Galway Man
I walked past this man sitting on a wall in Galway. I had my camera with me, turned around to talk to him and ask if he minded if I took his photo. He said he it was okay; most people tend to once you ask them.
I walked past this man sitting on a wall in Galway. I had my camera with me, turned around to talk to him and ask if he minded if I took his photo. He said he it was okay; most people tend to once you ask them.
I saw this man on the way to Croke Park last Sunday and stopped to speak to him for a minute & ask if I could take his photo. He told me that his hat was almost 60 years old and that he wears it to all Cork games.
Old Hat is a song title by Ben Kweller
One of the things I love about the Galway Races is the mixed crowds; loads of country farmers and thousands upon thousands of young people dressed up to the nines. I like the old gentleman looking away as the two women walk past.
After I posted this someone said it’d look good in black and white so I’ve added it after the colour.
Which do you prefer?
Black and White
Look away, look away, look away are lyrics taken from the song ‘Look Away’ by Big Country.
A big thanks to Connacht Rugby Club who gave me a Press Pass for the last Rabo Direct Pro 12 league of the season. Connacht lost to Glasgow Warrior 20-3 on a wet night at The Sportsground in Galway.
Players in the photograph are (left to right) Eoin McKeon, Ronan Loughney, Brett Wilkinson, Kieran Marmion and Michael Swift
Men At Work is the title of an Australian band, who had ‘that’ hit song ‘Down Under. They are the only Australian artist to have a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single in the United States
While at Brussels airport waiting for my flight back to Ireland I noticed a lot of people sleeping on benches. So, of course, I thought they’d make interesting photographs.
Starting and then stopping, Taking off and landing, The emptiest of feelings are lyrics from the song ‘Let Down’ by the great, great Radiohead
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).
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
Just in case you haven’t noticed or guessed every post here has a musical title that’s related to the photo(s). Sister Sledge have a song called Lost In Music and it fits this man browsing in HMV, Limerick perfectly. It vaguely reminds me of DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing album cover (vaguely I said)
We’re lost in music
Caught in a trap
No turnin’ back
We’re lost in music
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).
I was in Newcastle recently for a stag and we went to see (the high flying) Newcastle United in action. The Geordies are warm and friendly; here’s some photos of some supporters.
We had a good chat with this couple in The Strawberry, a pub opposite Saint James Park. They live in Stockport but have season tickets for Newcastle and travel six hour round trip for every Newcastle United home game! The man knew his football and had been to over eight Irish football stadiums in his time.
A couple eating the famous Geordie Pies before kickoff
I was going to leave out this photo (as it’s blurry) but I love the guys big head of hair so I’m including it…
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)
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
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…
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.
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.
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:
Baby Conor, 13 weeks young
Post title is taken from the song title Protect Me You by Sonic Youth.
John, my dad (I always called my parents by their names) passed away 10 years ago today.
This is a photo taken on his honeymoon with my mum, Ute in Egypt. I’ve always liked photogrpahy, must have gotten the bug from my dad. I remember one birthday many moons ago he gave me an slr as a present but all I saw was a big, clunky camera. So I was disappointed and would have preferred an easy-to-use compact. Looking back now I realise that he had my best interests at heart and probably wanted to teach photography to me instead of me just snapping away with a compact. I wish I could thank him now but can’t so instead I think fondly of him when I’m taking pictures.
This photo title is the title from a song and doesn’t imply that I think my daughter is a bad photographer.