Lifebelt in the grass

A lifebelt lay in the grass at a beach on the Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry last September. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, beautiful clouds contrasted with the deep blue of the sky and a light breeze blew off the sea.

We were just going back to the car after a nice stroll on the beach. I had just taken footprints in the sand down on the beach when I looked back one more time and saw this striking scene in front of me.

The clouds were perfect, the sun was shining on the beach, the far away hills were in shadow and light. Perfect moment!

Aperture ƒ/13
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/400s

Co. Cork Cemetery

A graveyard in Co. Cork attracted my attention last summer while walking with Oscar down a small road. I didn’t go in but I got a few nice shots from over the cemetery gate.

This is a the result of sandwiching two versions of this image together. One is overexposed and the other underexposed. It’s difficult to get the bits around the trees right but I think I did a pretty good job!

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/320s

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

Clouds over the Lough

Clouds gather and block out the sun over the Lough in Cork last year. The display was beautiful as light wispy clouds and dark brooding rain clouds skirted across the sky.

The sun made one final effort to shine, but the clouds won out and it started to rain moments later.

Aperture ƒ/13
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/500s

The soaking wet happy springer spaniel

This is another photo of Ruby, a springer spaniel that lives in Myrtleville. This time she followed us over to Fennell’s Bay where she dashed off into the shallows after stones. She was deliriously happy!

Unfortunately the same could not be said for a group of teenagers higher up on the beach who threw stones at us and into the water very close to us. Their malevolent laughter spoiled that moment for us and put us in real danger. They weren’t locals and by their accents it wasn’t hard to figure out where in Cork they were from.

There’s more of Ruby here and here. We were down in Myrtleville last weekend and didn’t see her at all. I hope she’s ok and was tucked up at home in front of the fire instead of at a cold and wet beach.

Congratulations to Gavin@Headphoneland for winning best photoblog at last night’s Irish Blog Awards! Get well soon!

There’s definitely something up with Flickr’s “Blog This” function. The URL of the image it passed to my blog was borked and displayed the infamous, “This photo is currently unavailable”. I reported it yesterday but I guess it’ll take longer than that to fix.

The ever vexxing question of privacy arrises on Kevin’s blog here and here. In the USA it’s perfectly ok to use someone’s image for non commercial usage as long as the photo was taken in a public place. I can understand why that woman is suing Yahoo! but I guess it’s the money she wants rather than protecting her privacy. (Is there a difference?) I covered the issue in the past, where things could be a little different in Ireland – the expectation of privacy extends to a private conversation in a public place. Vexxing indeed!

The Digital Photography Show interviewed Bert Krages, the author of the PDF, The Photographer’s Right on the subject of photographer’s rights. I haven’t listened yet but it should be good as he knows his stuff. Obviously laws will change from place to place so do some research locally before shooting on the street! The interview is also mentioned here and here.

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/125s

Family at the beach

Dad carries the forgotten kite, daughter walks through the water and mom basks in the sun of a glorious September afternoon at Inch Strand, Co. Kerry.

Tonight is theme night at the camera club. My theme is “The sea” so I went through my archives yesterday choosing suitable photos. This will be one, which is possibly stretching the definition a little but it does have breaking waves on a beach.

Vignetting was done using an overlay layer and a separate overlay was used to make the shadows of the clouds deeper. I could have burned them in as well but I like the way it turned out.

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

The Cork County Hall and the web

Early one morning I visited the County Hall in Cork and took a few photos. In fact, this one is from the same shoot.

Webs covered a tree behind the building, and the early morning dew sparkled in the sun. I was hoping for an ominous feel to the photo but I failed, and instead I have something that mixes nature with our man made presence on this world.

I quite like the way the strands of the web stand out too!

Aperture ƒ/13
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/400s

Footprints in the sand

Footprints on a sandy beach on the Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry.

The blue sky, fluffy clouds, golden sand and warm breeze are just the tonic for a relaxing break away from it all.


Apertureƒ/14
CameraCanon EOS 20D
Focal length11mm
ISO200
Shutter speed1/400s

Mushrooms in the roots

Mushrooms grow from the roots of a tree in Fitzgerald’s Park, Cork. I just loved the colour and texture of the fungus, especially in the light of the sunset behind me.

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/125s

Standing in the gutter

It’s pouring rain, I’m just after eating a delicious meal with family and what do I do? Go shoot the leaves in the drain across the road.

I can tell you it was difficult enough holding the umbrella in one hand, camera in the other, thinking about composition and keeping my balance, without getting wet. *Phew*

Shot in Blarney on a very wet day.

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 1600
Shutter speed 1/100s

Late Autumn Leaves

The browns and yellows of Autumn grow darker as the rain soaks in and leaves disintegrate on the ground. A bench stands tall in the distance at Doneraile Park, Co. Cork.

Aperture ƒ/5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/50s

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