From Carrig to Carraun..........: 2010

The Highlands

The recent cold spell isn't to everybody's taste.But if you have an interest in photography, frosty/snowy conditions are a Godsend.
With this in mind I decided to brave the elements and make the trek to Kerry and try to get some snaps.
The south of Ireland has escaped the brunt of the weather,but it was still a tricky drive over the county bounds from Cork to Kerry.
I had a few ideas of places that I wanted to visit, so My first port of call was an old haunt between Muckross and Ladies View, just outside Killarney. The light wasn't ideal but nevertheless I got a few decent snaps...

Just below Ladies View

Ice formations

From there I drove over Molls Gap and stopped off at a little lake called Barrafinihy Lake....

From here it got a lot trickier on the roads and I was glad to have my little 4WD Honda,

I headed towards Glencar which to my mind is the heart of the Kerry Highlands.

From Glencar it was just a short drive to my eventual destination,Ballagisheen Pass.I have seen many shots taken from this area by Madeleine Webber,and I had done a bit of a recce during a very wet day last August.
Again I was ever so grateful for having my little Honda.A regular 2 wheel drive car wouldn't have stood a chance of getting to the top of the pass.Indeed as I was setting up my gear I could see a car trying to drive up the hill, without success!He just kept sliding down and down.Eventually he got some sense and headed back down.
So these are a few of the shots from the top of the pass, looking towards Carrauntoohil......

Beenkeeragh and Caher, covered in Snow,

Carrauntoohil is blocked out by Caher.

So that was my day out in the Kerry Highlands (covered in snow).

Just to give some idea of what it was like to drive, I've uploaded a few pics of the road conditions .

My little Honda which got me around in the difficult conditions

Looking down from the Ballaghisheen Pass

And looking up towards the Pass

And Finally this one was taken just before driving back to Glencar......

Beautiful Cobh

Cobh is a about 7-8 miles from where I live, and in spite of it's proximity I haven't really taken many photos there.

Cobh has a long and colorful history attached to it, Not all of which I'm going to go into here.Suffice it to say that almost everywhere you look in Cobh there is something of historic significance.
It was here on May 7th 1915 that the survivors and victims of the Lusitania were brought ashore.She had been hit by a German torpedo just off the Old Head of Kinsale.

The Monument to Remember the Victims of The Lusitania

Cobh was also a major embarkation port for men, women and children who were deported to penal colonies such as Australia.The Cobh Heritage Center has as much information as you need, and is defiantly worth a visit.
One of the major transatlantic Irish ports, Cobh was the departure point for 2.5 million of the six million Irish people who emigrated to North America between 1848 and 1950.

On 11 April 1912 Cobh or Queenstown as it was known at the time, was the final port of call for the RMS Titanic as she set out across the Atlantic on her ill-fated maiden voyage.

The Dock where the passengers boarded the tender for the Titanic

Local lore has it that a Titanic crew member John Coffey, a native of Queenstown, jumped ship although there is no record of him on the crew list. 123 passengers boarded in all; only 44 survived the sinking.

One thing that always strikes me about Cobh.As I mentioned before, the town is steeped in history.Arguably the Titanic story is one of it's more prominent stories, but there really isn't a whole lot for people to see.Yes there is the Titanic restaurant, and the Cobh heritage center, but the remains of the dock which the passengers of the Titanic boarded the tender, is almost falling apart,and unless you ask someone,there aren't any signs or other indicators of this historic little dock.I visited Southampton some years ago ,and they seemed to make a very big deal of there association with the Titanic.It's an awful pity that it's not the same in Cobh.

Lots of more info on Cobh Here

The boarding dock for the Irish Navel Personnel

The old Town Hall, although now it's a Chinese Restaurant!

JFK Memorial Park

Photography After Dark

Night time photography is something that has always fascinated me.
Browse through Flickr or any other photo hosting website,input the words "night time photography", and it opens up thousands of shots taken after dark.It's a whole new world.

Now considering that next weekend Winter time officially begins,we in Ireland will have a lot more "after dark" hours to occupy us.
So with this in mind I took the camera for a spin last evening/night to Inch and onword to Ballycotton.The moon was fairly full and the skys were clear.

My thinking here was that the moonlight should give me some illumination ,so I could experiment a little.
I had a quick look at Peter Cox site, where he give a primer on Night time photography.
Now I'm a complete novice when it comes to shooting after dark, so, if anyone has any hints or tips, please pass them along.
So without further ado , here are a few results.....

First up Inch Bay, about 40 mins after Sundown, there was still a little afterglow in the western skys...

15secs @f10 ISO 100

Next up Ballycotton, and a shot I tried to get a while back, with limited success.....

30 secs @f4 ISO 200

This one is partially lit by the moon , as you can see it was high and to camera left.

I wasn't entirely happy with this, so I lowered the WB and this was the result......

30 Secs @f4 ISO 200, WB Lower in ACR to 3000k

Next up was the area nearer the Lighthouse........

This was taken at 30secs @f4.5 ISO 640

And Lastly a few of the Lighthouse and Ballycotton Island

8 Secs @f4 ISO 200

8 Secs @ f4 ISO 200

One final thought,

Because of the high ISO settings on some of the shots,there tends to be some noise in the unprocessed shots,There are various tools to help with this ,but my favorite one is "Noiseware Professional", from a company called Imagenomic.

By Hook or by Crook!

Hook Head in County Wexford is a place I just love to go to with a camera.
Over the years I've seen some really wonderful photographs of this place and when I started taking photography more seriously, it was high on my list of places to go.

As well as being a great place to visit, it has a very colourful history attached to it.

This area is renowned as the location of Hook Lighthouse. Hook Head is the oldest lighthouse in Ireland, and one of the oldest in Europe still operating. In the 5th century St Dubhan set up a fire beacon on the headland as a warning to mariners. After his death his monks kept the beacon going for another 600 years. Between 1170 and 1184 the Normans built the present lighthouse. It was built from local limestone and burned lime mixed with ox’s blood. Even today traces of the blood-lime mix can be seen coming through the paintwork. The walls are 9 to 13 feet thick and 80 feet above the ground. In 1665 King Charles II granted letters patent to Sir Robert Reading to erect six lighthouses on the coast of Ireland, one of which was at Hook Head on the site of the older lighthouse, the others being at Howth, one to mark the land, the other to lead over the bar; the Old Head of Kinsale, Barry Oge's castle (now Charlesfort, near Kinsale), and the Isle of Magee.

You've probably often heard the old say "By hook or by Crook",It's claimed that the phrase is derived from attempts to take Waterford by Hook (on the east side of the harbour) or by Crook (a village on the west side of the harbour) by Oliver Cromwell.
Anyway enough of the history lesson...........
Here are some pics.

Gougane via The Gearagh

I took a spin down to Gougane Barra this week,

It's one of my favorite places to visit with or without a camera.

The plan was to get there at first light and hopefully get some early morning misty scenes,

Well I managed to get out of the cot and all was going well until I arrived at Macroom.

As I took the turn for Gougane Barra, I was driving past The Gearagh, and the conditions looked promising.

The Gearagh is the remains of the only ancient post glacial alluvial forest in Western Europe. It was formed at the end of the last Ice Age and consists of a vast area of submerged islands that once supported a rich woodland flora. It gets its name from "An Gaoire", the wooden river. In 1987 the area was declared a statutory nature reserve.

So Gougane Barra would have to wait for just a little longer.

Here are a few pics of my visit....

It was a misty/foggy morning and some of tree stumps made for some almost abstact images....

Emerging from the mist

Gradually the mist gave way

And the Sun broke through

And then it was time to head to my original destination......Gougane Barra.

The light was perfect as I arrived,and even though it's been photographed to death ,I couldn't resist another shot of the Oratory.This one is a deliberate 50/50 split to highlight the flat calm conditions and the reflections in on the lake.

Gougane is always worth visiting,and especially if like me you have it all to yourself on an early Autumnal morning.For the peace and quite, well there is no place like it.. Slan!

One Stop or Ten??

Have you ever bought a piece of equipment that at the time felt like a good idea?Only for the said piece of kit to be found gathering dust a few weeks/months later.
Well I know I have.

One such piece of kit I have is a 10 stop filter or more correctly a B+W ND 110 .
The purpose of the filter is to reduce the amount of light reaching the camera sensor by 10 Stops.
No longer will I have to haul myself out of bed at an ungodly hour or stay out until the sun gets low in the sky just to get that "wooly water" effect.
With this in mind ,last Saturday I headed to Guileen to get a few long exposure shots.
So I dusted off the B+W ND 110 ,made sure that my camera batteries were charged,made sure to bring my tripod,and most importantly put the camera remote in the bag.

The weather was pretty good for what I wanted,
Good Sunny day,incoming tide, and a nice onshore breeze.
Upon arriving at Guileen, I was pleasently surprised.
There was some really nice wave action (just what you need for interesting long exposures).
So anyways, here are a few results.....

So without the filter this is what you get

F22 1/60th ISO 100

And with the 10 Stopper this is what it looks like

F5.6 1sec ISO 200

Another Example

F22 1/50 ISO 100

F8 4Secs ISO 100

So you can see from the above shots that even on bright sunny day ,long exposures are easily achieved.

By varying ISO, or Aperature, you can determine the amount of exposure which suits your taste.

A few more shots from the day.........

F8 4Secs ISO 200

F8 4Secs ISO 100

F8 4 Secs ISO 100

F6.3 2.5 Secs ISO 100

Much longer exposure are possable with this filter, but for the effect I wanted today,exposures of between 1 and 4 seconds suited me.

In lower light conditions its possable to have exposures of minutes rather than seconds.

In summary, my method for shooting with the 10 stop filter is somthing like this.....

A sturdy tripod and a remote trigger are essentials for long exposures

Set the camera to Aperture Priority mode

Set you desired aperture ( e.g. F8 )

Compose the shot

Take a meter reading and note the Shutter Speed (e.g. 1/125th sec)

So 1/125th @ F8 must now be translated to the 10 stop equivalent which is 8 seconds @ F8

01. 1/60 sec

02. 1/30 sec

03. 1/15 sec

04. 1/8 sec

05. 1/4 sec

06. 1/2 sec

07. 1 sec

08. 2 sec

09. 4 sec

10. 8 sec

(You are basically doubling the exposure time for every stop)

Set camera focus to manual

Attached filter to lens

Set camera to manual mode

Dial in 8 seconds @ F8

Take picture

Check Histogram

Adjust exposure if necessary,

Take another Pic.

Enjoy!!

Splash !!

I really feel sorry for this guy,
Can't believe the Video Guy never gave him the heads up!!

Wedding Photographer Fail - Watch more Funny Videos

Festival Time

Last Saturday and Sunday 3rd & 4th July 2010 ,Carrigtwohill held it's annual Medieval Festival at Barryscourt.
The weather stayed fair and the crowds showed up in there droves.
Amongst the many many exhibits on display, it's the "Living History" displays which are my favorites.
But having said that ,the festival really does cater for all the family.
It is without doubt THE premier festival of it's kind in Munster.
All of the participants are more then willing to talk about there particular group and the era from which they represent.As well as that you can really get up close and personal with the weapons of the day, or maybe you fancy tring on some of that chainmail that youv'e seen in the movies ( it really is heavy).
If you haven't already payed a visit, then keep an eye out for it next July .
You won't regret it!!