Black & White Ireland Exhibition

I am please to announce that an Exhibition of my work will be on display in the Dublin Camera Club Gallery from today 16th January and will run for the next 7 weeks. A 30 strong selection body of work from the past few year will be on display. The Gallery is open free to the public every Saturday from 11am to 5pm.

So please drop in, have a look and leave a comment.

Bective in the Snow

Here is your SkyWatch image.

Well the snow has gone, well from most parts of Ireland that is. I didn't get out much to get some snow images. Don't know really but was not that interested as I could not travel to the locations of interest. I did manage to get over to Bective Abbey, near Trim in Meath and got a couple of images before another snow storm came along. You can just about see the start of it from the cloud cover on the right of the image. I lost the rubber feet on the end of my tripod legs taking this image. No worries as it gave me the chance to buy the spike ends for the tripod which I have being meaning to buy for a long time.

If you have being following me on Twitter or Facebook you will know I am putting the 30 Images together for my Exhibition in Dublin Ireland called Black & White Ireland with will open next week. I will let you know times and location etc. on Sunday for all people who wish to go along and see my work up close.

Talk soon.

Ramparts Navan

Here is your Monochrome Week image.

Global Warming ( it's bloody freezing here in Ireland ). This clod snap as they are calling it has being going on for 2 weeks now. The temp went down below -10 last night and the pipes in the attic are frozen.

Ok, some other countries are having even colder weather, but there in Ireland we are not use to this cold and snow & ice.

The image above is The Ramparts in Navan, Co Meath. Another one from our New Years Day walk along the River Boyne. As you can see the river is frozen in parts. Mind you I say it's completely frozen now. I must try and get down there again on Sunday as it forecast for more snow and freezing temperatures of -8 tonight.

You can now follow me on Facebook if you want

Link Here to Neil McShane ( aka Mononeil ) on Facebook.

New Year's Day on the Boyne

Here is your Skywatch Friday image.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL

Hot of the press ( well bloody cold mind you ), the first image processed and taken this morning while out with the family on a walk to clear the heads after a week of eating an drinking as if there was no tomorrow. We usually go for a walk in the mountains on New Year's Day but the weather put a stop to this. The roads are in a bad state with no gritting in Meath.

So we made the short trip down to the River Boyne in Navan. I didn't think I would get anything of interest. However the above image ended that theory.

If the first image on the first day of 2010 is this good I am looking forward to a very productive year ahead. I hope you have a good year also.

Bective Abbey Walls

Here is your Monochrome Maniacs image.

Another image taken on one of my Monochrome Workshop weekends. This is the inner walls of Bective Abbey, Co Meath. We had a very overcast day which made for very poor landscape images for the whole Abbey. A quick walk around and inside the Abbey we were able to capture the details in the walls because of the soft defused light.
The students could not see the image I had in mind but after we got back and uploaded the image onto the computer and did some very small adjustments. Bingo. They started to understand, which the whole idea of the Monochrome Workshop.

More than likely this will be my last post before Christmas.
So I thank you all for your comments on my posts during the year and hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

PS Lets hope Santa brings us lots of presents ( eg new cameras, lens,etc.... )

SunFlare

Here is your Monochrome Maniacs image.

It's been a while since my last post. Catching up after a couple of Christmas Craft Fair's. Printing and posting images. I also teach a two day Monochrome Workshop. This weekend just past was one such. I enjoy teaching and explaining the methods used to achieve my style of black and white photography.

Interesting, if not completely mad image taken on the workshop. It shows Newtown Abbey, Trim, Co Meath at sunset ( well before sunset ). Normally I would not do such a image but I kind of like this image. I have another image taken from the same spot, again at sunset, but at a different tie of the year. Just goes to show the different positions of the sunset during the course of a year. Link here to see the other version.

Baltimore Beacon shoreline

Here is your SkyWatch Image.

Our final location, Balitmore, Co Cork and the Baltimore Beacon. The problem is that I can't show you the image I want to show as the client has not seen the image yet so is would not be good practice to show you. Mind you if you go over to Peter Cox website Link Here, you will see a version of the image I have but mine is in b&w and none of that tilt and shift. Peter has a got story behind the image so jump over and read it.

Welcome back.

The above image was taken down on the shoreline looking up at the Beacon. I like the way the waves play with the clouds in the sky to draw your eye into the image.

Ballydehob Bay

Here is your SkyWatch Friday image.

Continuing on our journey towards Baltimore with traveled along the coast roads and found this spot where a river floes out into Ballydehob Bay. Again the weather was perfect. Wonderful light and clouds for us to play with.

The ripple effects of the river as it flows out in the bay leads your eye nicely into the image. I was standing up on a tractor and trailer to get some extra height so that you could see the river flow. At normal ground level, it's not visible. The sky plays a perfect role in the image with the clouds adding some interest in the background. Funny thing was that if we had being shooting more to the left or right the sky had no clouds and made for a dull image.

Again this is in stark contrast to the flooding happening all over the west coast of Ireland. Out on the coast we had perfect conditions but inland chaos.

We will continue on the journey next week, so see you then and have a good weekend all.

Lough Allua

Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

Ireland is having the worst flooding in living history down in the south and west of the country.

The above image might be a wonderful piece of "Art", but can you spot the lake, field and a road? No. Well they are there somewhere. This is Lough Allua, Ballingeary, Co Cork taken last friday. That's the funny thing about the Irish weather. Two day solid heavy rain and winds and then a clear blue sky the next day.

Looking at this image would think peace and clam, and only 20km down the road, complete chaos with the main streets in the city under 1 meter of water still.

This was the very first image taken on that friday when we did manage to get through the flood water and make our way towards the coast and our final destination of Baltimore.

IPPA Panel

Here is your Monochrome Maniacs image

Well it's been a while now, so here is 4 images. You will have seen them before on the blog. But the layout is for the IPPA Photographer of the Year Awards. This is my Portfolio of images for the Landscape Category. What do you think ?On another note, I was away down in West Cork with my good friend Peter Cox for a few days shooting. When I mean a few days, it turned out to be only one day as the rest of the time we were flooded. The weather is the worst in living history for the amount of rain is unreal. We did manage to get out of the car by means of the windows and nothing to bad. Wait for the water to dry in the engine and we got out of trouble. On friday last the 20th you would not believe the wonderful conditions we had compared to the previous couple of days. And boy did we make the most of it. I should get to post a couple of images from this trip during the coming weeks.

Lough Dan Week ends

Here is your SkyWatch Friday image.

We will end the week with another one from my walk down at Lough Dan. This image was taken on the way back after lunch down at the lake. The foliage is overgrown a bit and the track is just visible.

The rolling clouds and the changing light was just wonderful and even though I only had my G10 with me, I have managed to get some images that look perfect even when printed up to 20x16.

Looking back at my Library of images in Lightroom I have a nice collection of images form Lough Dan numbering about 15. I feel this will become a life long project of mine.

Lough Dan Again

Here is your Monochrome Weekly image.

For once I'm early today with my post. Weekend off what with Halloween.

I am still going through the images from the Lough Dan walk last Wednesday. The image above is down at the lake itself. You can continue along the path and walk around the complete lake or as we do we stop here and have our lunch. When the light is right you just have to go with it and in this case drop your sandwich and run. The sun came out and lit up the foreground while the right side bank of the river was still in shade. Again hand held with the Canon G10 compact camera.

What's in store next week ?

Well back to normal with the teaching after the school holidays. I think I have a commercial job or two to do. I have to start the selection process for the images to print and frame for the Christmas Fair starting in December.

Hope you have a good week, and talk soon.