Denis Murphy, Castle Street

There’s something fascinating for me about old buildings. Perhaps it’s the history they have seen and the memories they hold. Some of the old buildings on Castle Street, Cork are really interesting. I noticed this small building nestled in between it’s larger brethern and when I saw some people walking by I took my shot.

It was processed afterwards with the gimp Wide Angle plugin and I did a little work changing colours but not much else.

I like this: downtown strips, simply because it’s a neat idea I haven’t seen anyone else do yet.

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

Staring at me

Am I feeling conspicuous or what?

I tried shooting from the hip yesterday with the strap of my camera over my shoulder and my camera in a horizontal position instead of being wrapped around my hand in a vertical orientation.

It proved useful, but I found that:

  1. More of my shots were blurry, perhaps because either the back and forth movement of me walking. I tried shooting in Tv (Shutter Priority mode) and even at 1/200sec and higher there was shake.
  2. It’s great getting more of the surroundings in but I miss the feet.

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/80s

The Brown Line to Kimball

Aboard one of the trains of the Chicago L, the elevated and underground train network in Chicago. I think this was taken near the south end of the Loop, possibly around the corner from the library.

The last time I was in Chicago I took the L for nostalgic reasons and because it’s not a half-bad way for a tourist to see the town. The stations of the Loop are all elevated above street level and some afford a good view down the main streets of downtown Chicago! Maps and schedules are posted in each station, on the trains and online too making it very easy to find your way around.

Here’s a tour of the Loop with pictures if you’d like to know more.

I like this: Real Esteli played its best match ever – couple of great football shots!

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/100s

Free online book: Street Photography for the Purist

Deviant Art member +cweeks has put together a book entitled Street Photography for the Purist from the photographs of several DA members. It also includes forwards and commentary from those people and looks like a great read.

It’s a 160 page tome, downloadable as a PDF and weighing in at just over 10MB. I’ve skimmed through the first 60 or so pages but I’ll have a closer look at it later. There are some stunning b/w street shots in the book, from the very old to the young, and even a demonstration of how one photographer shoots, possibly the only colour shots in the book.

I haven’t done much street photography in the past few weeks but I’m itching to try again, and to work in black and white too.

Did I say it was free? Yes I did! What’s stopping you enjoying this photographic trip across Europe and the US? Go download it now! (via Photoheadlines)

The Thieving Duck

A duck robs a poor innocent woman as she’s distracted by the cute ducklings. Moments later they all rush off with their ill-gotten gains!

What you don’t see is the camera crew, make-up and lighting people and a small crowd watching from behind them. This was for some advert and of course the woman in question is a model.
I shot this on State Street, Chicago after stumbling upon the shoot by accident. They didn’t seem to mind, and I even got a dazzling smile from the model!

I like this: xtreme (login may be required)

2006-10-03 – Welcome visitors from snopes.com, thanks Kathy B for linking here, I appreciate it. Please feel free to leave a comment!

Snopes.com have now published this picture and the joke description on a separate page linking to this blog. Thank you!

2006-10-07 – John Marguess pointed me at Organized Crime which uses the same image in another joke email! Thanks John!

Here’s the text of the joke email (via snopes) for those of you who go searching for the origins of it. I’d love to know who concocted it in the first place!

Seems the Better Business Bureau got a complaint the other day about a scam in which AFLAC allegedly was taking advantage of women on the street and stealing their money.
Now we all at one time or another have thought that INSURANCE Companies have stolen from us; however, this scam is netting COLD HARD CASH from unsuspecting individuals.
The way it works is the thief uses children to distract the target. While admiring the cuteness of the kids the target is robbed of her cash and never knows what hit her.
I’m sending this out for all to be aware that this is happening and it’s right out on the streets in front of the general public.
A passer-by with a digital camera phone happened to capture the photo attached.
Review it carefully and use caution when distractions like this come along.
Good Luck, and don’t say you weren’t warned.

According to Snopes, it was an advert showing how safe Western Union money transfer system was. I really should have asked someone..

Children, wait in line

Children wait for their teachers in down town Chicago last year. They were standing on the pavement (oh ok, side walk) near the Chicago Board of Trade. I presume on a school outing, hope they enjoyed themselves!

I’ve been holding on to this photo for months now and since I don’t feel like working a shot this morning, this image finally sees the light of day!

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 55mm
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/125s

Reflection on the Spire

O’Connell Street in Dublin is reflected in the polished surface of the Spire. A young teenager leans on the edifice in the shade away from the glaring sun. This was inspired by a shot I saw one another photoblog, can’t remember which one now. Does anyone know the image I’m talking about?

Here’s another picture of the Spire showing it’s full 120m height!

If you’re curious, the Spire can just about be seen from space as Google Maps shows!

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/400s

Who’s for supper?

A mural on a wall in Dublin a few weeks ago.

We passed this while walking back to our hotel. I get the feeling there’s a story behind this picture. Does anyone know it?

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/160s

Six Apart Mark

Niall Kennedy drove myself and Mark Jaquith around on a small sight seeing tour of the local attractions in San Francisco after WordCamp last Saturday.
A visit to the offices of Six Apart proved to be too good a thing to pass up so we posed for a few photos on their door step!

WordCamp was great, I met really nice people, I uploaded a set of photos to Flickr, linked to a few reports on it, and was very glad I got home on Tuesday. Imagine having to put your camera equipment into the hold of an airliner?

Aperture ƒ/4.5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/40s

Honest Smoothies

We bought smoothies in Honest, a small shop in Dublin. They were having problems with their machines and gave us one of the smoothies free but they didn’t taste all that great unfortunately.

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/6s

Ferry Building San Francisco

The Ferry Building, San Francisco on Friday night.

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/2s