Lehanbeg Pier.

Here is one of the first images taken form the Friday's evening shooting location, Lehanbeg Pier, Beara, Co Cork. The bad weather I was talking about in the previous post was clearing eastwards. We didn't get the full intensity of the setting sun due mainly to the low cover mist and fog which was to our benefit as we are shooting directly into the setting sun just out of the photo to the right. Long shutter speeds and a couple of ND Grad filters made for interesting effects on the water as it crashed over the sides of the pier walkway. The composition is helped by the mirroring angles of the foreground rocks and the pier itself. We came back to this location a couple of hours later and the water level had dropped by about 3 meters so it was safe to walk all the way out the the end of the pier.

Eagles Nest

I'm back from a 4 day trip down to The Beara Peninsula with a good friend and fellow Landscape photographer Peter Cox. The weeks leading up the trip were spent looking over maps and we came to the conclusion that the Beara would be an ideal location.

The trip down is a 4.5 hour drive but I was going to make a detour on the way and stop off in Killarney. Leaving my home at 5:30 in the morning with clear skies above me. Short lived as I was driving into the bad weather.

If you are following me on Twitter or Facebook you will see some of the images taken with the iPhone. One such image link here was taken out the car window from the very same spot as the image above. However in that image the rain was coming down very heavy. Not a great start to the trip and was this a sign of things to come? You will just have to wait and see.

I have started the series of image posts with the last image taken on the trip. It's an image of Eagles Nest in the Killarney National Park from Five Mile Bridge along the N71. This is a image I have being after for a couple of years now as conditions have not worked out in the past but this they were perfect. A clear sky with the cloud pattern following the lines of the mountain. Some ripples in the water made by me standing in the water ( wellies, a photographers best friend ). I like the way the ripples make your eyes flow into the image. The looks I was getting from the many tourists taking their snap shots. What must they have being thinking?

Did I get any more images? Just lets say it's taken me a few days to go through the images and start the conversion process.

Stayed tuned over the next coupe of weeks to see the rest of "The Beara Trip"

Bundoran Sunset

What a sunset. Pure magic.

Light, texture, shapes and tones by the bucket load.

This image was taken last year from the trip to Bundoran, Co Donegal. The amazing thing about this image was that I had the place to myself. Nobody around to get in my way. A ware occurrence for a landscape photographer. Did I have to travel far? No, out the hotel door turn right and down the steps.

I typical sort of Irish day with all the seasons during the day and come the magic hour the clouds lifted the the sun came out to play. It makes up for all the waiting around during the day. The last time I was up here I had perfect weather all day and it was going to be a wonderful sunset. But........

You see the dark rocks on the right? There is a diving board on the rocks and it's in constant use. On that evening the people got stranded on the rocks as the tide came in and the Air-Sea rescue helicopter and fire brigade were called out. No sunset image that time but on this evening I got the image I was after, OK a year late but very happy all the same.

A couple of ND Grad filter were used to balance the image. Using the Lee filter system you can angle the grads to suit the image which I had to on this image.

If you do a search with the word Bundoran on your left you will find a few more images.

Two weeks and counting to the West Cork/Kerry Trip.

Enjoy the week.

Sunrise on the coast

As I was saying over in Twitter land ( follow here ), I went back through my image folders from last year with a new set of eyes ( mentally not physically ). You should do this at's amazing what you will find. Me, well I found five extra images that went thru the "mononeil" process. The image above being one of them. Take very early one morning along the Wicklow/Wexford coast. The sun had not risen yet and you can see the light rays fanning out from the clouds on the horizon.

I didn't think it would work as a black & white but you know it does. I like the way the rocks are very dark with just a hint of light here and there. The shape of the flat rock surface and the highlights makes your eyes flow into the image. In contrast to the sky and the light rays this foreground was very dark and to balance it out a bit 3 ND filters had to be used.

The project for the year has being selected and is in full swing. More on this later.

The first major trip of the year has will happen in February down around west Cork - Kerry.

Branch & Sky

First post for 2011 and it took until 15th of January to post it.

December last year and January this year have being eventful to say the least. I don't thing I can take much more. Starting with Bronchitis, snow and freezing temperatures leading to no water for a couple of weeks over Christmas, then the flu kicked in. And now the sad news that my Granny died RIP. My turkey is still in the freezer and the bottle of Whiskey is still unopened that Santa left for me.

On the photography front, I still have not done any Landscape work yet. Plans are being worked on for a trip in February with Peter Cox. One commercial shoot last week and another one next week and a few more print orders to complete is keeping me going as well as finishing my notes for the 6 week Lecture series starting in February.

The image above was shoot from the carpark of client I was visiting a while back. I love the shape of the branches with no leaves and the dark moody sky. It depicts my mood and feeling perfectly.

Looking forward to 2011 with some big plans in the pipeline but first this:

I put together "The Best of 2010" news story over on the website. Link Here.

Good luck to you all this year and hope you will follow my journey through the year.

Snow Covered Ireland

Ireland and the rest of Europe is going through a snow time for the past couple of weeks. Here in Ireland the fun has worn off everybody, even the children. And now the snow is back again right up until Christmas Eve according to the weather people.

What I though was just a Cold turned into Acute Bronchitis which means I'm stuck indoors for a week or so. I did manage to get out and get a couple of snow scenes on my travels. The above is one such. I'm not sure of the location. All I know it's between Kells and Virginia. I will get the exact location when the Doc gives me the all clear to go.

A simple image taken from the side of the road looking into a field across to a small forest. I love the way the image is layered with different shades of snow covered tress in the foreground to the wonderful cloud formations in the background. Also the image works much better in this portrait format then my 'normal' landscape as you are brought up through the layers in the image.

Funny thing happened to me while taking this image. Having to park the car on the side of the main road but not to close to the side due to the heavy snow on the roads. I forgot that cars would have to go around the car and off the clear road surface. In my case a 40ft truck came along at speed and traveled along the central part of the road which was still covered with heavy snow. The truck catapulted snow across the road in the direction of me and the camera. A quick jump was needed to cover the camera. I got covered in snow and slush. This resulted in my getting a cold and now Bronchitis. I should have left the camera and took cover myself. I think the image was worth all the medical bills ???

Return to The Boyne

Meath and the East coast of Ireland have had 2 weeks of heavy snow fall and sub zero temperatures. Wonderful weather for photographers right? That's if you can get outside your house. The roads are just crazy. Snow falls during the day and then -12 degrees at night and the next morning it's an ice rink outside. This has being going on for days now.

Lucky I did manage to get out a couple of weeks ago before the heavy snow fall and got back to the Boyne River and get a few mores images. Full story and more images can be found over on my website : Link Here

You can see the greater volume of water in the Boyne as none of the foreground rocks are visible compared to the image in "A Boyne Diamond" post. By the time I got back up to the car my feet were numb. Thank god the fire was blazing when I got home. I broke my rule of backing up my memory cards first. This time I sat down in front of the fire until I got some feeling back in my toes. Not much to report on the dog front this time as I have the place to myself.

On a different note, I'm having great fun with another camera. This camera also can make and receive phone calls. Yes, I'm talking about the iPhone. I have two of them. Don't ask. The original one and the new iPhone4. I know the camera is not the best or is it? I have put a website together using wordpress just for photo taken with the iPhone. It's called iPhoneNeil and you can link to it here : iPhoneNeil website.

Skerries

What is it me and dogs when I am out taking photo's ?

Last week Ireland got the tail end of hurricane Thomas and the weather services was giving out warnings about strong winds, low pressure and high tides with flooding warnings. Stay away from the coastal roads and paths. So what did I do? Drive over to Skerries, a small village on the east coast of Ireland on Sunday morning and go for a walk along the coast path with the wife and children. Don't worry the storms had not hit yet as it was a beautiful morning, blue skies and some clouds starting to roll in.

Along the coastal path they have built a platform for swimmers to get into the water. On this morning the tide was very high and coming in over the sides of the platform. Perfect, so I set up the camera and waited for the waves to come in and cover the concrete in the foreground. This would help with the reflections of the clouds.

Now I had a slight timing issue. You see there was this dog running and jumping into the water right in front of my camera position and I had to wait until the dog was out of the frame and the waves covered the foreground. I got the image I was after i.e. the one here. While I was packing my gear up the dog came over to me and stood there looking at me. But what did he do only shake himself dry and water went all over me and the contents of my backpack. Once again his owner was embarrassed and apologized. I just stood there wet but laughing.

The moral of this story : If I see another dog while out shooting I'm going the other direction.

More SkyWatch Friday images here : SkyWatch

A Boyne Diamond

What do you do when your wife rings you to say that herself and the children are staying with her mother for the night? A free house, yes. Quick get the camera and tripod and get out of the house. Go figure?

Well on this evening when I got that very call I did indeed grab the camera bag. Well it never made it out of the car form that morning. As it was summer time I had plenty of time to get something to eat (photographers dinner on the go - takeaway fish and chips) and plan where to shoot that evening.

Living on the East coast of Ireland does not make for great sunsets most of the time, however there are a couple of places you can get a wonderful sunset. Not tonight as I hadn't got time on my side.

The river Boyne flows through the town of Navan where I live. I decided that I would go for a walk along the Boyne and if I was lucky just might get an image or two. There are a couple of place along the stretch form Navan to Slane where you can park your car and walk the path running beside the river bank.

I wasn't getting any luck composition wise for the first 30mins of the walk but then I started to here a sound of water flowing over and into rocks. This could be interesting. When I reached a spot on the river bank which opened out and was able to step down into the water to get the composition I was after I knew this should work.

The image above is not that image (might post that during the week). I was thinking that this was not the right time of the day to be shooting west into the setting sun. A morning time would be much better as the sun would to behind me and light up the river bank on the far side. Luck would have it that I had a tree in the middle of the river. Don't ask because I don't understand how this can be?

But I had a plan. A slight move to the left and up onto the bank to position the tree in the frame and use it to hide the setting sun. Foreground interest was the rocks and water. In the middle we had the tree in the middle of the river and the far bank with the trees was my background. I just had to wait for the sun to get onto position behind the branches and my composition was ready.

While waiting I did get to talk to a few people asking me what I was doing? and chase a dog who took one of my lens pouches out of my open camera bag on the ground beside me. I saw the funny side and no harm was done but the dog owner was very embarrassed.

Sorry, getting back to the image. I had to use a couple of ND grad filters to control the sky and get a slow enough shutter speed for control the water flow. The result is the image above. Not bad of a spur of the moment sort of thing while I could have being sitting down we my feet up in control of the TV for once.

"A Boyne Diamond" To find out what this means Click Here.

So the moral of the story : If you find yourself with a free house one fine summers evening get out and get a snap or two.

More SkyWatch Friday images here : SkyWatch

Donabate Walk

Well now, it's being a long time since my last blogpost. A couple of reasons really but mainly working on other parts of the business and not enough time out in the field taking new images.

Another reason is lack of inspiration or rather too much inspiration.

"Even the most enthusiastic of photographers get the blues. And there's nothing more depressing than jealousy and a lack of motivation caused by overexposure to the work of others."

Well my friends that's me at the moment. But, there is hope. I have discovered a great cure for this particular form of photographic depression. Grab your camera and get out of the house and spend more time developing your style and vision rather than indulging in everyone else's.

So I did just that last week and went back to where I lived a few years ago. Donabate is a small village on the East coast of Ireland. Jump over to the website here to have a look at more images from Donabate.

It was great to get out on my own with the cameras and just walk around to try a get a composition that works. The image above shows the cliff path form Donabate to Portrane. It had being a clear blue sky all morning and then the clouds started to roll in which is more to my style. While waiting for the right light and composition you have plenty of time to think. And a lot of thinking was done this morning on the cliff path of Donabate.

I'm Back

Full of my own style, vision and Inspiraton.

Dinosaur Shadow in Wicklow

Last week I went down to Glendalough, Co Wicklow for a walk with the family. Leaving the house early to avoid the crowds of people who visit Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains. It is a wonderful place to visit during the week as there is less people to avoid in your images.

After walking passed the Upper Lake (more on this in another post) and along the trail down towards the Mining Village. We had some wonderful weather, clouds and sun on the walk. And I was glad I took the complete Mononeil Camera equipment backpack with me this time and not just the compact.

I was able to capture a shadow of a dinosaur (hehehe) coming out from behind Lugduff Mountain on the left. The image also shows Camaderry Mountain on the right and Glenealo River which flows into the Upper Lake. Just below the shadows you can make out what is left of the building of The Mining Village. Mining for lead, zinc and silver took place for over 150 years and at the peek of production 2,000 miners were employed. Mining continued up until 1957.

The contrast difference between the sky and foreground was controlled by using 2 Lee ND Grad filters. This low-res jpeg might not show you but there is still detail in the shadows area of the mountain of the left.

I was able to come away with a hand full of images from this trip to Glendalough. One of the main reasons was to capture the Upper Lake. I have a couple of images but still not happy. I was enjoying my time down at the Mining Village that by the time I got back to the Upper lake the blanket clouds had rolled in and that was the end of my shooting. I will just have to come back again another time. The story of us Landscape Photographers.

More SkyWatch Friday can be found here

Droma Valley

The Irish Weather is a funny old thing. Here in this image we have snow on the mountain tops with sun, wind and rain down in the valley. Only in Ireland can you have all this in the space of a day.

Droma Valley can be found on the Dingle Peninsula. Taken with my G10 as had packed all the main camera equip away. Stopped here too see what it looked like as it looked interesting on the map. A mental note to come back here and do a bit more exploring around.

Not many posts of late due too many things going on and not time to get out, take a snap or two and then process them on the computer. I'm still going through the image from my last trip up in Donegal. Also I did manage to grad an hour or two to get out one evening to the River Boyne and captured some interesting images. I will post them over the next couple of weeks.

Marathons are back on again with me being away every weekend in September.

More SkyWatch Friday can be found here