Pictured on Winthrop Street a few days ago.
Tag Archives: Urban
English Market Seller
There’s a wonderful looking olive and spice stall in the English Market!
Unfortunately it is always mobbed with customers making it difficult to capture a photo of it but I raised my camera into the air and shot this blind.
The original is quite grainy as I used a high ISO of 3200 to compensate for the bad light.
Workflow:
- Increased the saturation slightly.
- Unsharp mask with a radius of 5 to bring out the grain more.
- Duplicate layer and used the Threshold tool to isolate bright parts.
- Blur the top layer with a radius of 25 pixels.
- Set the top layer mode to “Soft Light”.
- Saved a .xcf version, .jpg and a resized jpeg too. I didn’t unsharp mask the resized version.
Hope you find that useful!
| Aperture | ƒ/3.5 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 3200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/320s |
Run around and around!
Children running around a labyrinth on The Grand Parade.
Schools, churches, community groups and businesses around Cork were asked to design them as part of the closing ceremonies of Cork City of Culture 2005.
Audience
Through a break in the crowd I spotted a little girl watching a band play on the street in front of Brown Thomas.
Nollaig Shona daoibh! (translation)
Santa’s on his way!
Tonight Santa visits as the Christian world celebrates the birth of Jesus over 2000 years ago.
Christmas Goods For Sale
At Blackpool shopping center there was a charity event for the Belarussian Orphanage Project. A band played inside and just inside the main doors they were selling Christmas cards and small gifts. Not sure if I should have left this as a colour image but I think as a character study of the boy and woman it works much better in black and
white.
Off The Wall
Pictured at the Blarney Woollen Mills a week ago.
Links of the Day
- Retouching Magazine Cover – magazine photos have to feature pixel perfect beautiful men and women. This girlpower Flash presentation goes through all the little touch ups that go into improving a model’s eye, nose, cheeks, lips, breasts, waist and more until she is not the person who stood in the studio. (via)
- Digital Photography World has published some great articles recently including image management now that he’s gone completely digital.
- John Engler’s photography section of his blog has lots of good stuff, including 3 introductory articles: What’s an SLR Anyways?, Film Speed, Aperture. (via)
- I posted the last two US photos: Chatting and Shopping and Crowded Cork. The collection is complete!
Don’t go to bed reading a photographic book, you’ll get up again to “try out” the new techniques you read about.
Smile Please!
Guy in a clown suit walking around town. Not everyone was amused!
Wet Day Shopping
Couple walking along Patricks Street Cork on Saturday.
Lights From the Middle
Standing in the middle of the road outside Blarney.
Walking Patrick’s Bridge
Pictured walking along Patrick’s Bridge, Cork on Saturday evening. What really attracts me to this image, despite it’s obvious flaws, is the figure in the dead-centre. There’s light all around yet here’s a walking shadow.
Blarney Castle Gate Pillar
The current Blarney Castle was rebuilt after a major fire in 1446 and afterwards had an entrance gate different to that which is presently visible.
I was out for a walk a few days ago taking photos when I met two men in high-visibility jackets. They saw me with the camera and one of them stopped me and asked me if I knew about the nearby historical pillar.
In the 1600’s the river flowed in a different course past Blarney Castle. If it still flowed that way, it would go right under the Blarney Woollen Mills factory. He showed me a slight hump in the road which is all that remains of a bridge over that river!
This pillar which is hidden behind a stone wall was originally part of a gateway to Blarney Castle in the 1600s. I’m not certain if it was a river or a land entrance but it’s a shame that it’s now lying unused in a field.