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Friday 28 December 2007

Meath Heritage

County Meath - Ireland's Hertiage Capital.

Bective Abbey

"County Meath - Ireland's Heritage Capital was once the territory of the High Kings of Ireland. Some of the most important Irish historic sites and monuments are located within County Meath and virtually every important aspect of Irish history from prehistoric times is associated with the county."

Bective Abbey
Bective Abbey was founded in 1150 by Murchadh O' Melaghin, King of Meath, for the Cistercians, and was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. It was an abbey of some importance as the Abbot was a spiritual lord and sat in the Parliament of the Pale. Hugh De Lacy, was buried there in 1195, but was eventually moved to Dublin. The abbey was suppressed in 1536 and the lands were rented to Thomas Asgarde, and eventually bought by Andrew Wyse in 1552. It passed into the hands of the Dillons and then the Boltons, before fallling into ruin. The chief features of the ruins are the combination of both Church and Defence. The Cloister is the best preserved of the buildings and there is a pillar of a figure carrying a crozier. There are also some beautiful arches which are still intact.

This is one of s series of images I am doing on the Heritage Sites and Monuments in Co. Meath. Again with my own style added to the images I am trying to capture a different image than the usual tourist picture postcard image you normally see.




Thursday 27 December 2007

Newspaper Images

There is a scanned images from The Meath Post Tuesday 18th December 2007 showing a sample of the images taken by myself and the editing page layout used.

I would do the cropping and comments of the images and then the design team would layout the story with the Sports Editor ( David Jennings ) .

What The Duck

 

Wednesday 12 December 2007

2008 Calendar



I am just putting the finishing touches to a 2008 Calendar which I will be giving out free to people. The calendar will include my B&W Landscapes and some colour Sunrise & Sunset images.
If will be a simple 12 page PDF document which I can email to you.

So if you would like a free 2008 Calender emil me at mononeil@gmail.com or post a comment here with your email address.

Saturday 8 December 2007

The CanonMan


I am in the process of setting up an online store to sell Canon Cameras. It will be called TheCanonMan.ie
The site will be going live in January 2008. The complete range of EOS cameras and a select few Digital compacts will be stocked. Also the full range of EF Lenses including the Pro Spec L series will be stocked.

Christmas Fun

Just a bit of Fun for Christmas. Upload a photo of yourself to www.elfyourself.com and be transformed into a dancing Elf.

Tuesday 4 December 2007

Computer OS and Software


I run a Windows Free Zone here.
I have been using an operating system called Linux for many years now. It's free, that right free as in it cost's you nothing. Back in 2000 I had a windows computer using Photoshop only. It was not hooked up to the internet or networked because of all the virus out there. In all my years of using Linux a have had not one virus, system failure. The only problem with Linux at the time was that I had no complete colour management system is place. So I changed over to the Mac computer system and had to buy all new programs but it was the best and only move forward for my photography. I am now on my third Mac and again no failures bar a funny hard drive which was replaced and all data, programs safely restored. I still use the Linux box for my emails, internet access and uploading images to my site.

The reason I wanted to share this with you was of a software problem I was having.
As you know if you have been reading this Blog, I have started to shoot sports photography for Barry Cronin and the Meath Post newspaper. With up to 5 different games to cover over the weekend there is a lot of images to go through. I also wanted to keep this separate form my Black & White Landscape work. I use Lightroom for this on the Mac. I started to look around for a program to control the images add comments and sort them. I came across iMedia Pro. A 21 day trail version was use in the testing and worked very good. However I came across a program on Linux called DigiKam with I forgot all about.
This program comes free with the OpenSuSe OS and once again is Free. It does all the things I wish for and also has an edit functions built in so that I can crop and colour correct etc... all the images. The other benefit is had I was using Linux to ftp the images to Barry's servers. Now everything is done on one machine which saves me time and money.

Happy day's

Sunday 2 December 2007

What The Duck



I am starting to get the hang of this posting. Here I have posted a short animated comic strip for What The Duck. As you know I have been posting the normal comic strip's but decided to try an post a video clip. So turn up your volume and enjoy this short video clip.

Give it a few seconds to load the rest of the blog before you press the play button.

Saturday 1 December 2007

Briot's View


Briot's View
Columns and Articles on Photography
by Alain Briot.


The Luminous Landscape website has a regular columist, landscape photographer and teacher, Alain Briot. I am a subscriber too his website http://www.beautiful-landscape.com and receive his articles on photography in PDF format. The articles can also be found on the Luminous Landscape site. You can link to them from here.

The following is the Introduction to the series of essays called "Reflections on Photography and Art"

Photography is both an art and a science. Photography allows us to express our feeling and emotions, but to do so we need to master the scientific part of the medium. Unlike a painter, who is in direct contact with his subject and his canvas, a photographer is separated from his subject by the camera and from his "canvas" by computers and printers today and by darkroom equipment previously.

The scientific aspects of photography can be both overwhelming and fascinating, so much so that for some photographers photography comes to be just that: a scientific process that they attempt to master over their lifetime. However, to achieve mastery of the technical side of photography is to address only one of the two aspects of photography. The result is often technically excellent photographs that lack emotion and "seeing" qualities. In this regard, I share the opinion of Ansel Adams who said, and I paraphrase, that there is nothing more boring that a technically perfect rendering of a fuzzy visual concept. In other words, an artistic photograph is created when technique is used to express a vision and an emotion, not when technique is used for it's own sake.

Countless articles are written daily about the many scientific aspects of photography. From equipment reviews, to image processing techniques, to tips on how to be a more efficient photographer, to stories about what works and what doesn't, there is no shortage of material on the subject. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, I have contributed my share of articles on this subject and I will continue to do so. Again, the scientific aspect of photography is very important and learning as much as you can about it is certainly worth your time and efforts.

However, learning about the artistic aspect of photography is just as important. Unfortunately, there is a much lesser amount of information on photography as art. Far fewer essays are being written, far fewer discussions are taking place, and far less information, help and tips are available. It is as if photographers, for the most part, discovered how much they have to learn about photographic science and, overwhelmed and enchanted by equipment and technique, stopped there and looked no further. It may also be that some photographers, or photographic instructors, are uncomfortable writing about photography as art, or lack the practice and knowledge to do so.

The goal of this series is to remedy this situation in two ways: first, by providing you with a source of help and information about the artistic aspect of photography. Second, by making use of my personal background. I was trained as a painter and artist at the Academie des Beaux Arts in Paris and later discovered photography. From day one I approached photography as an art form just as capable of expressing what I see and feel as any other artistic medium. My training, combined with my practice and knowledge of many artistic medium, provides me with a unique perspective on photography. For example, I often draw comparisons between photography and other arts. I also look at art from both a historical and a contemporary perspective. Finally, I make my living selling fine art prints, writing about photography and art, and teaching photography. In short, I am not just an observer. I am an active practitioner, writer, teacher and student of both aspects of photography. I am also an art collector, an enthusiastic admirer, and an occasional practioner of many other artistic medium.

When I decided to start this series I carefully considered what the contents of each essay might be. The last thing I wanted to do was provide ineffective, redundant or superficial information. I wanted to avoid what I perceived to be the most obvious pitfalls of such a series, namely to talk of photography as if it was art, without attempting to explain why it is, and later proceed to apply art concepts to photography, as if there was a direct crossover between photography and other arts.

At first I did not know how, or if, this could be done. It was only after writing and publishing on my site several essays for a series I originally titled Thoughts and Photographs that I felt confident to have found the proper format. I later renamed this series Reflections on Photography and Art, a title that I continue to find appropriate for this endeavor since this is after all a reflection, albeitedly one based on years of experience.

At this time I have a list of over 25 essays that I am considering including in this series. Certainly, some of these essays will be revised, while some will be pushed aside and new ones will be introduced. This list is but a beginning, a starting point. However, I feel more confident starting on this journey knowing that I can proceed further than a couple of essays. I feel better having a road map, so to speak, to guide me in the exploration of photography as art.

In comparison to my previous series, Photography and Aesthetics, this new series is written in a freer, more direct fashion. Photography and Aesthetics consists of carefully organized articles written over weeks and, for the later articles in the series, months. Reflections on Photography and Art consists of essays, a format that allows me a much freer approach to the content of each piece. As we will see in the series, feeling free to create is one of the sine qua non conditions for practicing photography as art. I deemed it perfectly natural to metaphorically shape the structure of each essay around one of the overall premises for this series.

Do you want to build upon your current skills by studying the artistic aspect of photography? If your answer is yes, I welcome you to join me in what can only be an enlightening, though at times challenging, experience.

Alain

Wednesday 28 November 2007

Loch Bhaile na Hinse

While away in Connemara a few months ago with the 'Viewpoints' photographers Carsten Krieger and Peter Cox, this image was taken along the road (R341) to Roundstone.
We had left our B&B at 5:30 in the morning to get to the location to catch the sunrise. After a good few hours we headed back to the B&B to have breakfast. On the way back we came across a few locations that looked promising if you got the right light. After some breakfast we went our own ways and to meet back up again in the afternoon. I went back along the road out of Clifden (N59) and turned onto the R341. A few 100 meters passed the junction you can park your car off the road and walk back to the viewpoints in this image. The clouds had broken and the sun was out. What makes this image for me is the clouds and the reflections on the landscape. The contrast between the white clouds and the dark water. The different levels of midtones in the grass. The simple composition and the triangle shape the clumps of trees make. This image was taken with my Sony R1 camera (RIP). That's another story to tell later.

Monday 26 November 2007

Low Light Photography.

The Navan Camera Club, which I am a member of, when out on Sunday evening last to shoot Trim Castle. The idea was to show the new members how to use their camera's in low light conditions. One of the members of the Club, Reggie Smit who specialises in low light photography lead the way.( a link to his site can be found on the More Photographers section ) I took a few snaps as they say with the above been one of them.( colour again ). I will be uploading the rest of the images into the Sunset & Sunrise Gallery shortly. I used the Canon 5D with a 30seconds exposure @ F11 with the TS-E24mm lens as this was the only lens a had we me. Thanks to one of the other members who gave me his 24-105 lens to take a few images of just the castle with its reflections in the river.

Friday 23 November 2007

What The Duck


The Silent Valley


The Silent Valley is located in the Mourne Mountains, Co. Down, Northern Ireland.
You have to pay £4 to enter the park, but can spend the whole day there. The Valley and surrounding landscape will keep to shooting for hours.

Tuesday 20 November 2007

Superman Photo Game

Here is a photo game you can play over the internet.

You are Jimmy Olsen, the Daily Planet's star photographer. Try to get some good pictures of Superman for tomorrow's edition.

SOLD

Back in September I put up post about The CanvasWorks, a company here in Ireland who took on my B&W photography to sell as large canvas prints.
Well guess what, Patrick from The CanvasWorks email me to let know that 2 of my images have been sold. What a result in such a small time frame. I was well pleased and speaking to Patrick, he has some interesting plans for next year (2008). Stay tuned for more info or you can link to their site from here and have a look at my work available to buy. The CanvasWorks has not got my complete catalog of work, so if you see and image you like on my website www.nmsphoto.com and want a large canvas print contact me by email with the details and a print will be made for you.

My Dream Car


I know, I know, I know, it has nothing to do with photography except that it is a photo of a car, an unbelieveable car that is.
The Audi RS4.
I have had the pleasure of driving this car a while ago. On my god what can I say. The power, speed, but most of all the sound of that V8 engine.......................
I could go on for hours about this but instead I have linked to the RS4 page on the Audi website. Go have a look for yourself.

Slideshow

A new feature has just been added to the Mononeil Blog.
A slideshow can be seen in the sidebar on the site.


The photos will show up in the sidebar, gently fading into one another. You will be able to go forward and backward, pause, and click through to the photo’s web page.

I will at will be changing this slideshow about every week with the albums stored on Picasa Web Albums.

Sports Photography


I have put another notch in my photography belt with the Meath Post newspaper using my images for the underage football section again. This will be a regular Saturday and the odd Sunday outing for me now. It's completely different from the photography I was shooting up until 2 weeks ago. Fast moving, low res jpeg, 400mm lens, now that's different from using a tripod, F16 and 1 second exposures. I am enjoying the experience and the newspaper thinks my photo's are very good. This will be the last photo of football for a while unless I come across a cracker, then I will post that. So back to the normal B&W images from now.

Wednesday 14 November 2007

Photomerge

Here a sequence of images taken at the underage football a shoot last
Saturday.
It is a photomerge of a player taking a corner kick.

Saturday 10 November 2007

Football

Ratoath Harp's Underage Football


Today I was asked to take photo's for The Meath Post newspaper Sports section.
The venue was Ratoath Harp's Underage matches. They included U7's, U9's and U10's.
Starting at 10:00 and shooting non-stop until 1:00, it was very interesting to say the least.
It's the first time for me to shoot sports beside form the Marathon work I do for ASI.
Been able to get real close and I mean on the pitch to shoot some of the images was fun.

Monday 5 November 2007

Saturday 3 November 2007

Rossbehy


This is an image from where you can park your car and walk up and over the rocks down onto the beach at Rossbehy near Glenbeigh on the N70 road from Killorglin ( part of The Ring of Kerry ). Beat that Frodo from Lord of the Rings.
A break in the weather and clouds gave me this light and coupled with a very low angle so as to get the rocks and the mountains make a triangle shape.

Wednesday 31 October 2007

Clougherhead Beach

Clougherhead, Co.Louth last Sunday (28th Oct'07).


I went over to Port Head, this time during the day, to shoot a B&W image of the landscape. However the weather was on-side but the tide was not. So a change of plan and we went to Clougherhead and had the family picnic on this beach. This beach has not got the detailed rocks of any interset, so again a change of plan. A simple approach was used. A image of the waves coming in with a reflection of the clouds in the wet sand.

Friday 26 October 2007

Wednesday 24 October 2007

Strobist.com

STROBIST
Less Gear - More Brain - Better Light

This website is about one thing: Teaching you how to use your small flashes, off camera, to get professional results.

In short, your flash photography will never be the same again.

Here, you'll find everything you need to know about how to more effectively use your small speedlights. There are more than 700 articles and posts about lighting. Over a million photographers from around the world have learned small-flash lighting techniques from this site. And we're thinking you can, too.

Lough Ramor

This is a image taken this morning down at Lough Ramor, Virginia, Co. Cavan.
I was waiting for a customer to open and drove down to the lake. I had my Canon 400d camera with me and the standard lens that comes with the camera.


A wonderful morning mist was on the lake. Not a thing was moving except for the fish jumping out of the water. It's time like this you wish you had your full armor of cameras and long zooms lenses with you but I would not leave them in the car nowadays. So I had to make do with what I had. I was very pleased with the images this lens gave me all things considered.

Tuesday 23 October 2007

Donabate Beach

This is a image of Donabate beach with Howth in the background to the left and the Dublin/Wicklow mts to the right.


It was taken at sunrise one Saturday last year. I also have a colour version of this image in the Sunrise Sunset album if you want to have a look.
I like this B&W version (of course I would say that) because it shows the shape and texture of the sand, rocks and cloud formations.

Mushrooms

When out with Navan Camera Club on Sunday last (22-10-07) to look for mushrooms to photograph. Yet again a colour image.



This was taken in the wooded area between Navan and Trim just off the main road. We must have looked a sight to people passing by in there cars. All the flashes of light coming from the trees.
We found a good few different types of mushrooms. Now all we have to do is name them.
This was taken with the 100mm macro Canon lens. I have this lens for a good while but only starting to use it now. The manual focus and wide open aperture gives a very small dept of field and its hard to know were to focus and what f/stop will give to best image.

Friday 19 October 2007

Thursday 18 October 2007

Black & White Conversions in Lightroom

Click on the title to link to movie tutorial from LightroomNews posted by Martin Evening.


"Do you want to know how to get the best black and white conversions out of Lightroom? This short movie tutorial on Lightroom black and white conversions starts with a few basic tips on how to use the Auto-Adjust Grascale button in conjunction with the White Balance sliders. I then show how to use the target adjustment tool in the Grayscale panel to pick the areas of a photograph that you wish to lighten or darken. Finally, I demonstrate how to desaturate the colors via the HSL panel and achieve a grayscale conversion. The main advantage of using this method is that you can usually achieve smoother looking tones and dark, contrasty skies that are almost completely noise-free."

Wednesday 17 October 2007

Killiney Bay

This is an image of Killiney Bay, Dublin a couple of week ago. I was on a family day trip to Bray and to visit the Aquarium. You could see the clouds rolling in. We sat down for our packed lunch just are it started to rain very heavy. There was no way I was going to drive all the way back home to Navan. We decided to take the scenic drive way home along the coast road. Thanks to the GPS system in the car I was able to find the road. Along the way you drive past Killiney Bay and the Dart rail line. The clouds started to break up and the sun was started to shine again. We stopped at this location and walked down and over the railway bridge to the beach. This is one of the images I took .


When the sun came out I was running around to find different location with rock formations in the foreground. The background was covered with the mountains ( The Suger loaf as it's called ) and clouds. I got in total about 5 different images of the bay and was well pleased.

Monday 15 October 2007

Sunrise Sunset

I am starting to take some colour photographs and they can be seen at the following link SunriseSunset. This is a Picasa Web Album containing all my images from Sunrise and Sunsets across Ireland.



Getting up at about 4:30 in the morning to travel to the east coast and be ready at the location around 30mins before you see a bit of light for the Sunrise images. The Sunsets are from the west coast taken between the hours of 7:00 and 10:00 in the evening depending on the time of the year. I have to thank the guy's from "Viewpoints" for starting me on this colour photography path. I am starting to like these colour images, but I will still be taking all my work in Black & White have no fear. So as I said follow the link to the SunriseSunset web album and post your comments here.

Sunday 7 October 2007

Friday 5 October 2007

Camus Bay Again

Here is another one of my images from Camus Bay further on the road.



This image has the Twelve Bens in the background. If I can remember right Sarah was with me for this image and she was using a 8 euro disposable camera. Now that's an images I am not going to post as it would but me to shame. With all the high-end Canon digital gear I used and she could get a very good shot with a little old disposable.

Wednesday 3 October 2007

Canon TS-E 24mm F3.5 L Lens


Just got my hand on the this lens. It's the Canon TS-E 24mm F3.5 L Tilt & Shift lens.
When you take it out of the box you will see that the Tilt and Shift standards come from the factory oriented 90º out of phase with each other, meaning you can use rise and swing together but not rise and tilt. This orientation is set up wrong for Landscape photographers. You can modify the lens and on the Digital Outback Photo website (link here) it shows how to do this modification.

Canon Camera Museum




Experience the Canon Camera Museum (link here)
We bid you a warm welcome to the Canon Camera Museum, a virtual museum in which you will find everything you ever wanted to know about Canon cameras. The Camera Hall is a database* of historical facts about our film cameras, digital cameras, digital camcorders, still video cameras and lenses. In the Design Hall, rediscover the visual appeal of our many products through the years. The Technology Hall explains the many advanced technologies incorporated into our cameras and takes you on a tour through a virtual lens plant. And the History Hall introduces historical facts about our cameras and the technologies that have gone into them.
We have “constructed” each hall with a variety of interactive, entertaining and informative contents in order to bring the world of Canon cameras to life. Now that you are here, stay for a while and discover for yourself the many wonders of cameras from Canon.

Monday 1 October 2007

What The Duck

Kinvarra Bay

This image was taken this May on a Navan Camera Club weekend trip to The Burren.


On the way down we stopped at Kinvara on the N67 going towards Ballyvaghan.
The place was packed with people taking photographs of Dunguaire Castle that I went for a walk around. Just past the castle there is a walk way over the wall and down to the water front.
This is one of the views you will come across down there. No people. Also I have an image of the castle in the background from this point which I may post at a later date.

Saturday 29 September 2007

Moto X

I was at the Motocross Championship R6 hosted by North Dublin Motorcycle Club in Gormonston, Co. Meath today. The Canon was firing non-stop. I took about 950 images and am well pleased with the performance of the camera and myself as this was the first real sports photography shoot besides for the Marathon work I do for ASI that is.



I converted this image into a B&W photograph bacause I like the way her eyes stand out better than the colour version. You can see the colour version and some more images posted on The PhotoRoom forum website by clicking on the Moto X headline.

Friday 28 September 2007

Sarah & Canon 1D mkIII

This is a image of my daughter Sarah out on her skates tonight.
The image was taken with my new Canon EOS 1D mkIII and the 70-200 F2.8 L IS lens.




The details are as follows:-
ISO 400
1/100 sec @ F4.0
AL Servo focus
200mm focal length.
Hand Held.

I don't know what people are going on about a focus problem.

Thursday 27 September 2007

What The Duck

LensWork

The premise of LensWork is that photography is more than mere craft. Photography is, or can be, a way of life. Beyond cameras and equipment, beyond film and chemistry, beyond pixels and technology lie the mysteries of the creative life shared by those who strive to communicate and express themselves clearly – fine art photographers, commercial photographers, amateurs and professionals.

LensWork is an exploration of the path of creative photography. Through an exchange of ideas, insight, personal experience, and opinions it is hoped LensWork will inspire photographic artists to create work which truly bears their signature.

The focus of LensWork is ideas as well as images, imagination rather than imitation, and an understanding of photography beyond craft. For those looking for a more technically oriented publication, we refer you to one of the many excellent photographic books or magazines currently available.

LensWork in Print

LensWork is a 96-page, 7x8½” paperback magazine -- a book-quality, paper-based, anthology-style periodical publication which focuses on photography and the creative process. Each issue featuring articles, interviews, and photographic portfolios. Non-technical and non-academic, with emphasis on the creative aspects of photography, LensWork is published six times a year and is available by subscription, or at better bookstores and newsstands. Back issues are available from the publisher while supplies last.

LensWork Back Issues on CD-ROM is a complete set of back issues of LensWork, perpetually available even after the paperback magazines are long sold out. These Acrobat PDF format computer files are exact replications of the actual magazine pages that can be read on-screen or printed to your desktop printer. The CD-ROM can be played on Mac or Windows based systems. It requires only the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software. There is no other installation, setup or software required.

LensWork EXTENDED – even more!

In each issue of LensWork Extended we include all the images from the portfolios in LensWork without the compromise imposed by the restricted space available in print publications. Using the universal Acrobat PDF format on these computer discs, there is enough room for hundreds of images and extended text in addition to audio and video elements not possible in paper. This revolutionary new publishing technology offers us the opportunity to share with you so much additional content that simply won’t fit in the 96 pages of LensWorkLensWork Extended is more and then some. We add a Bonus Gallery, extra videos, interviews with the photographers, studio quality versions of our podcasts, bonus articles, and much more! on paper. You’ve asked for more;

Wednesday 26 September 2007

Camus Bay using LightZone

This image took a complete 15 seconds to convert into B&W and a few extra styles added using LightZone image editor.


This was taken a few months back while over in the West on holidays.
Take the Spiddle road out of Galway and then keep right on the R336 heading towards Maam Cross. You will come across Camus Bay on the left. Stop anywhere along here for some wonderful landscapes images with the The Twelve Bens in the background.

LightZone by LightCrafts

Advanced photo-editing made simple


LightZone is the essential desktop photo-editing software for people who value their photographs. LightZone is purpose-built for photography and allows anyone, regardless of photographic skillset, to edit photographs quickly and easily.

LightZone’s individuality shines brightest in its unique approach to lighting and tonal corrections. Photos are broken into 16 shades of gray, displayed in a linear scale called the ZoneMapper (derived from Ansel Adams’ photographic Zone System), wherein each shade represents the lighting difference of half an f-stop. Hover your mouse over any shade and the corresponding areas light up in the ZoneFinder, a small grayscale representation of the photo at the top right of the window. (If this sounds a bit complicated, don’t worry; LightZone’s help system is amazingly well developed, and it will get you up to speed quickly.)

For example, to see the darkest area (shadows) in your photo, hover over the blackest bar in the ZoneMapper. To see the lightest area (highlights), hover over the whitest bar. To make a change, click once in that area of the ZoneMapper and drag the resulting blue line (the zone lock) up to brighten or down to darken. This unique ability to see the highlights, shadows, and midtones is nothing short of revolutionary, and it’s more intuitive than methods used in other editors, like Photoshop’s Levels and Curves.

The new Relight tool lets you adjust contrast and lighting even further, and most tools have blend modes for controlling how adjustments in the tool stack interact with each other, complete with an opacity control.

Any adjustment can be copied from one photo and applied to others. Pros will also enjoy LightZone’s Raw adjustment tool and the ability to edit metadata.



What The Duck

Found this one in The Vault and had to post it.

Monday 24 September 2007

Inch Beach

This image you see below was taken back in 2005 of the beach at Inch, Co. Kerry


I put this image forward for The Daily Critique on The Radiant Vista website www.radiantvista.com
Craig Tanner had nothing but good words to say about the image. He also said that if this is what Ireland looks like he must come here. I have to agree with Craig, Ireland is a wonderful place to be a landscape photographer. Every hour the weather and light changes which makes for very interesting possibilities for great images.
This is not your usual view from Inch. You can just about make out the cars parked on the beach. This is were most tourist's would walk and take their photographs. While the tide was out I walked out and turned back to look and see if my children had followed. Well I was amazed at the view. The reflections of the clouds and mountains in the water. I used a polariser and ND Grad filters to hold detail in the sky and water.

Adidas Dublin Half Marathon


I do some work for Action Sports International
( www.asiphoto.net ). They area photo agency that has specialised in competition photography for many outstanding sporting events worldwide. However I only get to cover the events here in Ireland. On Saturday 22nd September it was the turn for the Adidas Dublin Half Marathon in the Phoenix Park. We had six photographers covering this event with an average of 2,800 images taken by each one. These images are uploaded to ASI's website and the participants can order images. The next event will be the Adidas Dublin Marathon on the Bank Holiday in October.

What The Duck

Sunday 23 September 2007

Winning Image

My winning image of "Hill of Skyrne" is on the December page of "The Heritage of County Meath" calender 2008.

The accompanying text was written by Clare Tuffy from the Office of Public Works.

"The name Skyrne comes from the Latin word, scrinium, a shrine. The first church on this siye was dedicated to St Columcille and there was a shrine to him here. It was an important Norman site and the present church was founded about 1341. There are wounderful views from the ruins looking west across the Gaghra Valley to the Hill of Tara"

The purpose of the calender is to create a greater awareness of the vast heritage in County Meath, acting as a promotional tool for potential visitors.

A Funny Story

The Smiths were unable to conceive children and decided to use a
surrogate father to start their family.
On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr. Smith kissed his wife
goodbye and said, "Well, I'm off now; the man should be here soon."
Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer
happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale.
Good morning, Ma'am", he said, "I've come to...''
Oh, no need to explain," Mrs. Smith cut in, embarrassed, "I've been
expecting you."
"Have you really?" said the photographer. "Well, that's good. Did you
know babies are my specialty?"
"Well that's what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a
seat"
After a moment she asked, blushing, "Well, where do we start?"
"Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the
couch, and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the living room
floor is fun. You can really spread out there."
"Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn't work out for Harry and
me!"
"Well, Ma'am, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we
try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven angles,
I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results."
"My, that's a lot!" gasped Mrs. Smith.
"Ma'am, in my line of work a man has to take his time. I'd love to be in
and out in five minutes, but I'm sure you'd be disappointed with that."
"Don't I know it," said Mrs. Smith quietly.
The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio of his
baby pictures. "This was done on the top of a bus," he said.
"Oh my God!" Mrs. Smith exclaimed, grasping at her throat.
"And these twins turned out exceptionally well - when you consider their
mother was so difficult to work with."
"She was difficult?" asked Mrs. Smith.
"Yes, I'm afraid so I finally had to take her to the park to get the job
done right. People were crowding around four and five deep to get a good
look."
"Four and five deep?" said Mrs. Smith, her eyes wide with amazement.
"Yes", the photographer replied. "And for more than three hours, too.
The mother was constantly squealing and yelling - I could hardly
concentrate, and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots.
Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just had
to pack it all in."
Mrs. Smith leaned forward. "Do you mean they actually chewed on your,
uh ...equipment?"
"It's true, Ma'am, yes.. Well, if you're ready, I'll set-up my tripod
and we can get to work right away."
"Tripod?"
"Oh yes, Ma'am. I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's much
too big to be held in the hand very long."

Mrs. Smith fainted!

Viewpoints


"one location, different interpretations"

Myself, Carsten Krieger and Peter Cox have joined together to form a group call "Viewpoints" with the end result of this project to publish a book.

Several planned trips to the National Parks around Ireland with each of us bringing a different eye and photographic style.
This will be a very interesting, different, next couple of years until the end of the project.

Goto the 'More Photographer's' to see the personal websites and some wonderful colour images of Ireland from these photographers.

Clare Island

Image of the Month for Setpember taken from my website http://www.nmsphoto.com/



This Image is called Clare Island 1 and can be found in the Places, Buildings and Objects section from the Gallery on my website www.nmsphoto.com
On your drive over to Achill Island you will cross over the bridge at Achill Sound. You the then turn right when you see the sign post for The Atlantic Drive. This will take you around the southern tip of Achill island and onto spectacular views along the cost line. There are parking locations along the way so you can stop and pull in safely. At one of these locations you will see Clare Island sticking up over the horizon.
This image was taken around 12 0'clock in the day not midnight as you might be thinking.
When i got back home after this trip over in the west of Ireland, looking at the images on screen this one jumped out. On the day the weather was dull at times. It had just stopped raining and the sun was trying to come out from behind the clouds. What makes this image for me is the light over the island and the cloud covering the top of the island.
Placing the horizon in the lower portion of the image because there was nothing of interest but water which leaves more room for the sky and what a sky. As they say in the ad, nothing added but time. I knew the clouds would break and the sun would shine. You just have to be patent. Sit back, enjoy the views and pour yourself a cup of tea.

The Canvas Works


A selection of my Black & White Landscapes from my website www.nmsphoto.com are available as canvas prints from The Canvas Works.
The photo canvas specialists in Ireland.
For photos on canvas in Ireland, limited-edition canvas prints, modern art canvas prints, contemporary illustrations on canvas and limited-edition photography on canvas, The Canvas Works is the place to come.

The Wedding of Dottie & Jim


Good friends of mine got married in August last and asked me to do the photo's for them.

Here is one of the fun images taken on that day.


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