§ April 13th, 2012
A week or two ago I was in Connemara to see my daughter Emma run her first marathon, the course winds through the lakes and mountains which surely makes it one of the most scenic in the world but that has the side effect that it’s impossible to follow a specific runner around the course, we saw Emma after 7KM then had to go and have lunch before heading to the finish to wait for her (literally) to come over the hill, it was a lovely day in a beautiful place but it was easy to imagine that meant very little to the contestants suffering their own private agonies while racing to the finish
1/500, f/10, ISO 200, E-30, OLYMPUS 12-60mm Lens @ 24 mm
Eventually our Emma arrived, still going strongly, her proud Dad managed to stop cheering her on long enough to capture a few snaps as she sped past.
1/200, f/11, ISO 200, E-30, OLYMPUS 12-60mm Lens @ 12 mm
§ March 22nd, 2012
1/800, f/5.6, ISO 400, E-30, OLYMPUS 70mm-300mm Lens @ 300 mm
The Newbridge Grand Prix is the big cycling race of the year in this area and this year’s renewal was the biggest I can remember, in all over 400 riders took part. The course goes right round by my house but the steepest part is a few miles away at Boston Hill, while it’s not very long it is tough for a while and at this stage the riders were going over for the fourth time, a few riders had escaped from the main group and the chase was on with the eventual winner Peter Hawkins leading it.
§ February 26th, 2012
I haven’t been out with the camera much recently, there always seems to be something else to do during the short daylight hours this tie of the year, at the weekends that’s mainly ferrying my youngsters to various events especially my son to sports events.Usually I don’t bring the camera to matches, I find that I can’t concentrate on the “big picture” through the lens and it’s hard to see all the other stuff that’s going on.
Today was a cup match and some of the team put out the word that they’d like me to get some shots so I didn’t really have much choice but to bring along my gear, set myself up away from all the other folks and do my best to get a few decent shots for the lads to impress the young ladies with….
Fuzz is our go to man in the lineout and he gave another good display there today.
The final result? The lads did well in the first half before running out of puff a little in the finish….
§ January 18th, 2012
40″, f/5, ISO 100, E-30, OLYMPUS 12-60mm Lens @ 14 mm
To try to solve my problem with the 10 stop filter I was doing some testing the other morning, to be fair the conditions weren’t similar enough to properly replicate the problem so I suppose it was wasted time but then during processing I was taken with this image so I suppose it was worth going out.
§ January 7th, 2012
49.99″, f/18, ISO 100, E-30, OLYMPUS 12-60mm Lens @ 12 mm
Just after Christmas I went up to Wicklow with the Camera Club, one of the disappointing parts of the day was that I discovered a problem with flare or internal reflections when using my 10 stop filter, I wasn’t exactly sure what had happened but thought the most likely explanation was that I had been too busy chatting and had somehow fitted the filter wrongly. So when I had a chance to return to the lakes to have another go I was ultra careful to make sure I had everything as tight as possible, you’ll understand then why I was disappointed to find the same effect when I took the shots off the card and into Lightroom. It probably wasn’t quite as pronounced as the previous time but there all the same, the extent of the problem relating to the length of exposure and the angle of the sun to the lens.
I’m not really sure where the problem lies, it may be that the seal between the holder and the gasket on the filter isn’t good enough, but I’m going to have to do some experimentation to fix this problem.
This shot was one of the least affected, and cleaned up reasonably well in PP.
§ December 31st, 2011
1/800, f/4, ISO 100, E-510, 40.0-150.0 mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 40 mm
Though it’s been very mild at home here in Kildare over the Christmas and New Year period I doubt if many folk in Ireland spent the morning of New Year’s Eve having a barbie on the beach and watching the locals enjoying themselves in the sunshine.
Four years ago I had the pleasure of doing that (despite the jet lag) and have to say it’s a great way to finish the year.
§ December 30th, 2011
1/2sec, f/14, ISO 100, E-30 OLYMPUS, 12-60mm Lens @ 12 mm
Yesterday I ventured out to the Christmas outing of my local camera club, it was nice to get out and meet all the folks and see them at work.
§ December 21st, 2011
1/2 f/11 ISO 100 E-30 OLYMPUS 12-60mm Lens 12 mm
For quite a while no I’ve been looking at other photographers blending textures into their shots, being impressed by the results and making a mental note that someday I’ll have to have a go at that.
Well today was the day I had my first go, I thought that this image might be suitable to try with so I downloaded some free textures from the internet and let loose in Photoshop trying various combinations of blend modes and opacities.
I’m not sure now that the textures I picked were the most suitable but as with everything else with photography and post processing you have to climb that steep learning curve….
§ December 16th, 2011
1/10 f/10 ISO 200 E-30 OLYMPUS 12-60mm Lens 23 mm
Another shot from the cold snap of December 2010, this is the Church of Ireland church in Rathangan which has a lovely position in the town, high on the hill near the Rath, with the snow and the trees it makes a picturesque scene.
§ December 11th, 2011
f/8 ISO 100 E-30 OLYMPUS 12-60mm Lens 17 mm
The Citadel above Victoria ( Rabat) on the island of Gozo is an impressive sight from the outside rearing up over the surrounding countryside, you might imagine that the access from inside to the walls might be bigger than a few passages like this, but I suppose the inhabitants were confident that they had plenty of time to arrange their defences.
