Castletownbere

The one that nearly got away.

After we finished filming the morning sequence for the The video we made our way back to Castletownbere for some breakfast. A hard thing to find - a coffee shop open on a Sunday morning at 8:00. So we waited and did a bit more filming down at the harbour.  We also started doing the backup of the compact flash cards onto the laptops in the back of the jeep. The clouds were starting to break up at this stage which would lead to a very productive late morning and afternoon shooting. While the backup were being copied I noticed some wonderful light starting to appear over the harbour in front of us. A quick camera setup and a couple of images taken before the clouds and light changed and the show was over.

I love the mood in the image. The ripples on the calm water in the harbour and the single boat just on the edge of the light. Ok I did darken down the clouds and foreground a bit but this adds to the mood of the image. After a poor start to the day, getting up at 4:00, driving for 1.5 hours to capture the Super Moon set only to be greeted with the same clouds in the image above. This time the low lying clouds make the image.

Bad weather is good weather. It all depends on your mood.

The Reeks

The Reeks or there full name The Macgillycuddy Reeks Mountain Range on The Inveragh Peninsula, Co Kerry. This image above shows The Reeks and The Gap of Dunloe from the main road ( N71 ).
If you are one of the many people who have download the video ( Photographing The Landscape - Episode 0: Cork & Kerry ) then you will have seen how the image was captured.
And if you haven't why not?
We had wonderful light and shadows with the passing clouds to play with at this time of the day compared to the weather conditions for the sunrise early that morning.
Listen the best thing to do is download the video because, well read the DVD cover notes :

"Follow Landscape photographers Peter Cox and Neil McShane as they plan a dawn shoot in Cork. Despite being frustrated by the weather, they will show you how to work with the conditions instead of against them and come away with some good images.
For the rest of the day, they take in some of the highlights of the Cork and Kerry landscape, revealing tips and tricks of the trade along the way. Oh, and there's plenty of banter and good humor as well.
Some of the things you'll learn in the episode:
-Ways to plan for the best photographs.
-Tips for getting great black & white landscapes.
- How to use graduated neutral density filters to balance exposure.
-How bad weather can make for good photographs.
-Shading your lens without a hood to prevent flare."


So there you have it, all my secrets are out for you to learn from.
Over the coming weeks I will post more images for this trip which didn't make it into the final cut of the video. Not that there not any good, it's just we had to stop some where.
I look forward to your comments on the video if you have downloaded it and if there is anything would guys would like for us to cover in the next episode, please let me know.

Landscape Video

I am please to announce I have teamed up with Peter Cox and Roger Overall over on The Circle of Confusion website to star in a video series about Landscape Photography.

You can learn more about it on The Circle of Confusion website : HERE

Teaser - The Circle of Confusion: Photographing the Landscape, Episode 0.