St Patrick and the Volkswagen

A Volkswagen Beetle parked across the road from St. Patrick’s Catholic Church on the Lower Glanmire Road in Cork. The church was built in 1840. The car, not so old.

Shot on the recent photowalk in the city.

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/320s

Cobh in Black and White

A dump of the b/w images I shot in Cobh over the weekend. It was a strictly “stroll around and do nothing” day (so sorry Conor for not calling in!) as Adam was being minded by my sister.

As I said a few days ago, I shot everything in black and white and I’m pleased with the results. From about the shots of the rope on I used RAW+Jpeg but I still prefer the b/w images.

Hope something here takes your fancy!

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/250s

Soiree

–noun
an evening party or social gathering, esp. one held for a particular purpose: a musical soiree. (source)

The first time I heard anyone use the word “soiree” was when my wife’s friend spoke about organising a party at her home. My wife uses it too. Must be posh, I married well!

Today I decided to see the world in black and white after reading an article in Photography Monthly about Chris Friel, a colour blind photographer in the UK, who shoots that way.
I set my shooting mode to Monochrome, quality to Jpeg and added a red filter (although I’m not certain it had much effect from testing..) and fired away. After 3 or 4 shots I chickened out and set the quality mode to RAW+Jpeg so at least I have the full colour image to work with in the RAW image.

I must say, I’m pleased with the results! Black and white doesn’t work for every image. They were rather flat out of the camera but a bit of dodging and burning helped add some punch. Hopefully I’ll find time to work on a few more shots over the next few days so you can see just what black and white images “out of the camera” can look like! (versus conversion by some filter or the channel mixer.)

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 144mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/160s

The evolution of back pain

A small poster advertises a survey on back pain. It’s a 3 year programme and since this was taken in 2007 it’s nearing completion now!

Taken somewhere in San Francisco.

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/160s

Emmett Place Deconstructed

Emmett Place in Cork is the sight of feverish building work for the past year or two as a huge city block was torn down and then built up again. Here’s the view from the excellent Aroma Restaurant.

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/125s

Castle Street in Ruins

A building on Castle Street in Cork City collapsed yesterday crushing a parked car but thankfully not hurting anyone. This is the scene earlier today where the building has been demolished and in the process of being cleared up. As I left, a truck reversed into the street, presumably to take rubble away.

The crushed car is in the foreground and according to a man I met at the scene belongs to a local business man (and still had a year on it’s NCT, don’t think it’ll pass the next one!)

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/200s

Dominoes or Four Star Pizza?

So, who’s for pizza? I’m quite partial to Dominoes Pizzas but to be honest I haven’t had a pizza from either establishment in quite a while. Odd that both premises are on Washington Street and almost directly across from each other. Makes “shopping around” easier, not that you’d be bothered. Pizza is horribly priced wherever you buy it.

I uploaded a few more shots to my gallery today. As I mentioned already, they’re running a 15% discount until the 27th so now would be a great time to buy a print if you’re interested. 🙂

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 72mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/200s

The Clock Tower, Youghal

The Clock Tower in Youghal is a building you won’t miss if you travel through the town (and despite the great bypass around the area, we got caught in a huge traffic jam!)

According to this page the tower was built in 1777 and had a grisly past,

In 1777, the town’s Clock Gate was built on the site of Trinity Castle, part of the town’s fortifications. The Clock Gate served the town as gaol and public gallows until 1837; prisoners were executed by being hanged from the windows.

PS. Mark your diaries! Cork photowalk on September 26th! There’s a chance to win one of 3 free rooms in the Montenotte Hotel the night before. Blog post to follow tomorrow!
Thanks Damien for helping to organise this great event.

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/125s

Wide Open Spaces

The wide open space at the top of Patrick’s Street in Cork is a crossroads for traffic going along Cork’s busiest streets. It’d be a nightmare to cross without the pedestrian lights, not that stops people racing or even sauntering across in front of oncoming traffic.

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/200s

No Shandon Bells from Academy Street

The bell tower of St. Anne’s Church in Shandon may well be one of the most recognisable sights in Cork but it’s no longer visible down Academy Street and as a consequence, possibly from Patrick Street either.

Back in 2007 I snapped this photo of the tower and it’s well I did because the construction work on Half Moon Street has obscured the view unfortunately.

A message posted to this thread on archiseek.com suggested this might happen so after I read it I looked for some proof.

I pointed out when this was on plans that it would obliterate the last view of Shandon from Patrick Street. Despite all of the City Council’s huffing and puffing regarding views of landmark buildings, we get this rubbish. They would have been better off building a few metres higher and blocking out the fish totally – whats left is merely rubbing our faces in it!

I do like the building that’s there though. Nice curve to it along Half Moon Street.

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/1000s

The 8A Bus

A man gets on the 8A bus to Curraheen on Patrick Street, Cork last Saturday.

This was on the way to the photowalk, walking up the street with Chris to where Will had double parked because he was driving home again. Chris had dropped his camera in the car when he got out!

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/60s

Open Happiness

Youghal, last April. Coca Cola sells happiness while Tesco tries to sell bargains.

PS. I just posted a gallery of photos from the IBA 09 photowalk last February.

Aperture ƒ/9
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/200s