Yesterday evening, the main evening news in Ireland on RTE at 6pm had a little featurette not on majorettes, but on the National Photographic Archive which now has a significant whack of [...]]]> Today being Saint Patrick’s Day there’s a surfeit of shamrockery around the web, and I have decided not to post pictures of Guinness glasses.

Yesterday evening, the main evening news in Ireland on RTE at 6pm had a little featurette not on majorettes, but on the National Photographic Archive which now has a significant whack of its collection online. I spent an interesting few hours wandering around it last night, it, and the 1911 Census causing an argument over a mismatch between family recollection of what my great grandfather actually did do in Achill at the time, and what the Census form claimed of him. In between calculating the ages of my grandparents in 1911 and trying work out what addresses in 1911 equated to in today’s terms (given the townland thing in Ireland, this is not unusual), I also wandered around the Photographic Archive out of idle interest. Specifically I looked at photographs for two towns: Charleville, Co Cork and Killarney Co Kerry. Also saw some photographs of Blennerville in Co Kerry.

I know that Ireland has changed immeasurably in my life time, both from how it looks to how it thinks. There’s evidence of major social change every day on the radio at the moment. But it’s easy to forget just what Ireland looked like 100 years ago. When I looked at one of the photographs of the Main Street in Charleville Co Cork, I had some difficulty orienting myself on one photograph because the hotel that was the most obvious feature on the photograph, the Royal Hotel, is long, long gone. I never remember it at all, and I can remember quite a few shops and things that are gone. The Munster & Leinster Bank, for example, is now the AIB – it is painted bright yellow and doesn’t really resemble the stone built building in another photograph. The big one though was the tree planted in front of the Protest Church – you cannot see the church itself but it is now the public library in Charleville. In one photograph, you can see the construction work on the then new Catholic Church – as far as I remember from my local history, it opened in 1902. The photograph is dated 1890-1900.  The old Catholic Church which is now a community hall – was hidden down a side street. When I was a child, it was called the Parochial Hall and I was in many concerts there.

It’s worth looking at the photographs from Killarney as well. In one respect, the overwhelming impression I had of the shots I looked at yesterday evening were extraordinarily good photographs given the equipment at the time. In the other respect, my modern mind could not stop complaining about blown out skies. Even then, I guess, Irish skies were frequently unhelpfully covered in white cloud Some of the photographs show change – how Ross Castle and Muckross Friary have been cleaned up to some extent – some seem curiously timeless – the jarveys – sort of – and Torc Waterfall.

It’s hard to know where to start with the exploration of the photographs. A cursory glance has revealed some interesting shots from Cashel and Achill Island amongst others. See here for Patrick Street in Cork with the Paris Photographic Studio right on the corner of Patrick Street and the Grand Parade and a tram in front of what I think is now Waterstones Booksellers. Somewhere in the deepest recesses of my mind, another project involving this is starting to crystallise.

John Williams has been showing photographs of Howth recently, including the marina. Here is a photograph of Howth from before the marina was built.

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I recently saw some outstanding photographs of Paris taken in the 1860s. I am delighted that you can get access to some photographs of Ireland at the time. We have a bunch of photographers – Tommie Lehane springs to mind as does Donncha O’Caoimh who are doing sterling work in documenting our now time. In a quiet corner of my mind, I wonder if I do enough to record now compared to other people.

I’d strongly recommend a wander around the archive if you’ve time. It may not always be obvious how to find things (the amount of information in there can be overwhelming) but there are some serious gems to be found.

Edit: St Patrick’s Day Parade 1905 just arrived in my twitterfeed via IrishMuseums and the National Library of Ireland.

This is just by way of something to decorate the walls of this post.

Joe McNally – who is fast becoming one of my favourite photography bloggers – has a piece here which I’d be hard pushed to describe. It’s a story of looking at life from the direction of a photographer who – basically – [...]]]>

This is just by way of something to decorate the walls of this post.

Joe McNally – who is fast becoming one of my favourite photography bloggers – has a piece here which I’d be hard pushed to describe. It’s a story of looking at life from the direction of a photographer who – basically – just stumbled through life without any Grand Design and ended up where he is because he is who he is. It’s a letter to a young photographer. It’s worth reading from two perspectives; the letter itself, and secondly, the comments – of which there are a large number – from readers.

Joe McNally caught my attention because of this book. He sort of works in an area of photography that I can’t get my head around, but he is a super writer (see the rest of his blog) that makes everything feel very accessible. He pops up with Strobist quite a bit as well.

Anyway. The interesting part about this is that people keep suggesting that I might like to go into photography full time. The really interesting part about this is that when I was 14 years old I wanted to teach English in French secondary schools and now that I’m 20 years older than that, I know I don’t want to teach English in French secondary schools (I know this because I did this) and no one would have forecast when I graduated DCU in 1994 that I’d be a) in Dublin b) working in IT.

Life has an odd way of ignoring the plans you make for it. And your destiny is not set in stone at the age of 19.

I’ve mixed feelings about this. I can’t see myself doing the money stuff in photography – namely weddings and football – and yet, the odds of making a living doing the stuff I love – kitesurfing and quirky little things that you’d never see coming like Newbridge silver lighthouses (for which I’ve another plan ngngngngnh)

and pianos. I haven’t worked out how to make a living out of these things yet.

The hard part is that working at something you love – particularly when it brings a load of paperwork – is hard going.

I don’t know if I have the guts to do it.

I don’t specialise in surf photography. In Irish terms, the surf photographer of choice would almost definitely be Paudie Scanlon. I do the odd shot here and there but since I don’t spend much time in the water, it’s almost academic.

This is one of my favourite surf shots that I did take and it’s not [...]]]>

I don’t specialise in surf photography. In Irish terms, the surf photographer of choice would almost definitely be Paudie Scanlon. I do the odd shot here and there but since I don’t spend much time in the water, it’s almost academic.

This is one of my favourite surf shots that I did take and it’s not really a surf photograph at all. It was shot on film about 6 years ago I guess, not absolutely sure. I was shooting full film at the time, it was well prior to the switch to digital. If I took it now, with the sort of standards you expect from digital image production I’d probably reject it because of the grain and the white balance issues. I think this was run through Photoshop after scanning but since that was done so long ago, I’m not sure of that either. I suppose I could check…but why would I?

Today I came across a photographer that somehow I’d never heard of but William Milne describes him as the best surf photographer in the world. William himself is one of the best kite guys so that’s fairly high praise indeed. The guy’s name was Clark Little; he’s just released a very expensive book, but you know what, it’s almost definitely worth it. His website is here. His photographs blew my mind.

I don’t often say that. There are some utterly fantastic photographers in the world, like Art Wolfe, Philippe Plisson, Vincent Munier, Peter Lik, Ric Steiniger, all of whom do something quite above normal. But I’ve never seen anything like Clark Little’s work. I used to love David P’uu’s surf work but it doesn’t get to me quite like this. It is amazing.  If you’re a member of FaceBook, it’s worth having a look at this. And this. And this.

I really can’t praise it highly enough. It’s inspired me in a way that few other things have this year.

Then go take a look at this image on flickr by swingking85.

Modern Life is…went up onto boards.ie in their random thread and caused some debate in the thread.

Yesterday I get a message from swingking85 – and yes I know [...]]]> Take a look at this post:  Modern Life is a mobile phone and coffee on the run.

Then go take a look at this image on flickr by swingking85.

Modern Life is…went up onto boards.ie in their random thread and caused some debate in the thread.

Yesterday I get a message from swingking85 – and yes I know his name but I am never sure how much people are protecting their identities online – to say he’d done something inspired by my coffee shot. And that he’d remove it if I wanted.

I suppose I could have said, yeah, pull it. I mean, the coffee and mobile phone idea was mine. But…I couldn’t. I mean, take all the photographs of Yosemite that have been taken since Ansel Adams’ day…and it’s not like the photograph was a carbon copy of mine. The photo is extremely different even if it has the same subjects – a cup of takeaway coffee and a phone. Mine is very obviously the poorman’s phone (look I haven’t upgraded yet) and the coffee brand has a different caché to Starbucks. The context is utterly different – this is more life in the office than life on the run.

And when all is said and done, if someone comes and says “I created this because of something you did”, that’s a great feeling.

So no, I wouldn’t be issuing a take down. I’m fascinated though by the possibilities of getting a bunch of photographers to shoot exactly the same subjects – freely – anywhere – so that context is from the photographer alone – and seeing what they come back with. What the differences are.

Taking photographs when the sand is blowing like this is kinda of difficult.

Okay, a couple of things to run down at the moment.

Red Bull Illume is running again. I am under severe pressure for it because I did not realise it was coming up, need to check deadlines and select photographs. I can think of [...]]]>

Taking photographs when the sand is blowing like this is kinda of difficult.

Okay, a couple of things to run down at the moment.

Red Bull Illume is running again. I am under severe pressure for it because I did not realise it was coming up, need to check deadlines and select photographs. I can think of just two photographs so far that suit any particular category for that competition. I can enter up to 50, 5 per category.

I don’t enter very many photography competitions – I am not competitive by nature but Red Bull Illume is specialised for extreme sports and it is the one competition I will enter any time I get a change. Photographs must be taken after 1 July 2007. Bork. The last two summers have been horrible for me.

If you are interested in extreme sports photographs and have a portfolio in that area, it might be worth a look.

While we’re on the subject of Red Bull Illume, this story is worth a look. Having looked at the clip I have to say I am very interested in the whole concept of the shoot, I’m just slightly underwhelmed by the photographs that came out of it. However, a few of my friends see it differently, so…people’s tastes vary.

Have to add that I’m intrigued by their use of FaceBook and Twitter this time round.

Last night I went and visited Offshoot Photographic Society. If you’re in south Dublin, it’s a very good photography society to get involved with as they have a very interesting collection of talks coming up and they are also very web savvy. Doing a lot of things right in my opinion. I am tempted to join them as I like what they are up to. Last night, they had Peter Cox come and give a talk.

On balance, I found the talk interesting, although in different ways. Peter Cox takes some wonderful photographs – there is no doubt about this – but the overwhelming impression I walked away with was “I can do that”. I spend a lot of time having doubts about myself and the photographs I take but following last night, I have some feelings that some of those doubts may be misplaced and that confidence is what I need to trash around with.

Strangely enough, twitter is helping on that front.:-) He’s one of the best kite photographers I’ve come across.

Back with last night’s talk, there was some discussion of it on twitter after the fact with some disappointment that some of the photographs lacked that wow factor. I have to confess that I’d agree to some extent with that sentiment while recognising the view that consistency is important.

In part, I think it’s because I think the consistency should be wow all the time. Take a look at guys like David Noton and Charlie Waite for example. Even in Irish terms, I would have preferred the colour work of Liam Blake and Peter Zoller for example.

Offshoot are also on twitter if you are interested.

Schedule for the weekend – kitesurfing in Mayo. Winds are light so that may convert into landscape photography in Mayo.

Flickr versus Picasa and all I am thinking is DUH.

Stephen has been in London.

Danny has been in County Down.

Okay I think that’s it for the moment.

Not sure why this didn’t get posted around the time it was taken. It was taken into the sun and I can’t remember how I managed to avoid turning it into a silhouette. I’m pretty sure I was not firing flash.

Anyway, a lot of people seemed to like it, so here it is.

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Earlier today I [...]]]>

Not sure why this didn’t get posted around the time it was taken. It was taken into the sun and I can’t remember how I managed to avoid turning it into a silhouette. I’m pretty sure I was not firing flash.

Anyway, a lot of people seemed to like it, so here it is.

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Earlier today I posted a link to some wedding photography on the Canon photography forums which I liked a lot. I’ve been thinking some more about it. I love the idea of doing wedding photographs that reflect the kind of person you are rather than the typical formal shots. The problem for me – given that I specialise in what I specialise in – is that you can’t rely on the weather to give you a great day for your wedding shots.

I’m tempted, however, to see how much it would cost to get a wedding/white/formal dress and get a couple of kitesurfers to model for me and give it a shot…

People’s Photography

People’s Photography ran at Stephen’s Green in Dublin this weekend. I hadn’t signed up for it because selfishly enough, I have been very, very busy lately and reached a point where I wanted to stop adding to stuff I had to do. I’ve done People’s Photography [...]]]> No photograph this time, sorry. Just some random witterings.

People’s Photography

People’s Photography ran at Stephen’s Green in Dublin this weekend. I hadn’t signed up for it because selfishly enough, I have been very, very busy lately and reached a point where I wanted to stop adding to stuff I had to do. I’ve done People’s Photography twice before, once at very short notice, and last year, still mounting photographs rather later than planned. So I decided not to do it this time.

I did wander in for a look around, the way you do, also because I knew a lot of people there as I mentioned, and I got talking to a few people the way you do. Some people were surprised I didn’t do this year – I must have stuff lying around. I didn’t though – strangely enough, I don’t have a stack of prints lying around ready to be pressed into service because I don’t do competitions, and the last time any of my stuff saw the public’s light of day was at a camera club presentation at Dublin Camera Club, and that was via laptop.

I got to talk about a lot of different things with a few different people, about the whys and wherefores of travel photography, about the risks and options in setting up as a photographer. I decided sometime ago that full time prodom was probably not for me, but still…I wonder why sometimes.

There were a lot of different styles of photography there, and a lot of different approaches. I know one person who just wanted to hang the pictures; was not so interested in the selling of photographs, for example. I can totally get that. I also examined a lot of photographs – and this is going to sound bad – to work out how they were done. On the other hand, it is only by examining other people’s work that you grow yourself, and learn new things.

I will probably do People’s Photography again next year if it runs – the way it is organised changes from time to time. But I will probably try and find some way of standing out from the groups of people who all…faded into photo after photo after photo for a while.

Planning stuff

Yesterday, myself and one of my friends were idly – and very briefly – discussing “The Moment it Clicks” by Joe McNally. The book is on my checkout list at Amazon for ages, and it occurred to me to see if he did photography workshops and that led me to his blog. He really gets the medium. I’m not sure why but personality spills out of his writing like no other photographer I know. I know very few photographers who do this as a full time job, however.I do like him.  But I digress.

It’s a running joke between me and a bunch of people that I get a micro second to make a photograph. For every one great kitesurfing shot, there will be about 10 bleh shots and another 15 or so truly woeful messes. One of the things which knocked me backwards about Joe McNally – apart from the fact that although I know him mainly as a travel photographer, most of his blog seems to consist of model shoots – is how he plans thing in advance. If you look at this entry – and it’s just an example – you’ll see a notebook layout of how he’s going to do the shot. For those moments when I am not shooting people flying past me at 40km an hour, but for when I am playing with self portraits and things, a little bit of discipline in that respect might a) pay dividends in success rate and b) reduce the recidivism of stupid mistakes. And I might be able to avoid stuff like using LiveView which, while a great tool for self portraits, is decidedly limited in terms of the length of the USB cable. So I have a few small Moleskine notebooks which I will probably throw into the camera bag. Speaking of camera bags…..

Depressing and exhilarating at the same time.

Kitesurfers are very hard to photograph

Well yes. They go fast. And they don’t necessarily go where you tell them to go. And what you consider to be a great photograph might well be considered meh by your kitesurfer. And you have to shoot them into the sun sometimes.

Someone came and said this to me last week. Tell me something I don’t know

Photography holidays

Are very expensive. I discussed this several times with someone yesterday, and all told, they appear to be more expensive than organised kitesurfing holidays.

I’ve mixed feelings about it. There’s a part of me considering phoning up Roberto Foresti and saying “Show me the Way, Kitesurfing Photography Master”. There’s another part of me thinking “No. You must do something else before You get Typecast as the country’s best kitesurfing photographer who has no other tricks than a tobacco filter on a receding tide at sunset” and then, there’s another part of me that googled photography holidays yesterday.

Part of me is attracted to the photography holiday for a few reasons. The idea, of course, is that you meet nice people on your holidays. And in the care of a genius photographer, you learn how to make photographs that would be at home on the front of Outdoor Photography, have arguments about how much Photoshop is unethical, and count how many people thing Henri Cartier Bresson was THE man (I always preferred Robert Doisneau’s stuff myself, but what do I know?)

But they are insanely expensive. And I live in Ireland so I have to add on the cost of getting to places otherwise easily reachable from London. One on the south of France, for example attracts me. The price tag of 1850E does not.

We were talking about this at People’s Photography yesterday, particularly by way of monetising photography as a career. I pointed out that if you could gain sufficient recognition to have a brand to offer, it seemed to be a very neat income stream. It’s just getting to the stage where you can charge that sort of money takes other work…

Anyway, I’m considering doing a phototrip on my own in February and the south of France is winning the location battle.