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§ October 1st, 2010
Cliffhanger it ain't!
The things kids get up to nowadays! Conor, aka No.1 son, had an unusual day at the office on Wednesday. Normally he’s inside the building stuck to his desk but on Wednesday he was dangling over the edge of the Irish Life building in Abbey Street about to descend 12 floors down by rope. Well not just him, he was accompanied by loads of staff as they raised money for some charity or other. Mind you, I can think of easier ways to raise money. Anyway, I asked him if he could get me up onto the roof to take some shots but that was a non runner. I had to settle for the courtyard in front of the building and it wasn’t long before “security” arrived to find out who I was taking photos for.
Now I was surrounded by people taking photos and video on their phones and compacts but because I had a “big” lens I was singled out for special attention. Did I have authorisation? Was I press? Who did I work for? What did I have for breakfast that morning? Had I ever been to Russia and was I a member of the Communist party? Ok, I’m exaggerating about the commies but you know the story. After satisfying their curiosity I was given the green light to take some shots and in fact spent about 20 minutes chatting to the security guard who was a very nice chap.
Anyway, No.1 son made it down in one piece, raised a few quid for charity and went on to live happy ever after!
§ September 30th, 2010
Apologies for the blank blog but there is maintenance work going on in Pixie. Normal viewing will resume shortly. In the meantime you could have a look at the many great blogs on my blogroll.
While we wait lets slop in some mud – from the National Ploughing Championships and from a future post 
§ September 30th, 2010
The club outing planned for this coming Saturday has being cancelled because of bad weather.
A great meeting was held last Monday night and we had seven new members join us”Karen O’Regan,John O’Sullivan,Tim Coughlan,Angela Coughlan,Austin Heffernan,Mark Heffernan and Bill Power,a very big welcome and we hope you all have an enjoyable time with the Mallow Camera Club.
International competitions were also explained,they are called Salons,if you found this interesting please go to the following site ”http://webplaza.pt.lu/public/suyswill/M2010.htm”.Here you will find a full list of these Salons.Any problems ,please contact me at ” morganjoneill@yahoo.ie ”
Mallow Camera Club is on Facebook, if you have a bit of news or a question to ask or just simply to see whats going on around you might like to join.
§ September 29th, 2010
Dinard, Brittany.
Saint-Malo in the distance.
§ September 29th, 2010
A note hung from the The Prayer Tree in Brigit’s Garden near Moycullen in Co. Galway. There are still a surprising amount of flowers in the gardens for this time of year.
§ September 28th, 2010
Market trading
I love Galway. I especially love the city centre on a Saturday. I love it even more when I’m on a photowalk! This was my second photowalk in Galway this year with myself and Lorraine (aka MissusP&B) making a long weekend of it. We travelled down on Friday and stayed three nights in a nice hotel. We met up with the crew in 091 Labs and took a ramble around the city centre dodging the showers. I borrowed an ultra wide 8 – 16mm Sigma zoom from one of the lads and on the 40D gave a really exaggerated effect which I love. I also love stuffed olives and we had bought a pile of them from this stall in a different market the previous day.
The market is vibrant and lively and I tried to capture some of activity in this shot. I particularly like the blurred hand movements as the buyers and sellers do business. I believe there is going to be a German Christmas Market there this year from November onwards. 300 stalls supposedly taking over Eyre Square selling all sorts of Xmas goodies. now that would be a sight to behold so I think another trip is on the cards!
§ September 27th, 2010
On Saturday morning I was delighted via Dublin Blog to get an invite to Dublin Zoo to see the goings-on as the zoo wakes up in the morning, it was a great morning and I will be post some pics from that here and on Dublin Blog later. On the way home I spotted a group of people having an outdoor yoga or meditation session and was also taken by the benches scattered around the place for summer visitors to watch what’s happening in the band stand. The benches look like they’re waiting for something, probably next year’s summer or maybe they’re just watching the yoga.
§ September 26th, 2010
The Dog & Duck
I’m sure there are hundreds of pubs up and down the UK called “The Dog & Duck” and what a great name. This little fellah made great work of picking up the ducks we shot on Friday night. Well him and his two black Labrador mates.
Myself a five others set out on what turned into an epic journey up to the Monaghan / Armagh border for a spot of duck shooting. We piled into a transit van with an automatic gearbox and embarked on a journey that should have taken an hour and a half at most. The van had other ideas!
An hour and a half out of Trim and we had made Ardee. We managed a blistering 15 mph up a hill between Slane and Collon with a tailback of traffic a mile long behind us. Downhill we hit about 50mph while on the flat we cracked along around the 40 mark. At one stage we were overtaken by a vintage tractor (ok it was on a trailer being towed by a Landcruiser) but still, the shame of it.
At this point we were wondering would we make the evening flight of ducks or should we keep going and try for the morning flight on Saturday! Anyway we cracked on and eventually reached Glaslough around 7pm. None of us had been to this shoot before but we’d heard good reports about it. Pond about half the size of a football pitch with about 200 ducks flighting in each night. When we got there it turned out to be half the size of a football pitch ok – a bloody indoor 5 – a – side pitch! It was tiny – way too small for six guns. We’d come that far there wasn’t a lot we could do about it only wait for the 200 ducks.
Darkness started to fall and then they came, or should I say it came. One lonely mallard flew towards me, up went the gun, bang, bang, missed it! How embarassing! Shortly afterwards a few more came and we let rip. All the ducks flew away unscathed. Plenty of muttering and cursing from around the pond while we waited for more. The ducks started to arrive in small groups. If you’eve ever seen ducks drop into a pond it’s a sight to behold. The come in like fighter jets and you have to be on your toes to get them. They came in small numbers for the next twenty minutes or so, about 50 or 60 in total – nothing like the 200 we’d been promised! Between us we bagged 10 mallard which the dogs duly retrieved so not a bad return although we should have had more.
Then it was back into the van for the journey home. For some reason the van behaved as it was supposed to and we actually made good time, stopping in Ardee for burgers and chips. Very pleasant chap in the chipper who greeted us from behind the counter with what can only be described as a machete in his hand!
Anyway, after all that I’m now looking forward to some beautiful wild Irish duck for dinner.
§ September 24th, 2010
Ok, so it’s not the captain’s chair from Star Trek’s Enterprise, but if you want to explore the Galaxy, a fold-up chair on the beach in Salthill isn’t a bad way to start (and a bit cheaper than the Hubble telescope). To the right is the diving board at the end of Salthill Prom, and just above the chair is the outline of the Milky Way, just about visible over the glare of the streetlights from the Prom.
§ September 23rd, 2010
Yes, of course Arthur’s Day is just a piece of clever marketing by a huge corporation, but how does that make it any worse than Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day ? Anyway, it’s no harm to be reminded of the, ahem, medicinal benefits of vitamin G every so often. This picture has nothing to do with Guinness at all [though I was hanging for a pint by the time I was finished taking pictures on that particular night] but the cloud formation does kind of remind me of a Guinness pint head, just after pouring.
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