the skyline. It’s the tallest building on the island and not without controversy. Some time after it’s construction a law came into force forbidding the construction of such tall buildings on the island.
This page says it was built almost overnight in 1988, but Wikipedia and other sources mention 1970 or 1971. It suffered a huge fire in 1994 but was then reopened as 5 star hotel in 2004. I think I need to go up to the rooftop bar next time for the views ..
This is a long exposure shot. I didn’t have my tripod with me so I had to rest the camera on a wall, with my wallet and a lens cap under the lens to tilt the camera up. Making things more precarious was the very strong gusts of wind that blew through the area that would almost knock you over that day. Certainly if you were huddling over the camera, trying to keep it steady for the 10 seconds or so of this image.
| Aperture | ƒ/16 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 16mm |
| ISO | 50 |
| Shutter speed | 25s |
Every time I go to Lanzarote I like to photograph the road coming from Playa Blanca to Femés. It leads to a very steep hill that some cars have problems with. Our hired car included, as it was very underpowered!
If you look carefully you’ll see the ghostly image of a car near the pole in the foreground of this image. They stopped for a good few seconds before successfully getting to the top of the hill.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 30s |
Fireworks lit the sky over Cobh last night as part of the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. I’m glad Henry heard about the event as I had no idea it was on!
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 65mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 2s |