I was at a playground in Youghal, county Cork recently while on holidays. There was a cool path with an ‘action’ for the child to do when they got to each ‘station’ with a word for what they should do. The run photo reminds me of the South African flag.
My last set of photographs from The Galway Races Summer Festival 2011, some more portraits again.
Included is a funny one; a man with a kilt sitting down with his legs wide open giving a give under the kilt.
Chris Weld, son of Dermot Weld, Winner of the Chanelle Leading Trainer Award on Sunday at the Galway Races.
It’s all over for another year…
2nd set of photos from the Gawlay Races Summer Festival (the leftovers?)
The title taken from They Might Be Giants song. In case you haven’t noticed all photos have a musical related title.
In between races at The Galway Races I took some photos of the people attending. The fact that I had a 70-200mm f2.8 lens helped me get close up shots without annoying people. Sunday at the Galway Races Summer Festival is the last day of the races and a lot of locals go, most of the tourists are heading home.
The guy on the left in the last shots looks like Victor Meldrew from the tv show One Foot in the Grave. He’s even got a sad/angry face on him.
Here’s some photos from the Galway Races Summer Festival. It was only my second outing with my Sigma 70-200 f2.8 sports lens so I’m still getting to grips with it.
They’re far from great, not even that good. I was there for 2 races only (free in for last two races) so I didn’t have much time to plan where to stand etc. So most of the photos are from the same vantage point.
So I was on holidays for the past week or (a ‘staycation’, I don’t like the phrase but it fits) and we went on a family trip to Fota Wildlife Park. I didn’t get to take as many photos as I’d have liked to as I was there with our kids. I’d love to return sometime on my own so I could spent hours and hours taking loads of photos and sitting waiting to get the perfect cheetah photo.
I did get to ‘play’ with my new Sigma 70-200 f2.8 lens, which I’m delighted with.
I’ve loved trainers since I was a child and lucky enough to own a pair of Nike Air Jordan IV. Now that I’m 35 I can’t claim to be a child anymore but still love trainers. So I was obviously delighted when a pair of Adidas Gazelles fell into my lap. Retro Adidas trainers are COOL, no denying it. Heck, even Run DMC have a song entitled My Adidas. So hjere’s my homage to the Adidas Gazelle trainers, a timeless classic
The hotter the day, the less you pay. This is the clever marketing campaign and App form Budweiser.
This year we’re making summer even better with the Budweiser Ice Cold Index. You see, the hotter the day the less you pay for your pint of Budweiser Ice Cold, all summer.
If it’s 20 degrees your pint’s free. Awesome! If it’s 18 or 19 degrees you’ll get €2 off, 16 or 17 degrees, it’s €1 off.
The good news is the weather readings are taken daily at midday (12pm) so whether you’re enjoying the sun on a Saturday afternoon, or out for a quiet pint on a Wednesday night you can use that offer all
But with the summer Ireland is having I wonder if anyone in the entire country has gotten a cheaper pint. In fact, we’re lucky it’s not the wetter is it, the more you pay.
The Galway Arts Festival is running at the moment. There’s a good range of entertainment at the Galway Arts Festival with the highlight (for me) being Misterman, an Enda Walsh one man play staring (Corkman) Cillian Murphy. The musical line up this year was uninspiring I though but I also heard that the budget has been reduced massively. (Two years ago Spiritualized supported Primal Scream!).
I made a collage but also added the photos individually as I think the motion effect is seen better in the larger photo.
If you’re visting Ireland during July it’s worth a trip to Galway for the Galway Arts Festival; the whole town is in party mode.
Blue Room is a song title from The Orb
It was a quiet, wet dull day in Galway and I was stuck indoors. With nowhere to go and nothing to do I was tidying up the kitchen and was struck by the contrast between the colourful straws (my 4 year old daughter LOVES straws, they make her face light up. Of course she wants the pink ones) and the grey sky outside. So I decided to much around and try to take some happy, colourful photos.
The straws photo was taken with a standard compact camera. Someday I’ll buy a dedicated macro lens for my Pentax dSLR but for now the compact seems to go a good job. I bought extermely cheap extension tubes a while back but had problems with them and never managed to get them to work. I should just throw them out (or beat them to a pulp)…
It was Conor’s first birthday recently. As he’s only a toddler Emma and her cousin Grainne got to blow out the candles on his behalf. My wife made the lovely cake.
I did my first photo shoot last Saturday for my local hardware store. One of their attractions for the kids was Aslan, ‘the’ Dulux Dog instore. Kids had their chance to get a photo taken with him. I was surprised by the amount of people that turned up to get their photo taken; over 200. It was a relentless but fun day and I was getting a little bit worried that I’d run out of space on my 2 memory cards. But all was okay in the end. Here’s a few pictures of the start attracion- Aslan.
The Old English Sheepdog is the brand mascot for Dulux paint. The dog was first introduced in advertising campaigns in 1961. Since then they have been a constant and highly popular feature of Dulux television and print adverts wherever the paint is sold. So much so, that many people in those markets refer to the breed as a ‘Dulux dog’ rather than a Sheepdog.
The Ring of Kerry was the 2011 venue for the Smirnoff Classic. A large field of 9 players took part, with 6 finishing.
Donal King was the winner with 35 points, playing off 8 handicap.
Ooohhh, what is the malted liquor, what gets you drunker quicker,
What comes in bottles or in cans?
BEER!
A simply, humorous photo for the weekend. McDaids is a famous pub just of Grafton Street in Dublin, Ireland. It’s what you call a real down-to-earth traditional pub. The location of the Guinness pint sign sits perfectly next to the other signs.
Here’s some of my favourite photography quotes. Some of them are philosophical, some clever and simply statements. Please feel free to add your favourite ones as a comment.
Ernest Hemingway: “Good pictures, what camera do you use?”
Irving Penn: “What typewriter do you use?”
Your camera takes nice pictures” (I’ve had people tell me this!)
“Thanks, your mouth makes nice compliments”
“Behind every photographer is a bored partner.”
“I’ll only be a minute.” (taking to the people you’re walking with.) – me/every photographer.
“Cameras don’t take great pictures, people do.”
“The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?” – Edward Weston
“I hope you enjoy looking at my pictures half as much as I enjoyed making them.”- Hugh Hamill. I don’t if he got the quote from elsewhere but I like it.
“It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter” – Alfred Eisenstaedt
“I like photographs which leave something to the imagination” – Fay Godwin
“A good snapshot stops a moment from running away” – Eudora Welty
“There is a vast difference between taking a picture and making a photograph” – Robert Heinecken
“If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera” – Lewis Hine
“Sometimes the simplest pictures are the hardest to get” – Neil Leifer
“If you are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you’re not out there, you’ll only hear about it” – Jay Maisel
“No place is boring, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film” – Robert Adams
“Which of the photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow” – Imogen Cunningham
“f/8 and be there” – unknown
Some photos form a building site in Parkmore Business Park East, Galway City. It’s right opposite where I work so I’m going to try to go back and take another bunch of photos there as soon as I get my new camera body. I sold my Pentax K-X and bought a K-7 but won’t have it for another few weeks.
I like the idea of a ‘photo-essay’ blog post, it turns a post into a kind of ‘story’ and I’d imagine gives the viewer more of an insight into the story behind the images
I saw these bikers in a petrol station and wasn’t going to approach at first. After about ten minutes of will-I, won’t I I finally asked them if I could take some photos and they didn’t mind at all.They were very friendly, even thought they were on their way to a funeral.
Abstract water drops. It looks vaguely like a map of the world I think
I was wandering around Dublin before a recent Ireland football match and was in a nice indoor market where this vintage clothing store was. One wall was covered with dark clothing, heavy metal etc. t-shirts. Amongst them all was one baby pjs with red and pink love hearts on it.
Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral is situated in the centre of Cork City, Ireland. Designed by William Burges and consecrated in 1870, the Cathedral lies on a site where Christian worship has been offered since the seventh century.
Grace Cathedral Park is a song from the album Red House Painters (I) from Red House Painters
These are the last set of photos from the recent Ireland vs. Macedonia Euro 2012 qualifier match in Dublin, Ireland- the leftovers. I don’t think they’re participially good or bad but are a bit ‘different’ so I decided to add them.
Guess who?
A sea of (empty) green:
Legs 11
Some of the Irish fans at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland for the Ireland vs Macedonia game. I arrived at the stadium early so wandered around with my camera. It was nice to see the stadium fill up (not to capacity) slowly and the people trickle in. You could see the happiness and excitement in the kids faces, it reminded me of when I was young(er) and used to visit Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Croke Park or other stadiums where the Cork hurling team were playing.
Ready
Steady
GO
Ireland celebrations after McGeady scored the opening goal against Macedonia.
I tried my hand at a few abstract photos at the recent Ireland vs. Macedonia game in Dublin.
One reason is because I was sitting far away from the pitch it limited the amount of ‘proper’ sport action photos that I could take so I though I’ll try something else. I have three photos here, the first one is my favourite, I feel that it kind of convays the burst of energy when Robbie Keane is sprinting for the ball.
Exposure 1/6th of a second to achieve the blurry effect
The last two aren’t even that good I think but I’m just posting them anyway to show what I was trying to do with them. If I could have zoomed in on a player closer and kept him sharper/in focus then I think they’d be better.
Probably my favourite photo from the match.
Ireland played Macedonia in a European Cup qualifier game at The Aviva stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Ireland won 2-1. There was a small but very colourful section of Macedonian fans. They were nice and friendly and even encouraged me to take their pictures.
There were no problems with bringing my dslr into the stadium and taking pictures. I was up in the premium level so maybe that made it okay. If I was sitting pitch side maybe the stewards would have told me to put it away. These are my first set of pictures from the game, next will be ‘before the game’, and lastly ‘the game’.
Mr. Sun
I’m number one baby so why try harder? This enthusiastic fan even asked me did I want to take a second picture of him to make sure I got a good one.
Eternal Sunshine of the Macedonian fan
I took this long exposure picture standing on a bridge overlooking the motorway in Walldorf (near Heidleberg), Germany. The railing made a perfect substitute tripod. My fears were my camera dropping onto the road or someone coming along and spotting an easy mugging!
This is my last set from the Limerick Photowalk (I promise!). These aren’t the leftovers, I have loads of them, trust me. The theme of this set is colour. It was a dull, rainy day in Limerick so I sought to seek out colour amongst the drabness and dullness.
It was a very pleasurable walk and nice to see some first-timers join us. I’m looking forward to the next one already.
Also here’s a video of some of my photos from the photowalk- Limerick Photowalk video.
No Flowers
No smoking
Blue skies above?
Irish Gold
Photos, photos, photos (Elalgallery Photograpy gallery in the Milk Market)
Holy Cross
Water Drops
And finally just a ‘funny’ one
This is the third series of photographs from the recent Limerick City photowalk. This lot are a mixed bunch, my favorite of them is the fake flower necklace discarded in the wasteland.
Swan Lake:
Bow down before the one you love:
Once was loved:
Time out:
Limerick City:
Part two of my Limerick City Photowalk. The theme of this group of photographs is urban. I think some of these photographs show that you can find a picture anywhere/in mundane places. I like to try to shoot stuff other than the standard snapshot of cities (landmarks, main sights etc).
Last Saturday I went on a Photowalk (and organised it) in Limerick City. 14 people turned up and despite the weather being dull, cloud and raining sporadically everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Thanks to everyone for turning up, to Patrick for planning the route and to Stephen from Photowalk.ie for helping promote it.
The highlight for me was the Milk Market, where I could have spent an hour or longer photographing. The place is bursting with life, characters and colour (and food, food, glorious food). Unfortunately we only had 20 mintues there but I still got some photos I was happy with there.
These are some faces from the walk, some of them were ‘photowalkers’ (is that a proper word?) , others locals.
I’ll be uploading more photos over the course of this week.
Beauty and the Beast:
Taken from our trip to the “cute graveyard” (not my words):
Did I knock it over?
The girls-
The butcher of the Milk Market:
And the butcher’s lunch:
