Surreal Landscape
Just messing about – this was taken with an infra-red filter on the camera (mainly to increase the exposure time) and then I panned the tripod as the shutter was open.
Sunset, Spanish Point
Putting the horizon half-way in the picture is usually a no-no, but sometimes it can work when you have a reflection.
Startrails at White Strand Beach, Doonbeg
This is four exposures stacked, using software from startrails.de. I got a bit of flare from somewhere in the top-right corner, I must remember to put the lens hood on in future.
Boat at Sunset
Taken in Killaloe. In other news, the readership for this blog has ROCKETED to 226 whole page views a month. Thanks for reading, everyone!
Clonmacnoise
Unfortunately the cross was crooked so either the ground could be straight or the cross wonky. Oh well, I suppose it has been there for hundreds of years so I should really forgive it…
Blue and Green
Oh dear. Another blog post drought. This was taken at Brian Boru’s Fort, near Killaloe.
Clare Coast
This one is a sort of happy accident. I think it has a real ‘old photo’ feel, because it’s not completely sharp, and maybe the subject matter as well.
Dingle Peninsula
I went to Dingle with the UL Photo Society at the weekend. The weather almost invariably decides to become an evil villain and toy with us in any way it can: producing spectacularly un-photogenic weather. This trip was no different, but we did manage to get in some shots on Friday night. Here’s one:
I’m in a bit of a dilemma as to what to do with my blog, design-wise. I like being able to write a bit and show a few photos in a row, as I do now, but I also like the idea of having one of those proper photoblogs with just one photo per post. This would allow me to ’showcase’ my photos a bit better, as they always look more impressive when they’re bigger. I’ve just got a year’s free hosting through digiweb, on account of being a feckless student-type, and if I ever manage to actually get it running, I’ll have a proper Wordpress-powered blog, with all the thousands of themes and designs available to me that goes along with that. So stay tuned, there should hopefully be big changes on the way…
Doolin Pier
I sort of feel like I’m finally coming into my stride as regards landscapes. I finally have all the gear I’ve been lusting after for the last couple of years: an ultra-wide angle lens, a decent tripod, a remote shutter release and a set of filters, but more importantly, I can, to an extent, pre-visualise a scene. I think I’m beginning to look at a scene, and immediately see whether the conditions make it worthwhile dropping everything and taking out the camera (and risking the wrath of your better half!), or just driving on and coming back another day. This Saturday in Doolin was definitely one of the former. There was a dark, brooding sky, lots of movement in the sea and great colours from the sunset. It was one of the rare occasions in the year when the stars align and I find myself at the coast, in the right weather conditions at the right time. Even though I hadn’t planned anything, when I saw it I knew I just had to forget about everything else – I had been driving for 2 1/2 hours and was starving – and see if I could get some shots. In the space of less than an hour I had taken some of my favourite shots of the year so far. Here are two, and I’ll probably post a few more over the coming days:
Killaloe at Night
This is a combination of a load of one-minute shots taken from my balcony last week. As you can see there’s quite a lot going on. The reason it’s lots of dots rather than a continuous line is because I left a gap between each shot. The reason for this was because I was actually taking these shots to make into a time-lapse video, which is below the picture. I have another, much more impressive one of these to post but I’ll leave you in suspense because I only have a limited amount of stuff to post at the moment! If you’re really interested just check my youtube account…
Inch Rocks
This is the final image from the huge glut taken over one sunny weekend in Kerry. This is a particular favourite. It often transpires with my work that the harder a photo was to take the better the final image. This was definitely more difficult than most. I was balancing on some slippy rocks, as the tide came in around me. I took this photo and then had to grap the tripod and camera, and stick it in the air as I was worried it would get soaked! After one particularly big wave, the water came right in and I got spooked and decided to run for shore. Unfortunately the water was now at least up to my knees, and by the time I realised it was too late so I kept on wading back to the beach.
While wading through water as it slowly entered my boots isn’t exactly what you would call fun, the experience symbolises everything I love about landscape photography; however cheesy or cliched the final image may be. To me landscape photography is about going the extra mile: going to the place no-one else could be bothered with, at the time everyone else with more sanity is tucked up in bed. It’s about the sense of adventure and a unique sense of place, which I have only experienced through the viewfinder of my camera. Photography forces you to slow down, stop and really look, when the rest of your group has long given up braving the winds and retreated for a coffee or to the safety of the car.
It might, to an outsider, seem like perhaps one of the dullest hobbies on earth: standing around in the cold at ungodly hours of the morning doing nothing but adjusting settings on a camera and pressing a button now and again must appear to be akin to trainspotting or some equally inexplicable pursuit. For me, however, this type of photography at its best, on an astonishingly beautiful sunrise in unimaginable solitude, or a unique landscape discovered after a hike of a couple of hours, can give me butterflies in my stomach or make my knees weak with excitement. Landscape photography isn’t trainspotting: it’s extreme sports.
