This is Martin Burke, a hardy swimmer at the diving board at Blackrock, Salthill, Galway. He came out of the water and casually said “It’s lovely in there.” The Diving Board at Blackrock, Salthill is a very popular swimming and diving location with locals (and tourists in the summer). I’ve only been in there once and that was with a wetsuit on.
Swimming is a song title of a song by Florence and The Machine
I’m delighted to tell you that I had a photo published in the LA Times!
The LA Times contacted me through Flickr asking if they could use my photo of a man outside The Crane Bar in Galway in a travel feature on Galway for their travel section of The LA Times newspaper. They posted me some clippings of the page, I kept one, gave one to the pub and one to the person in the photo.
Post title is a song by the American hip hop group N.W.A.
My blog post yesterday was my most viewed blog post to date, with over 1,000 page views yesterday alone.
It really was a case of lucky timing and a bit of work as well.
On Tuesday I had a day off work and was wandering around Galway. I was strolling through Eyre Square, decided to visit the Occupy Galway camp and document it through photographs. Little did I know that the gardaí would raid/’dismantle’ the camp that very night. I was also lucky that I posted the photos here the same evening, if I had left it for a day or two the Occupy Galway camp would have been yesterdays news.
When I found out the next morning that the camp had been dismantled I tweeted my photographs & also tweeted several media organisations saying that I had possibly the last photographs of the camp. Several replied asking if they could use my photographs and many people retweeted my tweet of the photographs. My photographs were used by The Irish Examiner (online), Breakingnews.ie, Thejournal.ie, The Galway Advertiser.ie Facebook page and more. I was even trending on Twitter(!).
Below is some of the coverage my photographs in the media:
Post title are lyrics taken from the song ’15 minutes’ by the band Sheep On Drugs (great band name).
Update to post-
The last Occupy protest camp in the country has been dismantled by gardai and council chiefs. Officials moved in to remove Occupy Galway activists from Eyre Square at about 4.30am on Wednesday. Galway City Council had raised concerns that the camp should be removed before the Volvo Ocean Race grand finale next month (pretty lame excuse).
The Occupy Galway group are the last group still standing in Ireland, today (15th May) is day 215. Occupy Galway began in Eyre Square in October 2011 as part of the global Occupy Movement.
I chatted to a few of them today and had a wander around the camp taking some photos.
They have a good setup; solar power, a meeting room, kitchen, living area, flowers & plants growing, storage room and camping/sleeping area.
Post title is taken from the album 99 Songs For The 99%, a compilation of songs written supporting the protesters.
I’m happy to say I’ve had ‘What’s in my bag’ featured in Camera Gear website- link It’s their fist What’s in my bag submission from a Pentax user.
Camera Gear website is a nice site that it updated daily and gives ” the latest in photography and camera gear news”.
◦Pentax K7
◦Pentax D FA 100mm 1:1 macro
◦Sigma 70-200 f2.8
◦Sigma 30mm 1.4
◦Tamron 17-50 f2.8
◦Charger
◦ND filter
◦a bit of money
◦lens wipes
◦spare lens back cap in my bag.
I also have a smaller shoulder bag that I use if I’m only taking 1 or 2 lenses with me.
I’m planning on upgrading the K-7 to a K-5, buying a good flash (for 2 weddings this year) and down the line maybe a wide angle lens (10mm).
Post title is taken from the song ‘I Want It All’ by Queen.
Three boarded up houses on Bohermore, Galway City. I prefer the black and white photo but posted up the colour version as well, which one do you prefer?
This for me is a good example of finding a photograph in something mundane, a scene most would just walk past and not give it a second glance. Some boarded up houses, not very interesting? But looking and thinking as a photographer it’s a different world. Here I saw a reflection of the economy, a pattern in the houses and like the lines (straight lines rock!).
Post title ‘Won’t Be Back’ is a song title from ‘Recovery’ album by Eminem (Marshall Mathers). I think it fits very nicely to this photo as it portrays a broken home and poverty.
This is my 2nd photograph giveaway competition. Two lucky people will receive a signed 8″ by 12″ (inch) photograh of your choice, with free worldwide delivery.
To be in with a chance of winning simply leave a comment on any photography in my blog section (not on this page).
Closing date for entries is midnight (Pacific time), 25th March 2012. Winners will be selected at random and I’ll contact them for details (to let you know you’ve won, give you time to pick which photo you’d like and delivery address.)
GOOD LUCK!
Blog post title is taken from the song ‘Give It Away’ by the Irish band Something Happens, a great band from the 1980s and early 1990s. Tom Dunne, the lead singer, is now host to a daytime radio chat show.
John, my dad, died on the 4th of March 2000, after 7 years of Alzheimer’s Disease. He would have been 75 this year, which is virtaully impossible for me to imagine. I would have loved for him to see me getting married or playing with his four grandchildren (two mine, two my brothers).
Pictured with him is his brother, my uncle, Dick Dineen who also died too early, from cancer. Both were dentists, worked together in their pratice on Patrick’s Stret, Cork City. Both were also avid golfers and Dick was captain of Cork Golf Club (Little Island).
I don’t know when this photograph was taken (some wedding I presume) or by whom but it’s a treasured photo. Quality isn’t great as this was sitting in my attic for years and I scanned it.
Post title ‘Not Men but Giants’ is taken from the title of an Irish band called ‘Not Men but Giants’, link to band
The last set of photographs in my series from Pearse stadium home to Galway GAA hurling and football.
I particularly like the ‘Sales Office’ photo.
Post title Let’s Get Ready To Rumble taken from the song ‘Lets Get Ready To Rumble’ by Ant and Dec and also used in many sports, mainly boxing before big fights.
This is the second set of photographs from my wander around Pearse Stadium, Salthill home to Galway GAA hurling and football. In this set I’m posting patterns and strong colours seen in the empty stand which wouldn’t be seen on match day.
…and an ‘abstract’ one thrown in for good measure
My first set of photographs from Pearse Stadium can be found here
Title taken from the American Pop Rock band named ‘Maroon 5’. I know I have more than 5 maroon photographs in the post but couldn’t resist adding this title
Last summer I wandered into Pairc Ui Caoimh, Cork GAA stadium when it was empty and took photographs of the empty stadium. So I called into Pearse Stadium, Salthill, home to Galway GAA. The stadium manager kindly allowed me to walk around taking photographs . Here’s the first set of photos, more to follow soon.
The changing rooms were surprisingly extremely large, there was even a physio room and warm up room. Compare this to the changing rooms that Cork GAA have-
My second set of photographs from Pearse Stadium can be found here
Title taken from the song ‘Play It Low Into Joe’ by The Cash Strapped Johns
Donal Dineen (my surname namesake but with only one ‘n’ in Dinneen) was the dj of the late and great show ‘The Small Hours’ on Today FM which finished up in December 2011. Donal began on Today FM with ‘Here Comes the Night’ in 1997 before moving to a later time slot for The Samll Hours in 2004. His shows featured, shall we say, not daytime playlists music. Electronic, alternative, indie and a whole lot more. a link to his Today FM blog and playlists.
He introduced me to a wide variety of new artists that I’d never have heard of otherwise, including Mount Kimbe, Mark E, Dalek, Efterklang, Monolith and many more.
(This seems like an obituary to Donal Dineen but he’s very much still alive)
The title of his late show The Small Hours is the perfect title for this photo. Just in case you didn’t realise by now every photography in my blog section has a relevant music title.
Photograph settings: f10, 15 seconds, wall used as a tripod.
Part two of my photo series from a building site in Parkmore Business Park East, Galway City.
Part one can be found here
Blog title taken from the great Pixies song ‘Build High’.
This is the photo before editing (done in Picasa 3)
2010 was the first year that The Galway Christmas Market were hosted and were a roaring success for Galway. Trade increased, it added an festive event to Galway’s event calendar. These photos show some of the workers who brace the cold every night for a month.
Post title is the title of the famous Christmas song by Andy Williams
An old post but seeing as tomorrow is voting day I’m going to re-post it.
Michael D Higgins, Galway West TD, who is running for the Irish Presidency. He very kindly launched my companies photo exhibition in Ballybane (Galway) library. He seems like a very down to earth person who takes time to get involved with the local community. After Séan (Sean) Gallagher being caught lying (allegedly) the race has been blown wide open (well open).
A few photos from some pubs around Ireland; The Outback in Limerick, Neachtains (Tigh Neachtains) and The Crane Bar in Galway City.
Legs shot from a recent Munster vs Connacht Schoolboys rubgy match at the Sportsground, Galway.
I arrived just as the match was finishing so didn’t get any action shots. I’m planning on going to a full rugby match soon in Galway to try out some proper sports shots with my new sports lens.
A slightly abstract photo of the Galway Hooker sculpture in Eyre Square, Galway. The sculpture on its own looks odd, just a load of red/orange metal bits stuck into the ground. But when you realise that it represents the sails of a boat/ship then it’s something that you can put into context and it stands on it’s own as a piece of art representing old Galway.
This is my favourite photo from my recent street photography adventure in Galway City. I asked him could I take his photo and he didn’t mind at all. He seemed very content; sitting outside a pub on Quay Street with a pint and a fag just watching the world go by. The album title Smokers Delight jumped into my head.
I posted two photos; one showing his pint and cigarette smoke, the other one cropped tighter. I prefer the un-cropped one. How about you, which do you prefer?
I think I like this street photography lark; it’s different than ‘normal’ photography. You don’t get time to compose, take multiple photos, check settings etc. It’s more off the cuff and it’s exciting to look through the photos at home with anticipation to see if I got any good photos. (Sad, aren’t I?)
Smokers Delight is a deliciously relaxed album from 1995 by Nightmares On Wax (a.k.a. George Evelyn or DJ EASE)
Some more photos from my recent street walking adventures around Galway City. I found that sometimes if people notice me with my camera they keep looking at me, others ignore me and some walk away. This lot ignored me (thankfully).
Browsing through my photographs recently I realised how few photos of Galway City I have despite the fact that I live in Galway. So I’m going to make a concerted effort to publish more photos of Galway; Galway City sights, Galway life and Galway people.
I’ve been reading and looking at Street Photography recently (Wikipedia:Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches) and like Eric Kim (http://erickimphotography.com/blog). So these some of my attempts of the people of Galway. The woman in the first photo is a known character around Galway, she ‘chased’/followed me after I took her photo and rambled/threatened me. It’s a bit blurry but still a ‘keeper’.
I suppose any photo with a person in it (especially when they’re not posing) is like a snapshot from a story and the viewer gets a first impression of the person and even make assumptions as to what they’re like and up to.
You can read more about the characters around Galway onEoin Molloy’s website
The G hotel is Galway’s only 5 star hotel. It was designed by Irish milliner Philip Tracey it oozes of luxury, modern design and is great to relax ‘away from it all’.
One of their main features in the hundreds of metal balls hanging from the ceiling in the main lounge room. It has floor to ceiling glass and overlooks Galway Bay. These are what I focused on here but I had to throw in one colour photo to show how loud, in-your-face one of the other rooms is (I call it the Alice In Wonderland room).
A man relaxing down by The Claddagh in Galway City. I’m beginning to convert a lot of photos to black and white, sometimes I wouldn’t have even thought about it if a photo is good but often they just look nicer in black and white. Maybe because there’s less colour to ‘distract’ your eyes.
Most photos I don’t frame online but this one just seemed nicer in a frame to me…
On the top of Shop Street, Galway there’s statue of Oscar Wilde, sitting on a bench in conversation with Estonian writer Eduard Wilde.
This is a copy of a statue that stands in Tartu in Estonia, and was presented to Galway to mark the occasion of Estonia joining the EU in 2004. The two men are unrelated and never actually met, though they were contemporaries.
A lot of tourists sit on the bench between them to get their photo taken, some ‘hobos’ like to sit there too and drink their tinnies.
I’ve often walked past this music store in Galway City and thought to myself that the guitars sitting in the window would make a nice photo. So last week I popped in and asked the owner of this music store could I take some photos in his store. He said no problem and I spent a while snapping away.
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.
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
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
It’s game over man, it’s game over
Situated on the banks of the River Corrib in Galway city, Galway Cathedral is the most recently built of Europe’s great stone cathedrals. I didn’t have a tripod so had to balance my camera on the roof of my car.
There’s some construction going on across the road from where I work in Galway. The diggers are relentless. These are very early morning shots, I tired something different with the skinny tall shot, kind of like it.
We normally don’t get much snow in Ireland, in fact we normally get no snow in Ireland. The winter of 2010 was different, we got so much snow that roads and schools were closed.
This was the first snowfall in Ireland of 2010. It began up north on Friday, 26th of November and covered most of the country by Saturday.
People often say one of the downsides to living in Irlenad is the weather- a fair bit of rain and not much sun or summer heat. While that’s true we also don’t have people dying in heatwaves or snowstorms like other countries. And Bill Bryson, the humorous travel author said if Ireland had good weather the place would be too crowded with tourists.
A beautiful orange/golden sunset near Claregalway in Galway. The foreground has flooded fields an electricity pylons and poles. Much of east Galway was flooded in the winger of 2010 and the sunset reflects of the water.
* I have to explain that the picture title is the title from a song by The Smiths and no bad intentions on the kids.
