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

Another Drive-by shooting

Well it happened again today, another drive-by shooting. This time they didn't even stop the car. Camera out the window as they drove by. Where and when?
It happened on the road out of Laragh, Co Wicklow towards The Sally Gap. You slowly make way up the side of the mountain by car and when you nearly reach the top the view opens out and Glenmacnass Waterfall comes into full view. Just pass the waterfall you can pull into the big carpark and walk along the banks for the river and out onto the waterfall itself. This time of the year and amount of water in the river will vary.
We had being camping down in Roundwood and were heading home the long way. I didn't want to bring the full camera pack with me, so the G10 was all I had. The image above is the view you have from the top of the waterfall.
What kind of person the would drive all the way out and up here and doesn't stop to even look. Whats even worse, sticking the hand out the window while the car is moving to take a photo.
This is one of the few things that makes me go crazy.

The Sugar Loaf

A short break from The Mourne Mountains trip for a moment. I have said and will always say it's not the camera but the person using it that takes the photo. You have the eye to see whats in front of you and the camera. It's you who presses the shutter button at that specific time. You moved one step to the right the help the composition. You get the picture ?

When I got out for a walk/hike with the family I more than likely only bring my compact camera with me. Being the gentleman that I am I always carry the backpack with the food, water and rain gear. No room for the dslr, filters and tripod. The image above was one such image taken with my Canon G10 compact camera. We went for a walk up The Sugar Loaf mountain last sunday. On the drive up to the car park I noticed this structure and decided to make a stop on the way home to see if an image was possible.

I jumped the wall and waited for the sun to light up the side wall. I took a couple of images in landscape and portrait format. The portrait format works the best for this composition. Ok your not going to get a 40inch print form this but you will get a very nice 20x16 image and when you put this in matt and frame you have got yourself winner.

So, you don't need the top of the range camera. You do need to see better and learn to use the camera you have first. Keep your money and spend it on knowledge. Take a workshop. Plug plug hint hint ( workshop link )

More Skies can be found here SkyWatch Friday.

Spelga Dam Again

After the mist lifted form Spelga Dam and sun rising over to my left, the beauty of the area started to appear. I moved back a bit from the last post to include the rocks on the shoreline to add some foreground interest. Also the light was wonderful on the rocks bring out that texture and different tones.

I had the whole place to myself that morning bar the people who were camping in a tent just from the shoreline. I never even seen the tent on the way down and nearly walked over them as I was walking backwards up the hill.

From here I traveled down towards the mountains you see in the background. More of them next week.

My Exhibitions has come to a close with some wonderful comments signed in the visitors book. A few print sales and workshops finished off the month of July nicely.

Next week will see me traveling up towards Sligo - Donegal area for a few days.

I am still going through the Mourne Mountains Images and Westport at the end of June.

So plenty for you to enjoy.

Spelga Dam

I think it's time for a change. We travel up north this time to The Mourne Mountains in Co Down and a funny tale to tell.

We two months solid working for MarathonFoto finished I was ready to get out and shoot some landscape work. Checked the weather OK. Packed my camera bags, tripods and all other gear ready for the early start and left them down at the front door ready. I was going to shoot sunrise on my way up the North. One slight problem with all this preparation. I forgot todo one thing. Can you guess?

I woke up to the sound of my 7 year old son getting out of bed. That's funny, he never wakes that during the night. No I was wrong. What did I forget todo? Set the alarm clock. It was Saturday morning. I was not a happy chap. That was the end of that trip. So the following week I did set the alarm and let the house at 4 in the morning. What a wonderful sunrise I got and the rest of the day was fantastic.

The image above is an image of Spelga Dam. Mist started to roll in over the surface of the water to give this lovely effect. This lasted for about 10mins and was gone. I stayed here for a while longer and have some more images of the lake and surroundings.

So over the next couple of weeks I will bring you more images from The Mourne Mountains.

More Sky's over at SkyWatch Friday

Reenbeg Point Dingle

We are coming to the end of my Dingle Trip images.

The image above shows Reenbeg Point, the mouth to Dingle Bay and Harbor. This is also the home of Fungie the Dolphin (Link here). This was taken form a cliff face on the other side of the bay. It was the every last images taken on this trip before I packed by bags and headed home.

Even though the first day and a half was a wash out the the rain, on the whole the Dingle Trip was great. The new camera system was put through it's paces and came out with flying colours.

You have The Mourne Mountains and Westport Trips to look forward in the coming weeks.

Have a good weekend and see you all again next week.

More Skys can be found here on SkyWatch Friday