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.

If I could find the print, I could confirm the year at least. It’s possible the processing date is on the back of the print. The photograph was taken with an Olympus OM10 which is still in the room here beside me, on what was almost certainly some sort of Fuji [...]]]> This was taken ca 2003.

If I could find the print, I could confirm the year at least. It’s possible the processing date is on the back of the print. The photograph was taken with an Olympus OM10 which is still in the room here beside me, on what was almost certainly some sort of Fuji film, 200 ISO. I know this because that’s what I used nearly all the freaking time apart from using a black and white C41 once. That being said, the level of grain involved here suggests it *might* be ISO400. I’ll leave it to others who are more film nerdy than me to figure it out. Because of the vignetting – which is characteristic to one lens I own – I’m almost certain it was taken with a 35-105mm zoom which I think was made by Tokina. I could check I suppose – it’s not so far away.

The photograph is one of a series which is special to me, three of which I scanned years ago and lost on a drive. As in I knew where the drive was but the powerlead was missing. It turned up during a house move, confused with the powerlead of the scanner, and today I had cause to go looking for something else (a font, of all things) so while I was in there, I dug out the scanned photographs too. I’m relieved that most of them were actually reasonably decent sized scans done on my older scanner.

They were all done before I knew anything much about digital processing too.

I took a lot of photographs that day because I like waves breaking on rocks, I like reasonably decent skies and for all it looks in the black and white, the sky was actually blue that day. I went through whatever film I had – in the days when I might, if I were really lucky, have 3 36 shot rolls to hand, that was a lot of film to go through. Now of course I can take 4000 photographs in a day and the only one to complain is myself when I have to process them afterwards.

I love this photograph. It lacks the crispness of the digital shots, admittedly, and the highlights in the white water are blown out. I did some dodging and burning to try and fix the worst of that but it’s never going to be perfect without a raw file. This photograph was taken on the day that I discovered that Doolin was my soulfood place in Ireland. It was also taken a few days before I learned – or started attempting to learn – to surf. In a way, without this photograph, I’d never have taken the series of photographs I took down there in May.

When I am giving photography lessons, I do heavily emphasise that for every one photograph you take, every other photograph you may have taken to that point in time will contribute to what makes that photograph great. This was taken on a film camera, in the days when I flatly refused to take photographs of human beings but it is a basic building block of every single kitesurfing photograph I have ever taken.

I was planning on going to New York to the ASP surf championship but circumstances outside my control dictate that I can’t be in New York for it until Friday at the earliest and they expect to be finished by then. So I am tossing up heading to the west coast to try and get some more of these things instead. That, or France back to the Verdon. I don’t know.

They built a golf course on the Old Head of Kinsale so access is a bit more limited than it was in days of old.

This was taken some time in March during my last traipse around West Cork. I actually got a few photographs I really liked while I was [...]]]> Another occasional lighthouse, again, from Cork.

They built a golf course on the Old Head of Kinsale so access is a bit more limited than it was in days of old.

This was taken some time in March during my last traipse around West Cork. I actually got a few photographs I really liked while I was down there and feel like doing it all again.  Maybe in August. I’d also like to go back down to South Kerry where I haven’t been for years so…must do some planning. Or Planning.

I’ve been googleplusified, by the way, and you can find me on googleplus here. It transpires that so far, most of the people I know on it are photographer types with a few yarnies thrown in for good measure.

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.

The tides in Newquay are quite high and this little inlet is pretty much completely unimportant if the tide is out. If it’s in, however, it seems to grow in [...]]]> The weather in Newquay today was not edifying so it’s just as well I tok a couple of nice photographs yesterday. This is one of them.

The tides in Newquay are quite high and this little inlet is pretty much completely unimportant if the tide is out. If it’s in, however, it seems to grow in scale. I liked it. I especially liked the puffy white clouds which nature saw fit to bequeath yesterday.

I got an Ansel Adams vibe with those clouds, so this happened.

Quite. I have a puffy cloud addiction going on here sometimes I think.

There will be one or two more to come over the next few days when I get back to Dublin. In the meantime…some thoughts.

Teddy Thompson is playing in the background, I’ve a scary looking mind map here of all the surf/watersports magazines I think I might ever be interested in. One of the key things I have been doing this weekend is learning a bit about myself and what I want to do. I was on a surf photography workshop given by Lucia Griggi whose name you will recognise if you have Shooting the Curl or a bunch of other surf magazines like Surfgirl.

What I’ve learned is I don’t really fit in with the photojournalism side of things. I suppose I knew that given my complete lack of desire to go off and photograph warzones – one of my friends and I had that conversation whereby he said he didn’t think he could do it, and I knew I couldn’t. One of the very clear statements I can make about myself today is that I utterly prefer taking photographs on my terms and not necessarily on any one else’s terms. To be honest, this is not something I learned today or yesterday, but I haven’t always been willing to admit it to myself. I guess that self recognition is a good thing. For me, it’s all about the photograph, that one great photograph that makes you smile inside.

Actually, I think I said something along those lines in the television interview a while back. Maybe I just need to be more aware of how self aware I can be.

Travelling laptop has already crashed once on me this evening and I am nowhere near done with the homework yet tonight. So fingers crossed no further trouble.

What we have here is a Royal Navy patrol boat in Fistral Bay outside Newquay. I missed the drama plus I didn’t have long lenses with me, but he [...]]]>

Travelling laptop has already crashed once on me this evening and I am nowhere near done with the homework yet tonight. So fingers crossed no further trouble.

What we have here is a Royal Navy patrol boat in Fistral Bay outside Newquay. I missed the drama plus I didn’t have long lenses with me, but he dropped in to say hello to a trawler to check they were complying with regulations. At least that’s what two men I met later told me. I’d well believe it; our own navy are well known to do something similar too.

I’m in Newquay, which is, in fact, tack capital of the UK. If you can imagine something like Salthill multiplied by Tramore multiplied by Bundoran with added foam parties, you’re in the ballpark. There’s a spectacular number of clubs and amusement arcades. A couple I met at the bus station yesterday – a couple who probably left their foam party days behind them 40 years ago if I’m honest – averred that that they were somewhat underwhelmed by Newquay as a shopping town. Your choice of shopping is 1) surf shops 2) hoodie shops 3) amusement arcades and 4) pasty stores. Beyond that, there’s a few tattoo parlours and a branch of Boots and Superdrug. I don’t know what to make of the place at all. It’s got the best most beautiful location in the world, for now at least, and they filled it up with tack.

I can’t figure out what the main tourist attraction is either, whether it’s the utter tack (viz, lots of hen and stag parties), the beaches (lots of surfers), the golf course or what. The population seems to consist of people under the age of 25 or over the age of 60. Accommodation is targetted accordingly with a bunch of surf hotels and a bunch of slightly higher class establishments that you feel never quite left Miss Marple’s era behind.

Anyway, I was out on Wednesday night armed with a camera. I spent a lot of time taking pictures of interesting cloud formations and the attempt at sunset. The sun never quite made it but I got lots of ominous looking clouds, which helpfully opened during the night – rain? I’ve never heard anything like it.

In the meantime, the surf has been pretty dire. The British Junior surf championships which were supposed to happen this weekend were cancelled and I spent a lot of today taking pictures of surfers engaging in the Extreme Waiting Around Hopelessly Championships. If I want waves, I’ll have to try again another time.

Lahinch has the best lifeguard station I have seen in this country. It’s not, for example, a temporary dwelling, sort of container box thing. It looks like it belongs in California, to be honest and it watches out over one of the most popular beaches in the country. Unlike Tramore, Lahinch is not full of [...]]]> Lahinch.

Lahinch has the best lifeguard station I have seen in this country. It’s not, for example, a temporary dwelling, sort of container box thing. It looks like it belongs in California, to be honest and it watches out over one of the most popular beaches in the country. Unlike Tramore, Lahinch is not full of game centres; it’s full of surf culture shops and golf shops; an unusual pairing as far as I can see. Next to one of the best known surf beaches in the country is one of the best known links golf courses. When I was kid, Lahinch was best known for golf. Now, I think, the surfing beats it.

For all its popularity however, I’ve never quite understood why Lahinch is that bit more popular than others; and thus has that bit more infrastructure. Maybe it’s the proximity to Ennistymon, or possibly there was a time when the following wasn’t true. The southern end of the beach is not without quicksand and most of it disappears for 3 or 4 hours around high tide anyway. So when I got there, the tide was in, and there wasn’t much sand to be seen. I think 4 of the surf schools were running lessons – I’ve done quite a few lessons there myself in the past; it’s not my favourite beach in the world (because Inchydoney in Cork is) but ultimately, just about when you get down to seeing some merit in one of the beaches in Dublin, you go west and realise that the ones in Dublin, while it’s great to have them and let’s face it few capital cities do, are nothing on the ones on the west coast. Even when there aren’t many waves. Or, indeed, on this occasion, much sand.

Because it’s one of the better organised beaches in terms of parking, lifeguard stations and quick walk to any number of bars, however, it has paths down to the beach which just go down to the sea when the beach isn’t there. Kids play on these, trying to outrun the waves. In Lahinch, I guess they were around 2 feet max (a lot less than what they were further north in Doolin when I rocked up down there). These kids had great, great craic playing with them.

It was 23 deg in Lahinch yesterday, with a light wind, maybe max 10 knots. Straight offshore. There were an army of surfers around. Parking in Lahinch is 2E for 3 hours (my god that’s such a bargain). A few of them were not wearing wetsuits – given that this is unusual in Dublin in the kitesurfing community, I was amazed. I got kiboshed by some charity collector as well; like everyone else, she couldn’t believe someone might drive down to Clare for the day and go back to Dublin.

I took 550 photographs yesterday. I’ve uploaded around 70 of them to one of my image hosting accounts. I had horrendous trouble just choosing a few that I liked. It’s one of the biggest hit rates on “ooh I like that” that I’ve had in years; plus it’s the first time since I got a 40D that I ran out of storage. That usually only happens at kite competitions.

I’ll probably go back and look at them again, and again. There’s so much promise in them. Yesterday is the sort of day that made me glad to be a photographer; it’s the sort of day I got photographs I really and truly like.

There’s like a garage for trawlers in Howth, so the odd time you’ll see a boat up on rails. It looks quite odd. I’ve a yen to get a great photograph; I’ve just never managed to figure out how to create it. I can’t take too much credit for this one; most of the work [...]]]>

There’s like a garage for trawlers in Howth, so the odd time you’ll see a boat up on rails. It looks quite odd. I’ve a yen to get a great photograph; I’ve just never managed to figure out how to create it. I can’t take too much credit for this one; most of the work was done by mother nature.

This used to be on DSL before that site died. I’m rediscovering old friends all the time.