Lough Dan 4

Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

This is a image of the actual lake. It's taken from the same spot in the Lough Dan 2 post, but turned 90 degrees to the left. It's very hard to photograph a large open spans of water with no points of interest to draw you into the image. Here I am trying to use the small ripple waves to bring you through the image . The image does nicely for the Watery Wednesday theme and continues the Lough Dan Tour. From the spot we had our lunch in the first post you can continue your walk around the lake by a path that follows the shore line of the lake.

I don't think it's as good an image as the previous post, but helps tell the Lough Dan story. The final image form this series will be on friday for the SkyWatch Friday theme.

The Story is nearly over.................

Lough Dan 3

Here is your My World image.

The Lough Dan Story continues....
In the past couple of posts, I have shown you the views down at Lough Dan and also told you about the walk down to the valley along to the lake itself. Well the image above was taken from the road half way up the mountain walk back to the car. I think you can get a sense of scale in this image of the mountains and valley. It was in kind of a rush to get this image as the dark clouds were rolling in faster than I could walk and you can just about see them on the right hand side of the sky. Just as we got back to the car the heavens opened with rain and hail stones.

When you get down to the valley the walk is along the light shade running through the image. You pass through a small forest and can see deer in the field to your left. If they hear you, they will stop, look up and keep an eye on you until you are out of sight. I must bring the big guns (ie 400mm) with me the next time to get some photo's of the deer.

This is the best location to take this overall view from, as further up you can't see the valley and the mountain on the left blocks the complete view.

So there you have it Lough Dan, But wait there's more............

Lough Dan 2

Here is your Monochrome Maniacs image

And to continue on the story from Lough Dan. The previous image was taken in front of the big trees you see in this image. After I got the image I relaxed a little bit and had another cup of tea. After this I walked around to see if I could get any more images before we started the walk back to the car. I spotted this view but had left the camera and tripod back at the spot of the last image. So like a man possessed a quickly walked along the shore-line the fastest way back to grab the camera and head back before the light changes. The light was changing all the time with the fast moving clouds. You just had to wait a few mins for the light to change again. After this image I headed back and packed way the lunch equipment and started the walk back.

But there's more..................

Lough Dan

This is your Scenic Sunday image.

And they can't get much more scenic that The Wicklow Mountains and Lough Dan.
It's funny how things turn out. The reason I say this it's because I should be down in Connemara this weekend for my 40th birthday. Yes I'm 40 today (Saturday 28th). But due to reasons beyond my control I was unable to go. However with Friday off work I drove down to the Wicklow Mountains for a few hours walk. It's a wonderful walk down to Lough Dan. And I mean down because you park your car at he side of the road which happens to be on top of the mountains, which means that it's a very steep walk to finish with back up to the car. According to the weather we were going to get wet all day long with showers and high winds. Well guess what they were wrong, kind off. It was windy and cold up on top as we started our walk, but as we started to descend into the valley between the mountains with had no wind and a wonderful sunny, cloudy sky as you can see from the image above.

Lough Dan is one place I love to go for a walk with the family as it's safe and easy on the legs apart from the final bit back up to the car. I have been here many times before and have bucket loads of photo's but still I was not happy with them as I knew that I could do better. As I have said already it's funny as I should not been there on the day. This day turned out to be the best day for photography in all the years I have walked here.

What you see here is the river that flows into Lough Dan and it's the place we stop to have lunch and a cup of tea. As we got down to the lake the clouds came along and put a stop to the photography for a while. I waited and waited, but was enjoying the peace and quite. Looking up at the sky, a got the camera out and ready on the tripod for the moment the sun came out from behind the clouds and lit the scene before me. Still I waited for the clouds to move into the correct position for the image I was looking for. So after a 1 hour walk, lunch and a cup of tea, the image I have been looking for. Boy was I happy and it gets better as I have about 7 more photos form this day that I am very happy with. 39 years and 364 day's I had to wait but I think it was worth it.


Google Maps Link to see Lough Dan

From this link you can see Lough Dan in all its glory. If you look to the right of the name Lough Dan you can see the 's' shape the river makes before it flows into the lake. The small bit of sand you see it the sand bank in my image above. You can also make out the cottage and tree.

Donabate Storm

There is your SkyWatch Friday image.

I had only a couple of mins before the rain started as you can see from the clouds rolling in from the Irish Sea. Lambay Island is just visible on the horizon. The waves were starting to grow in intensity. It was a case of set up the tripod , take the photo and run like hell back to the car. I love this type of weather conditions as the time just before and after have the most interesting sky's. No clear blue sky's for me thank you. I have a big heavy duty plastic bag which I put over the camera while still on the tripod as there is no time to start packing the camera, lens and filters away form the elements.

IPPA Awards

You might has seen the image above before, as it was posted back in November last year. But the reason I posted it again is that received a Diamond Award in the recent Irish Professional Photographers Association judging on Monday. A Diamond is the highest award given to an image in the judging. This was my first time to enter such a event and to come away with 4 Gold and 1 Diamond is wonderful.

Out of the 200 or so images submitted for judging only 4 received diamond and mine was one of them.

You can see the 5 images I entered by clicking on this Link.

Sky Reflection

This is your Watery Wednesday image.

This image was taken at the same location as the "Boats on Lough Sheelin" image. It was a lovely claim sunny day so I decided to use the water surface to capture the reflections of the clouds in the sky. We also have the reflections of the tree and the rock on the left. The water was very shallow at this point at the lake was like a mirror surface.

All about Composition and your Camera

All about Composition and your Camera

EMPHASIS

Light

Mass dominates over smallness, sharpness over blur and light over shade.
Light is the source and life blood of photography. It is the material which we are supposed to shape with our tool, the camera, and is a material superior to that tool. The effect of light will outdo any other effect the camera is able to produce. It will be stronger than any pictorial distinction which size or definition can create.
Even a comparatively small area of light will attract more attention and convey more emphasis than all the rest of the picture which is darker. Some blurred and even empty patch of light will draw our eye more strongly than all the shadows, however well defined and full of meaning they may be.
Light's emphatic power is so limitless and acts so automatically that it can be the photographer's pitfall. More than any other means at his/her disposal, light will tempt you to superficial exaggerations and confusing elaborateness. All the initial effort put into selecting the right subject, the right distance, the right view, may only too easily be scarified again by yielding to the temptation of playing around with light
Masterpieces of photography do not necessarily originate from studios with the most imposing lighting equipment. Even light cannot give emphasis amidst an orgy of lightness.
And this goes for all the methods of photographic emphasis : they live on contrast. Anything said just before may be found equally true turned the other way round in some cases. If the image is full of large masses, the sudden smallness of a detail may command attention. If the image is sharp all over, some spot of intentional blur may win importance. If the image is bathed in light, the only point of shadow may catch the first glance. Values are relative.

Don't Look Behind You

This is your Monochrome Maniacs image.

First off what a weekend for Irish Sport. After 2 major heart failures on Saturday. The Irish Ruby Team won the Grand Slam, the first time in 61 years and then this was followed by Bernard Dunne winning a World Title in boxing later that Saturday night. The Irish economy and the world economy is in serious trouble but we are going to kick and punch our way out of the mess.

So keeping with the sports theme, here is a photo taken along time ago. It's well over 15 year old at this stage. The photo shows a rider on the final run on a stage in the Tour de France bike race. The rider is Charly Mottet from the RMO team looking over his shoulders to see how much a lead he has. I got the photo by sticking my hand out over the barriers and got the camera back in just in time as to not hit the rider. Charly Mottet did in fact win the race an a got a winning photo. This image was entered into my very first inter-club competition and won the best photo overall. What was my prize you may ask? Well a roll of colour film.

The host of Monochrome Maniacs Aileni would be happy to know that the photo was taken using a Canon T90 film camera with Tri-X film and a standard 50mm lens and not with your 10 frames a second machine gun with 400mm lens. The good old days !

Boats on Lough Sheelin

This is your Scenic Sunday image.

Well the story behind this image is for all you Ladies and your wedding day. I while back I was asked to take the photo's of a friends wedding. It's something I do but don't advertise, only for friends. Well on this occasion the weather did not play ball and it started to rain just as after the couple left the church. There was nothing I could do about that. However it stopped for about 30 mins, enough time to get the group shot at the hotel. The looks I was getting fro all the ladies because there high heels shoes sunk into the wet grass and the Que in the toilets so they could clean their shoes. The things we photographers have to suffer for that photo. ha ha.

All the bride wanted was a photo of them standing down at this lake, Lough Sheelin, Co Cavan. On the day it was not possible, but I said to the bride I will come back here to the hotel some other time and get the image to clone them into the photo. On the day I was to go to meet the couple to show the photo's, was a wonderful sunny day. So I loaded the cameras into the car and headed to the lake. If you have being following my blog you will have noticed that I only do B&W landscape images.

On this day I had wonderful side lighting from the setting sun. I think the above image was taken around 7 in the evening. I also had claim water and a nice sky. I showed the couple the photo's of the wedding day and told them about the images I got before I meet them. So another meeting was arranged to give them the final album. Normally I will give the couple one image of their choice, printed and framed. However I did not tell the bride that I had this image framed also. Well to say the flood gates open when she saw this image is an under statement. This image takes pride of place on the wall along side the image from inside the church ( which I had to change to b&w after they saw this one ). So at the end of the day the image they wanted they did not get, but were more that happy with the one.

Duncannon

This is your Sky Watch Friday image.

Duncannon, Co Wexford on a nice sunny day last year. I was on my way down to Hook Lighthouse for the day. I was trying to remember where we stayed for the few days because my wife's parents stayed in a Mobile home park in Duncannon. Oh!, just remembered we stayed in a hotel in New Ross, that's what it was. While the children played on the beach, I went for a walk, a you do, with tripod by my side. The image above is looking back towards Duncannon with some amazing cloud formations in the sky.

I have posted another image form here and you must have a look. It's real what you are seeing in the image. The cliff's you see on the left are the cliff's in the image above from the other direction.

St Patricks Day

Please DO NOT adjust your monitors. This is a colour photo. I got special dispensation for higher people to display this image.

You have guessed it right, it was taken on St Patrick's Day by my daughter. Two things were funny about the image. The first one is that my beard does not match the colour of the hair. The second one was a 9 year old girl trying to hold a Canon 1D with 70-200 f2.8L lens steady while laughing at me trying to keep a straight face. We had a wonderful day here in Ireland as the sun was out and the crack was mighty.

Normal B&W post will continue tomorrow.