ESB – Broadband – Eircom

Power, Internet, Telephone. The combination of critical services that keeps my job going. When they work we don’t care but failure in even one is disastrous.

Pictured on St. Patrick’s Street while I was kneeling down and preparing to change lens. Anyone know which shop this was taken in front of?

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

Looking out for the kids

A wary father carries his son on his shoulder at the Ceili Mor as his photo is taken on St. Patrick’s Street last weekend. Looks like his passenger is enjoying the festival!

I like this: State of Emergency – pictures from Vogue of models and Police. They’re scanned from Vogue Italia so buy the magazine if you see it and enjoy this photo essay.

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/200s

Girls dancing on the street

People of all ages joined in the fun dancing on St. Patrick’s Street last weekend at the Ceili Mor, but there was a noticeable lack of male participation. Any man out there had his pick of the women! Are guys too shy, or are women better dancers?
Me? I was taking photos! If I didn’t have my camera I’d have been out there like a shot, yes sir, definitely, no doubt about it at all…

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

Pure joy! A child on drums!

Can you imagine the noise? Well, don’t worry, it was in the middle of the street! A child took control of the drums while the adults took a break during the Cork Folk Festival.
From the programme I guess the group singing and dancing with accompanied drums and music were the “Christ Restoration Ministries Gospel Choir”. A large crowd gathered around so it was difficult to get any shots of the dancing, not surprising really because they were very good.

I like this: Battersea Power Station and Grosvenor Bridge because the photographer, Dave Gorman, had a positive experience with the police. (via)

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

All the fun of the Ceili Mor

The Ceili Mor on St. Patrick’s Street, Cork, last weekend. Last year the Ceili Mor attracted 8,371 people who broke the world record for the largest Irish dancing event!
This year was a more modest event but still the people showed up and joined in, slowly at first, but there was a decent crowd out enjoying themselves later!
Photos from last year: part 1 and part 2.

I forgot to mention. I saw so many people with cameras that I’m surprised there aren’t a lot more Cork-based photoblogs. I’m not talking about parents with a compact camera and kids in tow, I counted at least 5 solitary people silently working the crowd and the dancers with everything from bridge cameras to Digital SLRs and zoom lenses. I really need to get business cards printed and spread the word about WordPress.com

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 28mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/80s

Princess Jacinta

Royal Sedan Crew Portrait

Princess Jacinta was formally announced to the populace of Cork as she rode a sedan car up Saint Patrick’s Street in Cork. She was regal in stature, enjoying every moment of it, and alighted outside Boots Chemist on the thoroughfare where she was presented with a flower as a token of gratitude from a happy populace. She ended her reign shortly afterwards and is at home with me now. The experience hasn’t changed her at all.
“Your highness, is that ok?”

Members of Cork Circus took my wife Jacinta up the main street in Cork City. She recognised one of the group as the Midleton Princess I photographed last week and after speaking to her, they persuaded her to ride in their sedan car. She was embarrassed at first but what fun is life if you can’t do crazy things every now and again eh?
We were in town enjoying the festivities of the Ceili Mor and the Cork Folk Festival.

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

Midleton Princess

Adding a bit of humour ot the Midleton Food and Drink Festival, this princess was just on a break but kindly posed for the camera after I asked.

Sorry about the blown out detail on her hand – the sun was behind her so I had to fill in the shadows with flash. Unfortunately her hand was sunlit and the camera just couldn’t take it.

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

East Cork Camera Group at Midleton Food and Drink Festival

Thomas Tattan at the East Cork Camera Group stand in Midleton yesterday. They were participating in the Midleton Food and Drink Festival and had a great photo gallery in a quiet courtyard off the beaten track. A good crowd were milling about enjoying the photos and making purchases.

We got down early to the festival, before the main crowds and were able to enjoy it at our leisure. More photos throughout the week!

I like this: Mara crossing and Taken at a wedding and Some stop action frames

Aperture ƒ/13
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 33mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

Cobh Train Station

Cobh Train Station, taken just before closing many months ago. It’s a long exposure shot of the interior of a fine building on the quay-side.

“The Queenstown Story”, a museum in the background of this shot is worth a visit and tells the story of the port of Cobh as the last place 3 million Irish people saw before they sailed for the United States. Some of those sailed on the ill-fated Titanic.

The Queenstown Story on virtualtourist.com has more reviews, and pictures of the museum if you’re interested.

Techincal details:

  1. Duplicate Layer
  2. Brighten new layer with Curves tool.
  3. Blur with Gaussian Blur and a radius of 15 pixels.
  4. Black/White conversion with channel mixer.
  5. Change layer mode to Grain merge, 82.5% opacity.
  6. Resize and unsharp mask the lower layer.

I like this: Shandon Tower.

Aperture ƒ/16
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 8s

Cobh Peoples Regatta – Flash Harry

Flash Harry, a Queen tribute band played to the crowd at the Cobh Peoples Regatta last weekend after the fireworks. They were great, driving the crowd wild!
*phew* This post took ages to do, had to get up early to work on this one. Hope you enjoy the photos!

You can find out more about Flash Harry on their website.
Sorry if you’re on dialup, this may take a while to download!

Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 125mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/60s

Cobh Peoples Regatta Fireworks

I went down to Cobh to see the end of the Cobh Peoples Regatta on Sunday night. I met Donal and Celine down there and a great night was had by all!

The Regatta is a weekend long festival which I found out about last year, watched the fireworks and the band that played. This year’s band was Flash Harry, a Queen tribute band. Photos of them to appear tomorrow!

Cobh Peoples Regatta Fireworks
Cobh Peoples Regatta Fireworks
Cobh Peoples Regatta Fireworks
Cobh Peoples Regatta Fireworks
Cobh Peoples Regatta Fireworks

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 1600
Shutter speed 1/6s

Ferry Building’s Clock Tower

The clock tower of the Ferry Buildings, San Francisco. We had a pre Wordcamp dinner with lots of people in Taylor’s Automatic Refresher.

I was glad to meet many people for the first time, among them Niall Kennedy, Scott Beale, Michelle Clay and Safire.
I guess giving me business cards is a good way of getting a link out of me! Thanks Niall for showing myself and Bryan around the building. Some of the shots came out great, they’ll appear over the next few days!

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 48mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/160s