Let it Snow

Well it has being snowing here in Ireland the past couple of days. However it's very patchy and you could drive 2km's up the road and have no snow. Quite strange. The children were hoping that there would be no school today but sadly it was raining and this melted the snow. However I did manage to get out today to get the above image. I had clear blue skies but could see in the distance clouds were a coming. It's like this all day bursts of sunshine followed by snow falls and melting as fast again.

A Little Miracle

That's what it is, a little miracle.
What I am talking about is the camera used and the conditions under which the image above was taken in. I was standing on the rocks down on Donabate beach today with gale force winds and spray from the waves every couple of seconds. I was holding the camera in one hand and holding a grad filter in the other hand up against the lens. Oh yes the camera, The Canon G10.
The G10 was in my pocket while myself and the rest of the family went for a walk along the beach in Donabate before we payed a visit to my sister. I think the children lasted about 15mins in the very cold and strong winds. I wanted to stay longer but they won in the end and we headed back to the car.
So their you have it, the G10 a little miracle.

Water & Rocks 2

I being going thru a Water and Rocks phase and I didn't even know it because here is another one.
This image is from Downpatrick Head, Co Mayo late in the evening. It was taken on the same day as the Four Images post. The rocks are been lit by the last of the sun light before it dropped below the horizon. Again with this image as in the other water and rocks the contrast between the rocks and the misty look of the water is what makes this image work. A very simple composition but yet interesting. What do you think?

Water & Rocks

When I was up in Donegal last May. My god it's nearly a year ago since I was up that direction. I will have to get back again some time this year. However this image don't show you the wonderful landscape of Donegal but of water and rocks form Melmore Point, Rosguill, Co Donegal.

The story behind this image was a weekend trip away with Navan Camera Club in Donegal with our base in Downies. A couple of the members had never gone out before sunrise to take photo's. So I made a couple get up and out of the hotel before 5:00 in the morning. We headed for Melmore Head for sunrise, but on this occasion the clouds didn't play ball so a sunrise was out of the question. We turned our attention to more closeup/specific aspects of the shoreline. The light was still very low which made for long shutter speeds. In the above image you can see that the water has turned to misty effect. I like the way you can make out the rock surface below the water line in the foreground and compare this to the surface above the water. Also the flow of the water from the top left down to the bottom right and back again with the movements of the waves.

I was glad in the end that we didn't get that magic sunrise. Why ? Sunrise, colour that's not me. Also the other photographers who came out that morning got the bug and came out the next morning. They were rewarded with a very nice sunrise. Now there's two more photographers who understand the "Magic Hour" of Light ( 30mins before and after sunrise/sunset).

Carlingford Lough

An interesting image I have for you today taken a while back. This is an image of Carlingford Lough taken from near a place called Greencastle, Co Down, Northern Ireland. What we have here is Carlingford and it's Mountains on the left in the Republic of Ireland and Greencastle and the Mourne Mt's on the right in Northern Ireland. Two separate countries separated by the waterway on the same Island. This is not the time or place to go into the politics, but we now live in much peaceful time thanks be to god.

Linux Tree

Well this is a first.
Today I went for a walk in Ardgillan Castle with the family and got a nice walk around before the clouds and rain rolled in. The above image was hand held using the Canon G10 compact camera.
What I mean by first is that I only used free software to do all my work from converting the RAW into a black and white Jpeg. By the way if you clicked on the link to Ardgillan Castle above the tree to the left of the castle is the above tree.

Here is the techno details:
OpenSuse 11.1 operating system on a 2year old laptop.
Raw Therpee to convert the RAW into 16bit Tiff.
Gimp (ie photoshop) to convert the 16bit into 8bit Jpeg.
Channel Mixer to convert to B&W.
Added a bit of noise to look like old fashion film grain.
The end result above.
The total cost of the above : Nothing (zero euro)

I would be interested to hear form anybody else who uses Linux for their photography.
So will I be giving up my Mac's with Lightroom and Photoshop? No, not just yet. But it's interesting times ahead for the free software enviroment.

Old Head Sunset

This is another place I visit regularly. It's Old Head, Westport, Co Mayo. I have been here at different times of the day and year and have always come away with at least one image. This time it's sunset over Clew Bay and Achill Island in the background. Shooting into the sun is very difficult and that's why I would normally wait until the sun drops down below the horizon or in this case behind the mountains. I have a good example of this and will post it to show the effects. Some like it, but I don't (that is sun flare).
Sunset is all about the colours in the sky and clouds. How many of you have gone out with the view to taking a black and white image at sunset? It can work if you play your cards right. This images works because of the contrast between the dark clouds and bright sky. Again the ND Grad filters were use as always to balance the sky with the foreground water and rocks.

What The Duck

The last of Salterstown

It think that this is the last of my images from Salterstown location with a couple of wave shots. The funny think is, they are the last images I took at the locations before I moved to the next location which was Port Beach. I love the movement in the water. I am in the process of getting my hands on a 10stop ND Filter which will give me a 20-30 seconds exposure time in day light. I have seen some images from other photographers who have used this filter and they look amazing.

The Climb

Something different for you today. This images is not form Salterstown, you may be glad to hear.
This is a view form the mounation called Croagh Patrick in Westport, Co Mayo.
I posted a View from Croagh Patrick a while back but never showed you what you had to climb up. Well here it is. This rocky surface is what the last couple of hundred meter is like and to think people go up this in their bear feet. That's the track up the lower slops (white line on the right) of the mountain.
I can across this image as I was going thru my images to pick 20 images for my Licentiateship Panel for the IPPA (Irish Professional Photographers Association). The judging is not until February but I have to do the selection now, arrange the panel, print and mount them which will take a good bit of my free time.
However, guess where I'm going in the morning again? The first correct answer will get a free pen.

Planks on the Beach

I think we are near the finish of the images from the Salterstown, Dunny and Port locations from Monday. At this stage we were on the final leg home with a stop at Port Beach. Again from my previous visit I knew about the planks of wood. With the sun starting to set quickly now and I think we had about 1 hour to sunset, but with the hills and houses behind us the sun would be blocked in about 30min's. The angle and direction of the sun was just perfect to light up the surface of the planks of wood. Luck or timing, how cares, but I can safely say that was one of the most productive days I have had in a long time.
With this image above I had to wait for a person (as it happens another photographer to move out of the shot) before I would take the image and for the sun to come out from behind some clouds. It's a great feeling you get when you know after you release the shutter that you got a keeper as they say.

Dunny Point

After we had finished at Salterstown beach, we headed for Dunny Point. I found this location a few months back when Navan Camera Club came over here on a photo day outing. However the conditions were not right and I knew this location would be good if the light was right. Well on this visit it was just right. The sun was coming in over our shoulders and was lighting up the beach and headland. The tide was going out but the sound of the waves was wonderful. We set up the tripods on the beach , but I went a bit too close to the waters edge and well just imagine seeing a grown man with wellies on running for cover with a camera and tripod in hand. The smaller of the two images above is the image I got just before the wave hit. Unfortunately the image is blurred which is understandable so I did not do the final b&w work on it. I spent the rest of the day with ringing wet trousers and socks, but it was worth the laugh and I got the photos to show for it.

I think I have a few more images to show you for this one day. Here's me thinking to stay at home and not bother going out. Now there a lesson for me and you - Just GO -