I was looking for a slightly faded denim type look for this – kept a little bit of the colour – decided not to shove in all the black and white the other day. It’s another one from Cornwall. There’s an element of faded retrochic as well. I’ve mixed feelings about it for the moment [...]]]>

I was looking for a slightly faded denim type look for this – kept a little bit of the colour – decided not to shove in all the black and white the other day. It’s another one from Cornwall. There’s an element of faded retrochic as well. I’ve mixed feelings about it for the moment but I like the idea and it won’t work for every photograph. Very few in fact.

If you own an iPad (and I am afraid to admit I do), Red Bull Illume issued a new application about 2 weeks ago. It’s worth a look as it includes a lot of really hot extreme sports photographs, including most of what turned up in the Red Bull Illume exhibition which took place in Trinitiy last year. I own that book and it’s fabulous bbut what’s great about about this is that the photographs appear backlit. Which is amazing.

In other news, I’m now on Google+ which means I will probably be looking at setting up galleries there soon. I like the site’s functionality but you have to bear in mind I am very ambivalent (sorry, I don’t like it much at all) about FaceBook.

This is looking towards Howth, on a windy day. I just liked the way the dry sand was flying across the layer of damp sand underneath.

I know there have been no posts to other wonderful photographers but I’ve wanted to comment on a few things lately.

Ronan has been talking about available memory.

I wanted to comment [...]]]>

This is looking towards Howth, on a windy day. I just liked the way the dry sand was flying across the layer of damp sand underneath.

I know there have been no posts to other wonderful photographers but I’ve wanted to comment on a few things lately.

Ronan has been talking about available memory.

I wanted to comment on this at the time because it’s something that strikes me as important. Typically I think I own 3 2gig cards and around half a dozen 1 gig cards. I don’t, as a general rule like larger cards because the quantity of photographs you could lose goes up exponentially. However, given that once I step into the sea to shoot from the water, I can’t do anything to the camera until I am certain it has dried completely, I make sure I have one of the bigger cards in there.

In the past I used to shoot jpg for a lot of the sports stuff. The key reason for this is a) volume and b) write speed to the card. I’m not going to get into the RAW vs jpeg debate here – only a statement of fact is that if I’m shooting sequence shots of kitesurfers, I run out of buffer before the kitesurfer is done with his trick and I have no landing shot. For that reason, there is no argument; I shoot jpg for that stuff. For Tuesday, however, I might have gotten away with the RAW stuff because I wasn’t going to be shooting sequences. So for the purposes of shooting from the water, I am strongly considering getting a 4gig card just to give myself more space on that front.

But only for that reason. I still fear losiong too many photographs at once on a failing card.

Jeremie Eloy was in Easter Island. I would love to have been there. I would have shot this slightly differently…but still…it’s a very cool shot.

Stephen, well…Stephen….

Milouvision as always, beautiful things.

Next job will be to fix up my feedreader which appears to have disappeared from my browser lately.

after all I chopped the top of the kite off. But I don’t really care. There’s just something about it I love.

The photograph was taken in Sutton, Co. Dublin, Ireland. In a way, it’s the culmination of years of work, waiting, hoping. You [...]]]> This is my favourite shot from yesterday. It shouldn’t be, but it is.

after all I chopped the top of the kite off. But I don’t really care. There’s just something about it I love.

The photograph was taken in Sutton, Co. Dublin, Ireland. In a way, it’s the culmination of years of work, waiting, hoping. You stand in the centre of the channel on a receding tide, preferably in a N or NE wind. Yesterday it was a scrappy westerly but okay, I can’t complain. I got the sunshine which made it pleasant. I bought the wide angle specifically for this kind of day like 3 years ago. I’ve spent months and years trying to get Francois Colussi to jump over me. Yesterday he did:

Last time he tried this in Paracuru in Brazil I wound up minus a 40D.

This one is going down well with my cameraish friends as well:

This is Susie Mai who is one of the best kitesurfers in the world.

I had a lot of fun with her. I also have to give her credit for going in the cold, cold Irish water. I stood in it for 3 hours yesterday. Even for me, it was not warm.

I got quite a few photographs yesterday. Hopefully a few more to come over the next couple of days.

Another one from Keem Beach. For some reason, this is my favourite of the shots I took over there.

I intended to give a trip to Inchydoney at the weekend, scene of some of my favourite beach photographs, but I got distracted by the desire to get in the water myself.

So I never made [...]]]>

Another one from Keem Beach. For some reason, this is my favourite of the shots I took over there.

I intended to give a trip to Inchydoney at the weekend, scene of some of my favourite beach photographs, but I got distracted by the desire to get in the water myself.

So I never made it over there and got stuck in the Atlantic in Garretstown instead. That beach rocks. There were actually some nice clean waves but I didn’t have a board and I wasn’t on time to make a lesson either, more’s the pity. But messing in the water…I don’t get to do that so often. I think I’ll be spending more of my life on the Cork coast going forward.

This boat was near the pier in Mulranny. I’ve seen this town signposted Mallaranny as well which must be quite confusing for the average tourist. Not, however, as confusing as the saga with the Irish language signposts is.

Nearby here, there were three guys fishing. I think they told me they came over from Castlebar. This [...]]]>

This boat was near the pier in Mulranny. I’ve seen this town signposted Mallaranny as well which must be quite confusing for the average tourist. Not, however, as confusing as the saga with the Irish language signposts is.

Nearby here, there were three guys fishing. I think they told me they came over from Castlebar. This surprised me because to be honest, one of them had an accent not too far north of a Cork accent at all. I should have asked where his mother came from.

There was a suntattered copy of the Irish Times in the boat. I don’t remember what date was on it, but I took it to mean that the boat did occasionally see use and was not, as such, abandoned.

Okay.

Round up.

Richard has a striking series here. I haven’t actually seen any one else produce anything quite like this lately.

European Swimming Championships at Big Shots.

Various other things at Big Shots. Check out the caravan racing and the shot of Steph Gilmore in Huntingdon Beach

My friend Donald from Joe McNally

This is pretty much why Philippe Plisson will always be the photographer I learned most from.

I is in disguise from Darren

Haus Schnapps from Tommie

Eilean Donan – from Julie

West Wittering from Milou and Milford. If you’re interested in slow exposures, this one is definitely worth a visit.

This is some more of the Atlantic coastal route in Mayo. One of the things that gets rammed home to me each time I am Atlanticside is how much I miss the Atlantic and really the Irish Sea; it’s a piffling little sea by comparison. It doesn’t smell right, it doesn’t feel right and it [...]]]>

This is some more of the Atlantic coastal route in Mayo. One of the things that gets rammed home to me each time I am Atlanticside is how much I miss the Atlantic and really the Irish Sea; it’s a piffling little sea by comparison. It doesn’t smell right, it doesn’t feel right and it just isn’t right.

I was in Mayo for the weekend.

This is the lifeguard shift at Keem Beach on Achill Island, just starting off on Monday or Tuesday; can’t remember which to be honest at this stage.

Keem Beach might be the most beautiful beach in Ireland. Toss up between that and Barleycove in Cork. Admittedly, Barleycove in Cork is [...]]]>

I was in Mayo for the weekend.

This is the lifeguard shift at Keem Beach on Achill Island, just starting off on Monday or Tuesday; can’t remember which to be honest at this stage.

Keem Beach might be the most beautiful beach in Ireland. Toss up between that and Barleycove in Cork. Admittedly, Barleycove in Cork is *somewhat* easier to get to. I’m not talking about distance. If you suffer from vertigo at all, you really need to get someone else to drive you to Keem and it’s better if you’re blindfolded for most of the route. I have started it twice, and on two occasions, off shore winds have cut my temptation out and I have turned around and come home. One of my friends and I have idly wondered if any cars have ever, in fact, slid off the road to Keem – it slopes down to the sea and it’s narrow enough. I found it a nervewracking drive. Spectacular, but nervewracking.

That being said, when I was driving home, shortly afterwards, I met a bus – a Shearings tourbus – on its way to Keem. I drive a little Fiesta. I am not sure I would want to drive a bus up there.

I have to say, based on some anecdotal evidence of the past few days that the lifeguards now are a tad more attractive than they were when I was 16 years old. I’m sorry I’m not 16 any more. The ones on Keel were pretty goodlooking as well as were the two in Mallaranny. Not that I was checking them out or anything; they just happened to turn up where I was at various given points in time.

Anyway, I was in Mayo for 4 days, the plan was to kitesurf if the weather cooperated but in fact, I abandoned that idea and did some bodysurfing instead. It changed my life, got rid of the mountainload of stress I seem to have been carrying around lately and is probably responsible for the fact that yesterday, for the first time in a very long time, the camera was fun rather than a chore. I did start flying a kite again and I’d forgotten what a blast that could be.

All the beaches I was on in Mayo over the past few days are Blue Flag beaches. I know that’s a mark of quality and all, but frankly, what stood out most to me was not the blue flag, or the lack of litter or anything like that; but the colour of the sand. Really, in Dublin, it’s pretty grey most of the time. Not black enough to be interestingly volcanic, and not golden enough to be attractive. Keem is a particular little beauty with the golden sand and the cliffs rising either side of it. And the mountain behind it which wore a nice hat of cloud even while the sun was blazing down on the sunworshippers below. There can’t be many more beautiful beaches in the world to be honest.

I really haven’t been out taking many kite photographs much for the last year or two, and most of what I have done has been fairly easy for want of a better description with a few key exceptions. This, however, is one of the older photographs, and it dates from about 2007 or 2008 when [...]]]>

I really haven’t been out taking many kite photographs much for the last year or two, and most of what I have done has been fairly easy for want of a better description with a few key exceptions. This, however, is one of the older photographs, and it dates from about 2007 or 2008 when I bought a 10-20 mm lens. The weather was mixed on the day, blazing sunshine interspersed with mad clouds. There weren’t too many kitesurfers out, mainly because there wasn’t too much wind. Francois spent most of the day launching off the outflow pipe on Sutton Beach that day and that’s what allowed me to do things like this.

This is one of my favourite photographs and one of my friends reckons it might be the best photograph I’ve ever taken. I’m not so sure I agree but I have to say that there are things I like about this photograph and it’s one of the few hanging in my house at present. I like the extremes of contrast in it.

I got some great photographs that day mainly because the light was so absolutely fantastic. From a kitesurfing view though, there isn’t much to run around about; there was so little wind.

I’m in the process of looking at putting new portfolios together- this I think will make it in.

So i jumped on a bus to dun laoire, stoppin’ off to pick up my guitar

Thing is I’ve been there taking photographs a few times in the last few months alright between the perfume, the [...]]]> Dun Laoghaire. Every time I go there, I hear this line from a song by Bagatelle when I was a kid.

So i jumped on a bus to dun laoire, stoppin’ off to pick up my guitar

Thing is I’ve been there taking photographs a few times in the last few months alright between the perfume, the long exposures and various stuff. It’s getting less foreign to venture to the south side. Today, the choice was basically Skerries, Howth, Dun Laoghaire or Clontarf. In the end I went with Dun Laoghaire because it tends to be busier and I wanted to shoot a time lapse. I have been talking about these for ages and equipped myself to do them about 5 months ago. It was a lovely afternoon, so I went out to do it today.

The time lapse is currently compiling veeeeerrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyy slowly but from the individual frames as I swiftly went through the near 700 of them, this one caught my eye.

The camera wasn’t obviously doing anything; just sitting on the bench beside me – I hadn’t wanted to put up a tripod for this one despite owning a shiny new very light and just about able for this camera gear traveltripod from the nice people at Manfrotto. It was shooting off a 10-20mm wide angle at around 16mm I think. If I had been 20 minutes earlier, there would have been a sailing race in the background. But there were kids, loads of kids on scooters and the one thing that astonished me – I was sitting on the end of the bench watching the camera and playing games on my iphone – was how close people came to me. One of them was this kid. I don’t think I could have posed this shot to be honest, and if I had the camera in my hand looking as though I was going to do something. The camera was hidden in plain sight however, on a bench beside me, shooting 700 shots for a crazy little film project as a test run.

I don’t do street photography – there are people who are far, far better at it than I could ever be – but this really appealed to me. I’ve a handful of over shots that I’ve lucked into getting in the past – when I try to do this, it really doesn’t work.

The hard part about all this is that because I was shooting a timelapse, and needed an uninterrupted run on a 2gig card, I shot it in jpg to get as many shots as possible. So there is no camera RAW file for this, just the jpg. I don’t usually regret it but it would have been nice on this occasion.

Okay. Enough about me.

Richard was up early this morning.

John Smyth was up early during the week.

I have never managed to see Balbriggan quite like Darren does.

Louise is currently posting Austria.

Ronan’s blog had its birthday during the week. But of the week’s shots, this is the one I liked most.

John Williams has been in Howth.

There’s a distinctly nautical theme developing here I think.

Shane fecked off over to New York and bright back this beauty.