Sigma 10-20 – Page 52 – In Photos dot Org

Homely House: Brian and EagleSpirit

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

The Sexy New County Hall

The Sexy New County Hall

Grabs your attention doesn’t it? Exciting design isn’t it? Wonderful work of engineering eh? Well, ok, it’s only the Cork County Hall but it is the tallest storeyed building in the Republic of Ireland at 67m so that must count for something? No?

The County Hall has been renovated over the last few years and does look better than it used to. I saw someone walking around on it’s roof a week or so ago, bet you’d have a great view from up there. Anyone know how I’d do that?

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

Keep a lookout

Keep a lookout

A father and two sons on St. Patrick’s Street, Cork. I presume they’re waiting for someone from what I heard of the dad talking on his phone as I passed.

Blown out details are on purpose to give it a slightly edgier effect. Hope you like it!

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/1000s

Press the button and walk

Press the button and walk

A pedestrian traffic light on St. Patrick’s Street, Cork. The green man is strutting his stuff and people are walking across.

Does anyone else have a dislike for the design of this button? Sure, there’s a big arrow pointing to a large white dot, but it took several years for people to realise that they press the white button instead of the light at the bottom of the unit. The problem is that people are used to pressing a physical button, something that sticks out and can be pushed in. The white dot is flush with the surface of the unit, and people go to press the only thing that looks vaguelly button-like, the light. I still see people do it, and yes, this is one of my pet peeves, thanks for reading!

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/640s

Different lights

Different lights

Traffic lights and street lighting vie for attention. This is across the road from where Bord Gais used to have their showroom. Bet you never realised the titanic struggle for recognition that was going on?

Aperture	ƒ/13
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/320s

No climbing the poles

No climbing the poles

A sign that points upwards? It either forbids drivers from driving down a road, discourages people from climbing up a light pole or local government don’t want people to look up. Your guess is as good as mine. I’m stumped!

Aperture	ƒ/14
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/400s

Cappuccino Morning

Cappuccino Morning

A beautiful misty morning greeted us a few days ago. The mist rolled down the valley outside and when the sun rose it produced these amazing shades of brown through the fog.

Thanks Jacinta for the name, it fits!

I added a tag cloud to the site this morning. It’s quite obvious from it where I live, and what I take pictures of!

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

The Ryder Cup – Eye on the prize

The Ryder Cup – Eye on the prize

Golf’s “biggest competition”, The 2006 Ryder Cup will begin this weekend with an influx of thousands of people to the K Club in Straffan, Co. Kildare, Ireland. Games between Team Europe and Team USA begin on September 22 and continue until the 24th.

I have to admit I have next to no interest in golf but the media here have been going crazy over it for the last three weeks. The one report about the Ryder Cup which I do recall is a correspondent from the US reporting that interest over there is non-existent. People will be watching football, baseball or basketball. He continued by saying that the people who might be interested won’t be watching either because they’re not going to spend the weekend stuck indoors watching a golf tournament thousands of miles away when they can go out and play a few holes themselves in the sunshine. I’m sure that won’t stop rich business men and politicians flying in via helicopter and spending lavish amounts of money at the K Club.

For a little light hearted entertainment you should listen to the Gift Grub report (.wma file) from the Ryder Cup. It’ll make you smile.

It’s all a little silly.

Later .. Liam Morrison asks “Who cares about the Ryder cup?” and uses Google Trends to find out just who cares. The results aren’t surprising given what I said above but it’s nice to have some solid proof.

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	20mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/60s

The road to Ceili

The road to Ceili

People stroll along the closed off St. Patrick’s Street to the Ceili Mor.

Technique: I had to rotate the photo and crop it a small bit to get a straighter horizon, then some dodge/burn to bring out the contrast, and fired off the GIMP lomo plugin that creates two layers – one to highlight the centre, and the other to provide the vignette. I added a layer mask to the vignette and by using a gradient knocked off the top half of the vignette.

Aperture	ƒ/9
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/160s

Bay Bridge San Francisco

Bay Bridge San Francisco

This is the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. It’s the view from Matt’s apartment building. He brought Andy and myself up there to enjoy the view, and probably in my case to keep me awake after the long flight!

Aperture	ƒ/7.1
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/100s

Waiting for Passengers

Waiting for Passengers

People wait expectantly in San Francisco International Airport for the first sight of someone they know to appear in the crowd off a plane.

Toni, Andy and I were there to meet Podz off his plane. I had flown in earlier in the day and was almost asleep on my feet but I managed to make this hand held long exposure shot!

I like this: Daft Punk at Marley Park because I wanted to go, heard that they were brill in Scotland, but Donal didn’t think much of their gig in Dublin. Nice shots of their light show though!

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	800
Shutter speed	1/8s

O’Connell and Quane

O’Connell and Quane

Daniel O’Connell and Michael Quane on the beach at Fountainstown. They’d been out on the kayaks for several hours but were kind enough to chat to us and allow me to take their photo.
Michael Quane is a celebrated artist who has exhibited internationally and has many public works to his name including the statue, “Horses and Riders” , on the roundabout in Mallow! You can find out more about his work by searching Google.
Daniel O’Connell of course shares his name with a famous character from Irish history.

I forgot to mention. the photo of the kayaks had to be rotated about 1.35 degrees right to get a horizontal horizon. I filled in the white spaces left behind with a liberal use of the clone tool. Thankfully a sandy beach is easy to clone! To get an even exposure I copied the image into a new layer where I brightened it up. The sky was over-exposed but by using a layer mask and a gradient I hid that sky and was left with a nice bright area right at the sea shore.

I like this: What the soldiers see

I have been deployed all over the world from Bosnia to Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq for the first part of the wars with the 101st Airborne Infantry. Currently I am back in Iraq in OIF 3 attached to a Signal unit to help them out, I have been here since May 2005, I have just volunteered to stay till Jan 2007 well I hope you enjoy these pics I will have more of the day by day

(via)

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	800
Shutter speed	1/30s