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!