I was there too
Brown Thomas on Patrick Street, Cork, is all lit up again for Christmas. On Oliver Plunkett Street they’ve put up the usual decorations and they look fabulous!
Links:
Christian does a nice edit of a panorama in Lightroom Classic. I learned something new – use the aspect slider to adjust the oddities of LrC panoramas.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/6s |
Light shines out of the windows of the Dubray bookshop in Cork recently.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 16mm |
| ISO | 3200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
This is me standing on the old walls of Cork where I took this photo in Bishop Lucey Park yesterday afternoon. The sun had already started to head to the horizon and it wasn’t even 3pm, but it did light up the mural on the wall and placed the ground in front of me in shadow.
For many in Ireland, November is firmly in the winter months of the year. It seems to be a traditional Irish/Celtic thing because Met Éireann uses meteorological seasons which classify September, October and November as autumn.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/1000s |
Today was International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, and it being Saturday there was another rally supporting the Palestinian people and Gaza in Cork. It went from Grand Parade, down St. Patrick’s Street and up Oliver Plunkett Street, finishing up on Grand Parade again, at the corner with South Mall, along the river.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/2000s |
If there’s one thing that was a constant in the old Bishop Lucey Park in Cork it was the pigeons. They swarmed over the old city wall where humans were denied because of a fence around it. Sometimes the wall was thick with them, waiting for a child to come along and scream and laugh at them as they flew into the air in panic.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
One of the food trailers at the Skibbereen market on the day I visited in 2019 was “Little Green Shoot”. They’re on Facebook, but haven’t updated since 2020 so they may not be operating any more. A lot has happened since then.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 16mm |
| ISO | 160 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
Big Generator rocked Cobh last August during the Cobh People’s Regatta. They played in the band stand in the park and even later in the evening after the fireworks there was a large crowd dancing and enjoying the music! Look out for them as they play around the country.
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 124mm |
| ISO | 12800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/80s |
Two visitors to the Natural History Museum in London admire the huge skeleton in the main hall.
The Natural History Museum’s most famous skeleton used to be “Dippy,” a diplodocus that dominated that main hall for 112 years. In 2017, it was replaced with a blue whale skeleton (which is what you see here). Dippy wasn’t actually a real skeleton though; it was a composite cast made from plaster and steel. The irony? For over a century, visitors thought they were seeing an actual dinosaur when they were really looking at a rather elaborate replica.
| Aperture | ƒ/1.8 |
| Camera | SM-G998B |
| Focal length | 6.7mm |
| ISO | 50 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
I have a good reason for photographing this perfectly ordinary scene. Over the years I’ve taken photos of men sitting on that electricity box, and this just adds to that collection.
First there was this photo of Liam Foley, an elderly man enjoying a cigarette. He passed away 2 months after that photo was taken. I was glad I could pass on that photo to his family.
Then a few years later, yet another photo of a man enjoying a cigarette.
And now, many years later, a photo of a man about to roll a cigarette.
I like what they did with the door and the mural. Lovely to see the colour there.
| Aperture | ƒ/5 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 62mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
A selfie at Cork Pride last August on Kennedy Quay. I wonder if this selfie is on Instagram somewhere?
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
I’m not a big fan of brown, and there’s a lot of brown in the new Bishop Lucey Park. I do really like what they did with the old wall. That’s the slightly rough-looking grass bit in the second picture of my gallery. The old park had this cut off from the public behind railings, with stagnant water collecting at the bottom. Now, it’s an area where people can sit on steps and walk around.
I love that the old entrance is still there and that they removed the railing running around the outside.
It’s disappointing to see that gravel was used so much. I imagine it has something to do with maintenance, but it would have been nice to see more grass. However, as it is now, there’s huge scope for holding open-air events there that aren’t beholden to the weather and wet grass.
It will look nice in the warmer months when leaves return to the trees. It was a missed opportunity to use more colour. What would a dash of colour do to the mood of the park?
I don’t hate it.
Look for it on Facebook and you’ll find nothing but complaints unfortunately: Echo Live 1, Cork City Parks Sport and Recreation, Cork City Council, Echo Live 2.
| Aperture | ƒ/9 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 16mm |
| ISO | 3200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
Cork’s newest bridge is a new pedestrian or cycle bridge that spans the River Lee from Wandesford Quay to Lambley’s Lane. You’d be forgiven if you’re not familiar with either area, as they aren’t exactly the most trafficked areas in the city.
If you’re curious, Lambley’s Lane is off to the side of the old Beamish & Crawford brewery, and the bridge is worth a look at night. Henry shared a photo of the bridge a couple of days ago. Thank you, Henry, for pointing out where it was. I had no idea.
If you look carefully, you can see all the way down Tuckey Street to Oliver Plunkett Street. During the day, you might even see down to Parnell Place, maybe?
Here’s the latest news from Cork City Council about the bridge and the newly reopened Bishop Lucey Park. Photos of that to come…
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 16mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 4s |
