Hi,
Again, here’s two photos and I’m wondering which people prefer; colour or black and white? Ireland contains many back roads that become narrower from overgrown hedges, thrones etc. People often clear these rural roads by hand. This old man I met seemed in good spirits and was happy to let me take a photo of him.
I photographed Tony and Úna’s wedding in Cork just before Christmas, including the bride and groom getting ready in their houses. I enjoyed this as it’s less formulaic than photographing the ceremony in a church and it’s nice for the couple to have memories of getting ready. I’m very good friends with the couple so it was a relaxed afair (as much as that’s possible) and I think it made it easier for them that they know the photograpaher.
This is the first set of photographs from their big day, the rest will follow soon. Black and white works excellently for wedding photographs but I decided to keep the last two in colour. They’re of Úna, the bride when she was finished getting ready so she deserves to be seen in all her glory in colour!
Post title ‘Take Me To Church’ is a song by Irish artist Hozier. It’s his breakthrough single, after going viral on YouTube and Reddit.
The Galway Christmas Market opens again this weekend and runs from Friday 22nd November until Sunday 22nd December 2013 in Eyre Square. It promises to be a great day out for the family.
This is a video I made of photographs of mine from the past few years Galway Christmas Markets
Merry Christmas is a song title by Bryan Adams
The GAA is close to the heart of many Irishmen and women. Local GAA hurling and gaelic football clubs are in every village and town across Ireland are a great source of pride. Tipperary is the home of hurling and Semple Stadium is the home stadium to Tipperary GAA. Semple Stadium is where Tipperary play their (great) hurling and football. Located in Thurles, County Tipperary, it is the second largest stadium in Ireland (after Croke Park), with a capacity of 53,000. Opened in 1926, it hosted many memorable Munster Hurling Finals.
I remember being present at the 1987 Munster final with my father. We watched in anguish as Nicky English lost his hurley but managed to dribble the sliothar with his foot and kick it past the mighty Cork goalkeeper Ger Cunningham to help Tipperary earn a draw. Tipperary went on to demolish Cork in extra time of the replay and win by 3 goals. (I’m from Cork, who used to be a strong hurling team. Currently they’re in a state of transition.)
The colours of Tipperary are blue and yellow and these colours are reflected throughout Semple Stadium. Normally Semple stadium is packed with fans so people don’t get a chance to see the beauty of the empty stadium; it’s strong colours, patterns and designs of the stadium. These photographs were taken with a smartphone, proving the phrase that the best camera you have is the one you have with you. I was driving through Thurles and was lucky that the stadium was open, allowing me in.
CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW TO VIEW A LARGER, PANORAMIC VERSION
CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW TO VIEW A LARGER, PANORAMIC VERSION
To date I’ve photographed three empty GAA stadiums in Ireland (Galway’s Pearse stadium and Cork’s Pairc Ui Chaoimh). I hope to photograph some more over the next few years. Ironically Croke Park, the largest and most modern GAA stadium in Ireland, I found very plain and uninteresting to photography.
‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary‘ is a world famous song written by Jack Judge. It was allegedly written a 5 shilling (old Irish money denomination) bet in January 1912 and performed the next night at the local music hall.
This post is from last year but it’s one of my facourite photographs from 2012 and Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up again soon so I’m reposting it.
I know I’m a bit late with posting this but better late than never with my photo from Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. I was at the parade with my family so could only manage a hopeful snap here and there (not easy with an almost 2 year old on my shoulders…)
Luckily for me I had perfect timing with this photo and captured a nice reflection of the crowd in the musician’s trumpet.
Post title taken from the song ‘Hit The Parade’, from the album Bedlam a Go-Go by Something Happens, an Irish band from the late 1980s – early 1990s. I remember seeing them at Lark By The Lee in 1984 or 1985, a free music festival in Cork. Lead singer Tom Dunne had a very successful radio show on Today FM but unfortunately has now moved to a weekday morning slot on Newstalk. With Donal Dineen and Tom Dunne gone from music shows the Irish airwaves are a lot poorer for quality music
I know it’s February so this is a bit old but here’s a video I created showcasing some of my favourite photographs from 2012.
My two highlights of the year were
1. I shot two weddings last year (some photos included in the video).
2. I was suprised and delighted to have a photograph of a man outside The Crane bar in Galway featured in the L.A. Times Travel section.
Anyway, I hope you had a great 2012 and enjoyed my photographs. Thanks for looking.
Hall Of Fame is a song title from The Script Featuring will.i.am
Some of my attempts at street photography, taken on the Boards.ie Photography Photo Walk in Dublin in December of last year.
Street photography is harder than I thought, or at least there’s a learning/confidence curve. When you look at photos of street photography one thinks it’s simple but when you’re standing a few feet away from a stranger it’s harder than you think to point your camera at them and click. Obviously, the smaller the camera you have and the more subtle you are the easier it is.
Sidewalking is a song title from a Jesus And Mary Chain song
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.
Arthurs Day refers to a series of music events which were first organised in 2009 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Guinness brewing company by its owner Diageo plc.
Guinness Arthurs Day falls on the 27th of September this year and features some really big international acts including Fayboy Slim, Primal Scream, Munford and Sons, Texas and more.
It’s an amazingly great marketing ploy by Diageo and must be worth millions upon millions in publicity.
These are some photos from a recent trip to The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.
Post title is a song title by Christy Moore.
Lahinch is a nice small town in county Clare, at the head of Liscannor Bay. Lahinch beach is 2km long & is busy all summer long. It’s also an extremely popular destination for surfers as it gets big waves. I try to visit Lahinch frequently; it has nice pubs, great food (you must try the fish and chips in Vaughans, Lisconnor which is 2km away from Lahinch).
I took this photo from the top of Milltown Malbay road, which overlooks the beach. In the panoramic photo of Lahinch Beach you can see the water littered with surfers and budding surfers. Click on the image to view a larger sized photo.
Post title is taken from the song “Surfin USA” by The Beach Boys.
The taoiseach of Ireland, Enda Kenny was in Galway to announce 200 new jobs for Merit Medical Systems.
I took some photographs of the new Merit Medical Systems building last year as it was being built, they can be found here and here.
I managed to get some photographs of him leaving the Merit Medical Systems building and entering his car. I only had a few seconds so shot in continuous drive. I didn’t get any proper portrait so decided to play around with what I had and came up with this collage.
Post title is taken from the song V.I.P, from the very enjoyable new album How About I Be Me (And You Be You).
A selection of abandoned houses on a drive from Kilkenny to just outside Galway (150km journey). I’ve often observed old, abandoned buildings when driving along the roads of Ireland. Normally I’m with my family so I don’t have the opportunity to stop multiple times and spend time photographing. Recently I was in Kilkenny for a weekend and drove down on my own. So I took this opportunity to stop and shoot any old building I drove past.
It was quiet a ‘funny’ drive; I’d be driving along keeping an eye out, spot an old house, glance in my mirrors and if the road was clear do a u-turn, pull in (safely somewhere), jump out, snap-snap-snap, jump back in and turn around again and drive on. It was fun for the first hour or so but became quiet repetitive and tedious towards the end of my journey but interesting to see the different states of ruin. Eventually they’ll all end up a bare skeleton of bricks overgrown by greenery.
Post title taken from the timeless classic ‘Everyday is like Sunday‘, taken from Morrissey’s debut solo album ‘Viva Hate’.
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
I was originally going to delete this photo but the more I look at it the more I like it, the view from down a side street. The Shandon Bells (official name Church of St Anne) is the building with the clock in Shandon, Cork City. It’s known locally as the “Four Faced Liar” because each face (four clocks, one on each side of the church) show slightly different times.
Let’s Ring Out The Liberty Bell is a great song by Autamata
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.
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…
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
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
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.
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:
An old photo of mine but with a change of Government I thought it’s good time to repost it. Hopefully the cracks in our economy will be fixed. Although I don’t have much faith in Enda Kenny, the man who hid from radio interviews in the last few days before the election. Will the public be wishing Fine Gael out and Finna Fáil back in four years time?
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.
It's the first time Emma (3 and 1/2) has seen snow. She was delighted
to build her first snowman
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.
No pain, no gain
Howdy Partner A spectator at the Tug of War
HDR is (not my cup of tea) a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight
Title taken from the album Blue Sky Mine by the Australian Band Midnight Oil.
Boats resting at low tide next to a colourful row of houses at the Spanish Arch, Galway, Ireland.
When the streets are cold and lonely
And the cars burn below me
Are you all alone
Are you made of Stone?
Vote or die muthafucka, muthafucka vote or die,
Rock the vote or else I’m gonna stick a knife through your eye,
Democracy is founded on one simple rule,
Get out there and vote or I will muthafuckin kill you.
Dunguaire Castle is probably the most famous land mark that is associated with Kinvara. The castle was built in 1520 by the O’Hynes clan on the picturesque shores of Galway Bay. This restored 16th century tower house sits on a rocky outcrop on the shores of Galway Bay, 300 yards outside the village of Kinvara
