Colliery Bay and Fair Head

Here is your SkyWatch image.

Back to my last trip with Peter Cox to the Antrim coast for the Skywatch image today. After a good mornings shooting it was time for a break and some lunch. We stopped in Ballycastle for the food and then drove over to the coast road to enjoy the wonderful coastal views while we have over lunch. A quick drive further up the road which ends in a dead end, we came across this view of Colliery Bay with Fair Head on the horizon. You can just about make out Scotland under the clouds on the horizon also. We stayed here for a while for the clouds to move and get a bit more light on the face of Fair Head.

I hope to get the family portrait of the Tigers this Saturday before I go away next week to Donegal.My base will be Bundoran near to the boarder with Sligo. I have visited here before and will be again after a couple of images. I might be able to post some images during my stay in Donegal if I bring the laptop with me to do some rough processing work.

So have a good and safe weekend and see you all next week.

Brother & Sister on Public view

Here is your Camera Critters image.

Visitors to Dublin Zoo will be able to see the new tiger cubs, alongside their mother Sigra and father Kepala from today. If you have being following my blog you got to see them weeks ago. All the TV and newspapers got access to the cubs today for the press release.

Doo Lough Pass

Here is your Monochrome Maniacs image.

I'm jumping back to the Westport trip for this image. I took about 2 frame at this location. It's about as much time as I could handle those 'Midges' before going mad. My god they get everywhere and you can still feel them all over you even after you do the funny dance and jump into your get a way car.

Back to the image. What you see here is the road from Louiseburgh to Leenaun (R335) ie the Doo Lough Pass and the lake, Doo Lough itself. On the right we have the Sheeffry Hills and on the right we have the Mweeelrea Mountains.

I had to wait in the car for a couple of hours for the rain to stop and I think I fell asleep for a bit of that time. Well it was 5:30 in the morning when I got here so a quick snooze was aloud.

Elephant Rock

Here is your SkyWatch image.

I know it's Skywatch Friday, however this image is not about the sky but the rock in the shape of an elephant.

I have seen some wonderful image form the location at sunset/sunrise in colour but none in B&W. All the time we were up on the Antrim coast I was first dying to see this rock and to get am image for myself. The first time we arrived at the Elephant rock, Ballintoy was on a very dull and overcast evening with no chance of an image to do it justice.

After I said goodbye to Peter as he set off on his journey home to West Cork, all 7 hours of a drive, I decided to head back to Ballintoy for one more try. This time around the weather was a bit better, but nothing like the last few days we had. The storm clouds were rolling in at this stage. I waited for some movement in the clouds so that the sun would make an appearance from over my left side to give some contrast and shadows.

Well here is my attempt at the Elephant Rock, Ballintoy, Co Antrim.

White Head

Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

This is called White Head or Kilnbane near Ballycastle, Co Antrim. You have one major walk down hundreds and hundreds of steps to get to this location. Not bad going down but going back up OMG. We did not get to this location this time round as I think the climb would have killed us. So this is an old image I dub up for you today.

The reason for this is I am having a few problems with my computer systems today. One is having a Kernal panic ( what ever that is ), another is locking up when I open Firefox after it was updated and my main Mac will not access the Internet for some unknown reason. So I am back to my old G4 running PPC Linux (tech talk sorry) to upload this. Lets hope after a goodnight sleep all will be well in the morning.

The Skerries Islands

Here is your Monochrome Maniacs image.

While on our drive into Bushmills for dinner ( ie fish&chips ) we spotted this wonderful view. We had to find a high place on the road to stop and shoot. We stopped the car on the side of the road that leads up to the Gaint's Causeway causing a bit of a traffic jam. Who cares? A quick jump out of the car with camera in hand. No time to set up tripods, filters etc... Just a aperture adjustment to take care of the camera shake while hand holding the camera. Oh yes with was also raining as you might can gathered. The funny looks we got from passers-by as we walked back to our car.

The Skerries are a small group of island just of the coast of Ramore Head, Portrush, Co Antrim. You can also just about make out the Inishowen Peninsula, Co Donegal in the background.

The Dark Hedges

Here is your Scenic Sunday image.

I was away all last week up on the Antrim Coast with fellow Viewpoints photographer Peter Cox. We had a very productive and enjoyable time. Mind you it was hard work getting up at 4 in the morning and not getting back to the B&B until around 11 that night. I shoot in black and white ( that's if you didn't know already) while Peter is a Colour man and mainly during the hours before and after Sunrise/Sunset. It will be very interesting to see the different style of image the two of us will produce. So to keep a track jump over to Peter's website HERE but don't forget to come back and try not to be seduced by that colour stuff.

What we have here is a very interesting tree lined road in a place called Chathamhall near the village of Stranocum, Co Antrim. It's an amazing sight to see and it's not taken out of some fantasy novel. Many other photographers have taken this very image before and I do believe Peter has this very image (in colour) on his website.

This was the very last image I took on this trip to the Antrim Coast. You will be able to see some more image including Fair Head, Colliery Bay, Ballintoy, Elephant Rock ( you will understand the name when you see the image), Port Moon, Dunlace Castle just to name a few. I have not had the time to process all my image yet, sorry any of the image bar this one as it's been not stop on the commercial photography side of things ( happy days ).

So see you all next week with more from Antrim.

Away on Antrim Coast

I am away until Friday this week on a Trip to the Antrim Coast. I hope to get a couple of nice images from places like Murlough Bay, White Head, Ballintoy, Port Moon etc...........

Today Tuesday the weather has been wonderful all day. However the rain clouds have arrived. Lets hope they move before sunset which is around 10:00.

Bellacragher Bay

Here is your Scenic Sunday image.

Number three in the series from Westport. This shows Bellacragher Bay with Claggan Mountains across the water. The people who built or lived in this house along time ago had a wonderful view across the bay. The bay in questions is found as you take the road out of Mallaranny on towards Achill Island. I found the ruin a while back but did not have the right light. This time I got the light I wanted and also the sky was not too bad either.

Bartraw White Strand

Here is your SkyWatch Friday image.

Back to my normal black and white landscape posts for you with the second in the series from the latest Westport trip. The image is 180 degrees view from the first image (Bartraw Beach). I have moved up into the sand dunes and facing into the rising sun. You can see the way the sun lights up the tops of the grass and it was very hard to try and balance the exposure as the lower right portion of the sky was very bright.

Me & Me Tigers

I had to show you the image taken by one of the Keepers of me holding one of the cubs ( the female ) form last Saturday. It's not the most sharpest of image as I think the Zoo Keeper turned the dial on the camera instead of pressing the shutter button because it was set to f16 at 1/20 second. I am now their Official Photographer and will be documenting their stay at the Zoo with photos every couple of weeks as they grow up.
Just in case, I'm the one with the glasses on this head.

Brother & Sister 2

Here is your My World image.

This is My World at the moment. The new Tiger Cubs at Dublin Zoo. I am just putting the finishing touches on the images for the press release this week. They will be in colour, but you can see them first in wonderful B&W.

Bartraw Beach

Here is your Monochrome Maniacs image.

We start this new series of image with the very first image taken form the latest Westport trip. It was taken very early on the morning of my first day in Westport. At this time of the year sunrise is around 4:30-5:00. This was taken about 6:00 in the morning. The sun was over my left shoulder as you can see the shadows from the rocks in the foreground. Al the elements were right for this image. The tide was out so the rocks in the sand were visible. The sun low in the sky for wonderful shadows and side lighting. The pattern of the clouds was interesting and Croagh Patrick was visible in the background. I know you can't see it but there was a wonderful warm colour to the sand and grass. This can be used to great effect in black and white photography as the normal mono tone grass and sand take on a more interesting texture when converted to black and white using your red or orange filters. ( ie wonderful contrast )

Brother & Sister

Here is your Scenic Sunday image.

I couldn't wait any longer to show the Tiger Cubs from Dublin Zoo.
I know it's not your usual Scenic Sunday image but who cares?
It was just amazing to see the cubs and to hold them on Saturday morning. Oh yes I did manage to rattle a few 4gig memory cards worth of images. The female is on the left and the male ( with the bigger head ) is in the right. No names yet. As with most animals in the Zoo they usually have a competition for the children to give the animals names. As theses two are not on public view, so no names, except for few who had the chance to see them while I was in the enclosure taking this and many more photos.

So except to see some more tiger cubs and images from my recent trip to Westport next week.

Melmore Head Sunrise

Here is your SkyWatch Image.

Not your average Sunrise image either, what ?
Just back from the "working holidays in Westport". The reason for the What The Duck post below.

We had a wonderful time over in Westport. I think my children were with us, but don't think I saw them for more than 10mins at a time.
I did manage to get out and take a couple of images. Some wonderful, some good, some bad and some very sad images. More on this during the coming days. Of the 500 or so images 70 have gone through the first stage of post processing in DX Optics and are ready for the conversion process into b&W. It won't be until next week or maybe the weekend before I will have the time to work on them.

The "working holiday" time table was as follows: up at 4 in the morning and shoot until around 9. Back to the hotel for breakfast and out with the family doing the usual holiday thing. Back to the hotel for dinner. Back out again at 8:30 in the evening until 10:30 followed by a couple of pints at the hotel, then bed. My holiday "workflow".

Getting back to the image above. It was taken form Melmore Head, Rosguill, Co Donegal a while back while away on a weekend trip the the local camera club. I managed to get a couple more bodies to get up at 5 in the morning to catch sunrise. It was a learning experience for them and they enjoyed it and more importantly they now understand the magic of Landscape photography.

What The Duck