This from Inch last week, those waves were from the post Katia swell. One guy attempted to go surfing; I didn’t really pay too much attention to him and he didn’t get much out of them.

Okay. Jeremie Eloy is doing some filming. This is some mega kitesurfing from [...]]]> I seem to have this thing about lines:

This from Inch last week, those waves were from the post Katia swell. One guy attempted to go surfing; I didn’t really pay too much attention to him and he didn’t get much out of them.

Okay. Jeremie Eloy is doing some filming. This is some mega kitesurfing from Tea’hupoo.

This is a FANTASTIC short surf film titled Africa. Not sure where exactly.

And a great basejumping one here.

This is a terrific timelapse shot from the ISS which if you have not seen it, you should see it now.

Skydivers via the Flickr Blog.

Freediving via the Guardian Blog.

When I got to Lahinch on Monday, it looked as though it had been snowing. The whole beach was covered in this foam stuff which consisted basically of sea water and sand from what I can see (look, I got absolutely covered in it). It was fascinating. Because of the way it was blowing up [...]]]>

When I got to Lahinch on Monday, it looked as though it had been snowing. The whole beach was covered in this foam stuff which consisted basically of sea water and sand from what I can see (look, I got absolutely covered in it). It was fascinating. Because of the way it was blowing up over the sea wall, it looked, on occasion, as though it were snowing. Kids had a ball in it, although I’d imagine their mothers was groaning at the mess they were making of themselves.

What fascinated me was the way the foam behaved. It looked very gloopy; a bit like condensed milk.

and it broke like waves.

I mean, look at this for a tube….

This was taken from the prom in Lahinch and there will be a few more from there along with some from Inch County Kerry  over the next day or so

All my life I’ve wanted to get a shot like this. In theory I [...]]]> I spent some time in south west Ireland over the past few days.

This was taken from the prom in Lahinch and there will be a few more from there along with some from Inch County Kerry  over the next day or so

All my life I’ve wanted to get a shot like this. In theory I had planned to go down to Doolin Point but there was general advice to people not to go to the Cliffs of Moher, and to be honest, it was so wild in Lahinch and I’d had a fairly rough drive down the country I just hadn’t the guts to get as far as Doolin. It may have been a mistake on my part; on the other hand I got photographs I couldn’t even imagine in Lahinch.

I managed to destroy myself, and three lenses while I was there. The 50-500 mm, in the end, was so coated in water that I couldn’t clear it enough to get the autofocus to work. So much of the next day was spent cleaning them all before taking them to Kerry for a trip to Inch.

I discovered the other day that I had done the first photograph of this ilk way back in 2007 on a photograph that I liked a lot at the time but had forgotten about. This is from yesterday too.

Have had a productive morning doing stuff like packing a camera bag for a top secret trip [...]]]>

I discovered the other day that I had done the first photograph of this ilk way back in 2007 on a photograph that I liked a lot at the time but had forgotten about. This is from yesterday too.

Have had a productive morning doing stuff like packing a camera bag for a top secret trip (we’ll know later in the week whether it was even remotely successful – but if it is I will be a truly happy person). One of the things I wanted to do was look at some photographs by Mickey Smith again – I’m angling up to purchase one myself which seems crazy when you bear in mind that I have plenty of photographs of my own, so many that I can actually forget some of them exist. But there was a great one in Spring’s Tonnta. I wish he’d sort out his website.

On balance, while I haven’t taken that many photographs this year, I got some nice ones, and at least six that I’m more than pleased to see adorning my own walls. Two are already there; taken in Cork, and two more from Clare are due to arrive shortly. There’s a third one from Clare to come but I want to print it on very high gloss paper. I’d have to say this year is definitely a better year for me than last year was, even given the comparative lack of activity.

Makes me smile anyway

In theory – because theory is a wonderful thing – I was planning on being in New York with the ASP event today. That didn’t work out according to plan for so many reasons it’s not funny. Instead I have crashed out in Dublin [...]]]> I hope I spelled his name right. I’m not good with Estonian.

In theory – because theory is a wonderful thing – I was planning on being in New York with the ASP event today. That didn’t work out according to plan for so many reasons it’s not funny. Instead I have crashed out in Dublin for a week doing Stuff. Important Stuff. Paperwork Stuff.

Today involved a lot of that stuff but at lunch time, I looked at the windmeter on Dun Laoghaire, picked up my camera and abandoned it all to hell. I took 150 photographs which isn’t loads but to be honest, I had other things on my mind. Dublin had some modicum of waves today and while I’d no great desire to try and play with the erratic wind, I did have a mind to go and get my bodyboard. For the first time in months I abandoned the camera in favour of sports. Can’t remember the last time that happened.

I haven’t really worked out which photographs I liked most.

but there are some nice things. Things that leave nice marks on my soul. With lots of people smiling.

Like so.

In other great news I got a Present today, a book called True which is a history of the first 10 years of North Kiteboarding. I didn’t know it existed until today, and once I found about about it, I had to have it. There are some fantastic photographs in it – in a way I’m sorry I didn’t have it when I was talking to Dublin Camera Club a few weeks ago. If you have a while free I strongly recommend you have a look at Christoph Maderer’s kitesurfing gallery which I will helpfully link to here. There are things in there that I would kill to do. I need some lighting solutions.

Yesterday I handed a disposable camera full of photographs of teddybears to Ronan Palliser of DCC for a disposable camera thing. I have no idea how the photos are going to shape out; I have never played with single use cameras and in the past when I have used compact cameras, I’d used them enough to predict with some accuracy what the outcome would look like.

I haven’t been taking a lot of photographs this year, and very, very few sports photographs it has to be said. When you have a day like today, you know, it gets to be worth it.

I’m going to be mad stiff tomorrow thanks to the bodyboarding though. Ouch.

This was taken at the recent Battle for the Bay. I haven’t posted so many kitesurfing photographs lately because I haven’t taken so many. I kind of want a good hit at some so maybe soon.

One of the things I have done this year which has been inspirational (despite the lack of action on my [...]]]>

This was taken at the recent Battle for the Bay. I haven’t posted so many kitesurfing photographs lately because I haven’t taken so many. I kind of want a good hit at some so maybe soon.

One of the things I have done this year which has been inspirational (despite the lack of action on my part) was to subscribe to Kiteboarding Magazine. It’s an American kitesurfing magazine – I knew it existed but it’s not easily come by except now I have an iPad and most of what I read on it in the way of magazines relates to some sort of watersports. I don’t have it to hand but I know, for example, that a brand new issue of Carve is waiting for me on it.

Now and again, people ask me how do you take photographs of kitesurfers. I do it by spending a lot of time watching kitesurfers, getting to know them, and looking at other people’s photographs. This is why I really do think that you have to go out and buy the magazines and look at the ads. Particularly the ads because sometimes, by merit of paying for the shots, they get some fabulous things. But every kite magazine and most of the surfing magazines too have a few photographs near the front by way of a gallery. Kiteworld Magazine has a weekly email called Random Photographs and their Reader’s Gallery is well worth a look.

For anyone who is interested, Dublin Camera Club will be hosting me giving rather a long lecture on adventure sports photography. This came about in part because of the RTE profile which is still one of the coolest things I have done and one of of Dublin Camera Club’s senior people coming and inviting me to do it. I said yes and I hope that it will work out okay.

Dublin Camera Club is located on Wexford Street in Dublin 2. I’ll be giving my spiel on 16 August at about 8. I will be speaking for around 1 hour, 1 hour 15 minutes and I will be taking questions. If you’re interested, Dublin Camera Club can be contacted via their website here.

The monochrome pixie has gone home for the night.

This is from Fistral Beach in Cornwall last week – yes I haven’t handled those photographs the way I normally would because I had to process them for a different purpose. So it’s really only now that I am looking at them from my own point of view. I was looking for a slightly retro [...]]]>

This is from Fistral Beach in Cornwall last week – yes I haven’t handled those photographs the way I normally would because I had to process them for a different purpose. So it’s really only now that I am looking at them from my own point of view. I was looking for a slightly retro style with this – in particular it was the reflections which caught my attention. Also, somewhere buried in my mind I had a vision of some old postcards with things like links golf courses on it? Anyway, this is what resulted.

One of the things which last week did is it has forced me to reconsider why I take photographs. Again – it’s not that long since I had to answer that question. The photograph above is something that you can make into a piece of art. It will never belong in a surf magazine – they are not really interested in shots like this from what I can see.  We had a long discussion on what interested different markets in terms of surf photographs – there is a key difference between what normal press want and what surf travel photographers might like to produce. A very short summary of the differences relate to close ups. The press like close up detailed shots. The travel shots tend to involve more context. I can see the differences now and also, for some reason, in some respects, I veer more closely to the press ideal than the travel ideal. I think this is because I also take aim for the personality of whoever is doing the surfing (or the kitesurfing in my case).

Maybe I’m just confused. Not to worry though; that’s what we’re all about here sometimes.

I’m slowly working through some of the photographs from Cornwall – I may post one surf shot later on but for now there’s this one.

I don’t know if part of the reason I like this is that the kayak is so clearly balanced on the wave ripple, or whether it’s the clarity of the water, [...]]]>

I’m slowly working through some of the photographs from Cornwall – I may post one surf shot later on but for now there’s this one.

I don’t know if part of the reason I like this is that the kayak is so clearly balanced on the wave ripple, or whether it’s the clarity of the water, or the rippling start of the wave break. I know I just like it a lot, the colours and the light and the shadow of the kayak on the sand underneath.

Also coming to really love that huge heavy lens again – I’ve been really pleased with a lot of the things I got out of it. I hadn’t previously used a lot lately because I really hate carrying it around.