Sky – Page 56 – In Photos dot Org

Buildings in the sky

I live in a city where the tallest building is one that will be 17 floors high so when I travel to far off lands it’s always great to see tall skyscrapers looming over the streets.

This might bear a striking resemblance to a previous image but it is a different one and was one of my entries in the Patterns Around Us competition at my local camera club.

I have another 3 or 4 similar images but I’m not going to bore you to death by posting all of them unless I can come up with a nice montage effect or something. I’ll have to think about it.

Aperture	ƒ/11
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/320s

Ready to go!

Ready to go!

You better be good at hill starts if you live in San Francisco! I presume it’s slightly easier with an automatic transmission rather than manual?

Highly processed image via multiple tools in the GIMP until I came up with an effect I liked – multiple layers, b/w, gaussian blur, layer modes and more.
I had to rotate the image at first and reconstruct parts of the image, but I think it came out reasonably well!

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/250s

Parking for the Guinness

Parking for the Guinness

Look up for unusual perspectives on ordinary scenes. I was quite happy with this image of a lamppost in Parnell Place, Cork when I took it. The signs are clearly visible and the upside-down Guinness logo catches the eye!

You have to wonder, what’s more important, Guinness or parking?

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

Looming over the building site

Looming over the building site

A tall crane looms over the building site of The Elysian, a new high-rise building that will house offices, apartments, a shopping center and underground parking. The main tower of the new building will be 17 storeys high, taller than anything else in the city.

Over a year ago I took a photo of the building site as it was then for the US Book. As you can see, they’ve dug the foundations and started on the main tower.

This picture was taken from the top of a 4 storey car park which gives you some idea of how tall that crane is!

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

Temporary Dwelling Prohibited

Temporary Dwelling Prohibited

A Cork County Council warning sign looms overhead at Garretstown Beach, Co. Cork. Luckily I had left the caravan at home and the rubbish was in the bin!

This photo shows one of the disadvantages of shooting in Jpeg – it can’t cope with the subtle shades of blue in the sky, although the ugly bands of colour are made worse by my vignetting of the image afterwards. Oops.

In other news, I ordered Bibble Labs Pro RAW conversion version using a discount code on The Digital Photography Show. The nice thing is, I can use the Pro edition on Linux and the Mac, which will be useful. It’s also a great piece of software and will encourage me to shoot more RAW images.

I also ordered the Canon 50mm f1.8 lens from warehouseexpress.com (via) who were reasonably priced. Hopefully I’ll get that in the next few days and in time to shoot the IT@Cork conference in a week’s time. Eddie Hobbs and various people from the online world will be speaking there and I hope to get some goot shots.

Aperture	ƒ/11
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/320s

Pier 38, San Francisco

Pier 38, San Francisco

Pier 38 is where True Ventures have their San Francisco office. It was the location of a great post-WordCamp party last August. It was such a beautiful night I had to take a shot of the moon and lights reflecting in the water.

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1.6s

Cupid’s Arrow in the sunset

Cupid’s Arrow in the sunset

The arrow head of Cupid’s Span is caught as a silhouette by the evening sky in San Francisco. The monument sits in Rincon Park and was created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen to mirror the span of the Bay Bridge nearby.

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

The pizzeria and the sign

The pizzeria and the sign

“Skateboard and bicycle riding prohibited on sidewalk”

We went for pizza one night in this pizzeria with the rest of Automattic. It’s possibly on California but I can’t be sure because I was hungry and it was dark, and did I say I was hungry?

Oh, great pizza too!

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	400
Shutter speed	1/13s

The Stephen Pierce Gallery Cafe is open

The Stephen Pierce Gallery Cafe is open

A large sign outside the gallery and workshop of Stephen Pearce Pottery in Co. Cork proclaims that their cafe is open for business. I didn’t go into the cafe because I was walking around with Oscar while Jacinta was inside looking around. It was a beautiful day so I didn’t mind.

Stephen Pearce is very popular and most recently did a deal with a local supermarket chain, SuperValu, offering his products at a discount with stamps. I don’t care for his work much but a lot of people like it and he’s doing well!

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

A sunlit river

A sunlit river

The sun blazes over Cork City and the River Lee on a fresh October afternoon.

This was taken on Patrick’s Bridge looking out over the River Lee on a wonderfully bright October day. This bridge was opened on December 12th 1861 by the then Mayor, Sir John Arnott. I read a story that the first vehicle across the bridge was a man driving a horse and cart who rushed in front of the Mayor and the crowd. Does anyone know more about this?

Aperture	ƒ/18
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	200
Shutter speed	1/640s

Golden Gate Tower

Golden Gate Tower

One of the suspension towers of the Golden Gate Bridge looms over traffic on a beautiful August afternoon.

Driving across the bridge was wonderful because the bridge is such an iconic part of the San Francisco and it’s simply enormous! Maybe next time I’ll walk across it’s 1.7 mile length. If you’re interested in finding out more, the Wikipedia page is a mine of information!

PS. Congrats Mel, Sharon and Alex on the new member of your family!

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

Currykippane Cemetery

Currykippane Cemetery

It’s Halloween, that time of year that the souls of the dead rise up, goblins and monsters are abroad and witches fly about. I’ve already had my barm brack and even got the ring, but tonight is when kids go “trick or treating” looking for treats and avoiding tricks!

I made this image a few weeks ago early one morning in Currykippane Cemetery near Kerrypike. It was the first time I was in the area and I couldn’t resist shooting a few images. In the background is the beautiful Lee Valley. There are a few other nice vantage points up on those hills so I’ll have to go up there some other morning.

November is known as Samhain in Irish, but in Celtic tradition it’s also the end of the Summer and is accompanied by a festival. In modern times this is continued by the tradition of Halloween and All Souls’ Day. This and a lot more are covered on the Wikipedia page on Samhain.

It’s a spooky time of the year!

Hehe. What The Duck today is brilliant, although you may not get the joke in the last frame if you haven’t got a Canon DSLR. 😉

We had an interesting night – no kids called to the house but we went for a walk with Oscar down the road and bumped into several neighbours and spent almost an hour out in the cold talking to different people!

Aperture	ƒ/13
Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Focal length	10mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/320s