Loch Lein 3

Here is your Sky Watch Friday image.

We continue the sequence of images from Lough Lein with the above image. In this image you have full view of the mad cloud formation which is partly in view in the Louch Lein post. Also you can see the path (just to the right of the tree) from the Loch Lein 2 post. The Castlelough Bay is a wonderful horse shoe shape bay on both sides of the castle.

As you can see I have change the style of the bog. I wanted to try and keep it as close to my main website style ( www.blackandwhite.ie ) as possible.

A mad busy weekend in store as it's my daughters 10th birthday, with a party for the class mates on Saturday then the neighbours on Sunday in Dublin Zoo and to round the weekend off the grandmothers on Monday (it's a holiday weekend here in Ireland).

Loch Lein 2

Here is your My World image.

First of, may I say a thank you too all for the comments on my images over the past couple of weeks. I have been very busy of late and have not got a chance to look t as many other sites as possible. Things are now back to normal now, so I have more time too look around.

I think I made history yesterday:-
The first Irishman to shoot some people outside Buckingham Palace in England and not get arrested by the police. ????????
Figure that one out and I will give you the answer at the end of the the post.

Now lets get back to photography. The above image is part of the series of images taken in Killarney a couple of weeks ago from The Lake Hotel as mentioned in the previous post. This one was taken form the Castle itself ( MacCarthy Mor Castle ). Again the previous post will explain all. It shows Lough Lein or the lower lake and what's called the Bay of Castlelough. This was most likely a small harbour to tie the boats on come ashore at the Castle.

What I like about this image is the path leads you into the image and the contrast between the shapes of the stones and the shapes of the clouds in the sky.

OK here is your answer to the riddle above:
The people were running and I was shooting them with a camera. Yes I am talking about the London Marathon. I was over in London at the weekend working on the marathon for a company called Marathon Foto. I was positioned right outside Buckingham Palace for over 5 hours and in that time took just under 12,000 photos of the runners.

On holidays in Killarney, the Turin Marathon and then the London Marathon, the reason for the lack of posts and comments.

Loch Lein

Here is your Monochrome Maniacs image.

What we have here is an image showing Tomies Mountain, Purple Mountain, Castlelough Bay and the MacCarthy Mor Castle. This is the view that can be seen from the grounds of The Lake Hotel. If you go to the link for the Hotel's website and download the Brochure pdf you will be able to locate my camera positions for the above image and the following post over the next few days.

Newfoundland Bay 2

Here is your Scenic Sunday image.

Newfoundland Bay, Upper Lake, Killarney, the image I was looking for before I turned around to find the views in the previous posts.

It was a long wait to get this image. I think I stood here for well over a hour talking to myself and a couple of swans, until the light was right. It's not the image I was after but we can't control the weather and have to make do with the conditions before us. So I waited to see if the sun would shine on the mountains in the distance. It came out for a minute or so and lite up the mountain top. And that was it, the image above. After the minute or so the light changed again but was too dull to continue. So I changed direction and got the images below.

Next week I will continue the series from Killarney with some images form the grounds of The Lake Hotel with views of Loch Lein or the Lower Lake.

Newfoundland Bay Reflections

Here is your Sky Watch Friday image.

This is from the same location as the previous post but moved forward passed the rocks and grass to get a clear view of the reflections of the clouds in the water. I think it's a very dramatic looking image without the colour as you are drawn into looking at the shapes and contrast with the clouds.

I had a look over the Ordnance Survey Maps 1:50,000 scale ( a photographers must have piece of equipment ) and found that it's Torc Mountain on the right.

I would love to do for Killarney National Park what Ansel Adams did for Yosemite.

Newfoundland Bay

Here is My World Image.

It's good to be back after a few day R&R.

This image shows Newfoundland Bay, Upper Lake, Killarney National Park.
I got up early to catch the sunrise but cloud cover put a stop to this. However I stay around for a couple of hours waiting for the light levels to increase and hope the clouds would brake up. Funny thing was that the camera was pointing the other direction. It was only when a walked around I spotted this view. So I repositioned the tripod and rattled off a few frames as the clouds and light was changing all the time.

It's a treat to get a location where you can rotate the camera around and get different images from the one spot. This was such a location and you can look forward to the next few days of images from this one location.

Back to business

I have been away for a weeks holidays and then away in Turin, Italy at the weekend to shoot the Marathon. I will be back to posting later today or tomorrow after I have processed some of my images from Killarney.

It was great to get away for a few days with no computers, phones etc.....

That's the reason for no posted last week.

We had some wonderful weather and you will be treated to some new work over the next couple of weeks.

Macgillycuddy Reeks 2

Here is your Sky Watch Friday image.

I am having major problems with Blogger.

I can't upload any images as getting internal errors.

I think I might give the computer a kick. Does this work ?

Well the kick worked.

What we have here is The Macgillycuddy Reeks from the another side. And a wonderful sky for you Sky Watch Bloggers. There is a viewpoint just off the road up at Aghadoe which looks out over the mountain range. On a misty morning its just beautiful to see Lough Leane and the mountains appear. Again a timely post as I am off to Killarney tomorrow for a few days rest with the family and may be the only holiday because of this World Res.......... I'm not going to say that bad word but look on the bright side. In the words of Monty Python " Always look on the bright side of life".

So enjoy the Easter holidays and remember to get out and take some photo's.
I will try and post something for Monochrome Maniacs, if not talk to you on Wednesday.

Connemara Turf

Here is your My World image for Tuesday.

A sight that could be form anywhere in Ireland, but this just happens to be at the side of the road in Connemara. Turf cut out of the Bog and left to dry in the sun. Early one morning on my way to Kylemore I passed by this turf and knew it would make a good image. So I took a note and kept on driving to get the sunrise over Kylemore lake. On the way back the strong sidelight and clouds in the sky were just perfect and the resulting image is above.

Macgillycuddy Reeks

Here is youe Monochrome Maniacs image.

The Macgillycuddy Reeks, ie the mountain range in Co Kerry which has the highest mountain in Ireland Carrauntoohil. As I have said in the last post I am going back here and this is one of the images I want to improve on. I have seen much better images, and a case in point is from a good friend and fellow Pro photographer Peter Cox. Have a look but don't forget to come back.

Gap of Dunloe

Here is your Scenic Sunday image.

I will be going to Killarney over the Easter Holidays next week for a few days with the family and of course the camera. Killarney, Co Kerry is one of Ireland major tourist spots and I think I can safely say that everyone who visits Ireland will have spent some time here.

Again I will be after some specific images from this trip if the weather and light is right. I have been to Killarney many time before when the light was not right and when I did not have the skills to get the image. But after years of training and seeing I have that skill ( I think ? ).

Anyway the image above is the Gap of Dunloe taken very early in the morning as the sun was rising. For this image I left the hotel at about 4:30 in the morning to funny looks from the night porter. I drove to the location and prior knowledge of the surrounds helps. Parker up the car and set the alarm and went back to sleep on the back seats. It was not the best sunrise and I had low cloud cover. It did start to break up a little as you can see from the sky.

The road, maybe not a road but track follows along the base on the mountains but then got up a steep incline at the end. This bottom of the V shape made by the mountains is the top of the "road". It's great fun to drive the Gap of Dunloe, but even better to photograph it.

Lough Dan 5

Here is your Sky Watch Friday image.

Well we have come to the end of our Lough Dan week. I hope you have enjoyed it. What I will leave you with is the view you see as you leave the valley walk and start to head back up the mountain to your car. And what a view you have. This mountain is called Luggala Mountain.

Again this was an image I have been after for a while now and too finish the day off by capturing the two location more than made up for not getting away for the weekend. Just to the right and out of the frame is a cottage. Imagine having this as a view out your window.

So this bring me to the end of the Lough Dan Tour in the Wicklow Mountains.
This tour my be over but the journey has only started. The next chapter on this journey will be the Vale of Glendalough which is at the heart of The Wicklow Mountains National Park.