Cork City Tour Bus

The Tour Bus just left without me! An open top bus brings tourists around the city, where to? I’m not sure, I’ve never taken it!

This was on Grand Parade about 9 months ago. The plastic dividers in the middle of the street are now gone and where that bus is driving is now pavement, with the odd road works still going on.

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

The Collins Bookshop

If you walk past this area now, the Amacas Restaurant is in this building on Paul Street, Cork. At the time the building was empty, having been vacated by the Gingerbread House a few weeks previously.
This sign is now gone too, but Collins Bookshop on Carey’s Lane is still there, I think. There’s a fancy glass partition in front of the building now where smokers can sup their coffee and eat their food. A far cry from the previous occupant’s dining arrangements.

I’m a sucker for old and weather beaten signs, street furniture and general rusted implements so I had to get a shot of this while walking past.

Aperture ƒ/5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/200s

Stop for four

The light says stop so we stop. A junction in downtown San Francisco as we walked about town. I just realised the vehicle in the picture is parked awfully close to the corner. There isn’t any driver staring madly at the camera. Hope he didn’t get a ticket. That’s Banana Republic across the street and what looks like Rinelli?

Off to the hospital again in a short while. Unlike the beautiful blue sky in this photo it’s overcast outside, but I’ll be in a hospital room for most of the day so it doesn’t matter..

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/640s

Kilbrittain 6 miles

A sign points to Kilbrittain in Co. Cork near the beach at Garrettstown.

Has it been 2 years already Ryan? My Flickr account expires in February 2008 so I have a bit more time on my hands. It’s been well worth it however!

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

45 on the Golden Gate

The posted speed limit for the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco is 45mph but good luck to anyone who managed to reach that speed! Traffic crawled the day we were there and I suspect that’s the norm.

Shot from the car as we drove along. Thanks Andy for driving that day!

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 20mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/500s

Letters only

The post box at Garretstown, Co. Cork pictured last year but in pretty much the same condition yesterday when we drove past on the way home. I love the worn texture of the paint!

I like this: Headphoneland

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

Never mind the bollocks

A Sex Pistols fan on his bike last April. This was taken on Washington Street, Cork while waiting for the street lights to change. I was walking, not in a car!

PS. Mallow Camera Club did really well yesterday at the SACC competition!

The club won the event outright and also took first place in each of the three sections, Colour Prints, Monochrome Prints, and Slides. In the individual category club members Morgan O’Neill and John Hooton won first prize in Colour Prints and Slides sections respectively.

Well done everyone! Sorry I couldn’t make it up for the day. In case you’re interested, here’s another reminder that Des Clinton will be talking at the club tonight.

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 106mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/400s

San Francisco DPT on the job

The San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) have painted the kerb of the sidewalk in the city to designate different parking areas in the city.

Wandering around the city I was struck by the startling paint job on the ground, especially the “warning” colours used. It didn’t stop people double parking though, but I didn’t spot any traffic cops around either!

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

Caution Children

A sign at the entrance to my estate warns motorists to watch out for children playing on the street.

Just to prove that you don’t need a big digital SLR to take interesting photos, this was taken with my Panasonic FZ5. I saw the great cloudscape in the sky and illuminated the sign with the onboard flash.

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera DMC-FZ5
Focal length 6mm
ISO 80
Shutter speed 1/1600s

Where’s the water?

The water is just underneath the pavement in this image made in Blarney last month.

What do the initials SV stand for? I don’t know, it’s too early on a Monday morning to figure that one out.

Aperture ƒ/5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/50s

SF Weekly

San Francisco Weekly is only one of a number of free publications available in that city. Not sure what day it’s out though. Doh!

My photos went down reasonably well at Photography Ireland yesterday. There’s a good street photography forum there. It’s worth a visit if you’re looking for inspiration or critiques or simply want to talk to like-minded people!

4 Easy Photoshop Techniques to Make Your Pictures Pop! has a few techniques I’ve used myself in the past. I meant to blog about those techniques, but hey, they’ve done the hard work now, including screenshots and everything. Good post!

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

Your mom knows kung fuu

I’ve been bursting to tell everyone for the last few months that in 2007 I will become a father!

Jacinta, my wife, is pregnant and she’s due in the middle of April! We’re very excited about it but also nervous. We don’t want to know or care if the baby is a boy or a girl. A healthy baby is all we want. Guys – look out for the book, “A bloke’s guide to pregnancy”. It’s a great read, very entertaining and will explain a bit about what to expect and what’s going in your partner’s body! Now you know why I was more than a little interested in who was pregnant on Today FM!

Don’t be surprised if my blogging slows down a little bit around April, but I will try and have about 2 months of photos ready to be posted for late April and on to May. Hopefully things may quieten down and get into a routine after that.

And now I can reveal the only event that marred what was a great year in 2006. The main reason I didn’t attend the Irish Blog Awards last year was because Jacinta was pregnant at the time and the pregnancy wasn’t going so well. Unfortunately, she had a miscarriage soon after.
I find that miscarriage is a taboo subject to talk about. Very few bloggers will talk about it even though 1 in 4 pregnancies will probably not go full-term. Maybe it’s superstition and considered tempting fate to even bring the subject up. Whatever the reason, it’s an awful tragedy for expectant parents to go through.

Happy new year!

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