Archive for the 'Landscape' Category

Bealach Na Ba

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Bealach Na Ba, once the only road into the remote western shores town of Applecross. Now a ‘must ride’ road for those that prefer the two wheeled mode of transport. Think of the road like any country road around Wicklow, except on steroids. Oh and with a perfect surface. Oh and with no cow/sheep/pig shit in the middle of the road just as you carve through a bend at speed. Oh and… You get the idea. I’ll spare you from the ‘if we pay so much road tax, shouldn’t the roads be better’ rant.

Just like the panorama you’ve already seen except not a panorama. Next time we go up here, we’re bringing a picnic. Very entertaining watching the bikes sweep around the hairpin bends, followed by the cars almost having to perform three point turns to get around them. Not long before we started the climb up to the top, we all (six bikes) overtook a vintage truck crawling out of a nearby town. Some time later, and while standing at the top admiring the view, a local passed by in his car informing us there was an old truck coming up the road and if we wanted to ride the rest of the road in style (my words, not his), now was the time to leave. I was quite tempted to hang about and see exactly how someone in a 30ft long truck was planning on negotiating the switchbacks. My guess; Slowly.

So you get down to Applecross eventually and you do what pretty much everyone else does. You go to the Applecross Inn for lunch. The above is taken from the car park of the Inn. Apparently rooms are expensive but from what I can see, they’re worth it. The problem now is that as Bealach Na Ba is the only good way into Applecross, it’s also presumably the only good way out. You can travel back the way you came or as we did, you head north about 13 miles, then east about 11 miles until you get back to an A road.

When we came back to Dublin, I checked the price of land and/or houses in the area. Although I think I’d have to change career; I take it there isn’t much in the way of demand for network engineers up there.

Published on May 13, 2012 in Landscape, People, Scotland, Video and X100. 2 Comments

Across Scotland in six panoramas

Or, well, up the west coast anyway. I can never seem to leave Scotland without either taking a whole load of photos with the intention of stitching them later in photoshop or (now that I’ve got the X100) using the built in panorama mode. Before you scoff along the lines of ‘pah, built in panorama mode indeed’ it’s not actually that bad. Yes it does sometimes do things that only the processor of the camera will understand or would be able to explain but overall it’s a less involved means of producing a panorama. But back to my point. Those that have been to New York or any other large American city will understand. You get into the city and the first thing you do is gawp skyward at the tall buildings. Scotland is like that, except the gawping is done horizontally, not vertically.

Once in the highlands, you could stop pretty much every five minutes and stare at a brand new landscape that has all the right ingredients. Foreground interest (usually lovely rocks, oh yes) and whopping great hills/mountains in the background. You just can’t go wrong. So like the last trip over in 2010, I end up with a few dozen images to heave into photoshop on my return to Ireland. Slightly less this time actually, mostly because we didn’t actually stop every five minutes and that we’d already done (for my benefit of course) all the majorly tourist spots a couple of years previous.

In an attempt to present something other than a series of squished landscape shots that will have any viewers squinting and straining to see what’s going on, I’ve made all the below clickable. A quick click and as if by magic, a better view. Although unless you’ve got the monitor of the God’s, you’ll be scrolling. Sorry about that.

No, I didn’t remember to bring the Lomo/Diana/other contraption. I’m just messing around. I thought the odd flare + photoshop stitching was worthy of a bit of preset madness.

Somewhere on the way to Fort William. I couldn’t swear where exactly but I have vivid memories of trying to get a decent shot (video) while crossing the bridge to the left of the photo. This was taken at a petrol stop.

Ahh Bealach Na Ba. All those photos I’ve looked at and read various reports of people that had ridden this road. It’s like the ring of Kerry on steroids. It was also surprisingly quiet on our trip up there. Unlike the ring of Kerry, it’s no place for nervous tourists in rental cars. Much of the ‘road’ was only just about wide enough for a very small car. Most of the time the narrow road was paired with a drop of 10+ feet on each side. A road made for bikers if ever there was one. Well, one closer to home than the Alps anyway.

After descending from the madness of Bealach Na Ba, one simply has to stop at the Applecross Inn. Seemingly the only pub in miles and happily serving tasty food and what looked like a tasty local ale. No, I didn’t sample it. This time.

When so far from home, it’d be rude not to ride the rest of the way up the coast. Miles upon miles of perfect tarmac winding its way up through the hills and around lochs. I wouldn’t bet my life on it but I think this was Loch Torridon. Either that or Loch Shieldaig. Either way, the photo doesn’t do it justice.

“If you don’t like the weather in Scotland. Wait five minutes.” However, if like in the photo above you do like the weather in Scotland, you’re going to be pretty miffed in about 4 minutes and 30 seconds time. We saw it all on our trip. Sun, wind, rain, sleet and snow. More on this in later posts.

Published on May 10, 2012 in Landscape, Scotland, UK and X100. 0 Comments

War Memorial

It’s a while since I was last down in the War Memorial park taking photos. In fact the last time was probably some time in 2010 on a trip down there with Julie to photograph all the trees shedding their blossom. It’s somewhat appropriate to post this now given that I’ve we’ve gone back on the ol’ running (or at least shuffling along at slightly faster than walking pace). The War Memorial park is one of the top locations for such activities.

So there ya go! War Memorial park. A great location and only down the road too. Couldn’t ask for more. Well, I could, but I won’t just yet.

Published on April 3, 2012 in Black and White, Canon 24-70, Canon 5D, Dublin and Landscape. 0 Comments

Sheeps Head

It’s probably as much about the pilgrimage to the end of the world as it is about the photography, but Sheeps Head is one hell of a location. It’s almost always as windy as hell (or as windy as I imagine hell might be on a windy day) down there, soggy or even sinky under foot for at least 30% of the walk and you never really know if one of the animals roaming the headland is going to take an instant dislike to you and formulate some kind of velociraptor styled attack. Having said all that, I wouldn’t change it one bit. If it’s not my favorite location in west Cork for the last few years, it’s certainly in the top three.

As with many of my favorite locations, it did eventually receive the Bronica coverage. PanF+ was the film of choice. This all happened a couple of years ago. Then the film sat on a shelf and greeted the full extent of the morning sun every morning for months. The only reprieve it got was when it was wound clumsily onto a spool, thrust into a tank by a ham-fisted operator (that’ll be me by the way), developed incorrectly (most likely) and hung up to dry in a dusty spare bathroom. So if you see some spots, water marks, hairs and some light leaks in these pictures, you’ll understand how they got there. Having said all that, I still intend on printing at least two of this set. I think it’s got less to do with being happy with the photos because they’re technically good (which they obviously aren’t) and more to do with the location.

Published on February 13, 2012 in Black and White, Bronica ETRS, Cork, Film and Landscape. 1 Comment

Remembering finer days

Until I actually produce some new images in 2012 (I haven’t picked up the camera at all this year yet), I’m not going to stray too far from safe ground. The safe ground is currently Velvia. Going back over the old images I should have blogged months and sometimes years ago, I found these images from Powerscourt in Wicklow that sat in Lightroom being tweaked and fiddled with every now and then. Velvia has always been, for me at least, quite difficult to get right colour balance wise. Sometimes I hit the nail on the head and replicate exactly what I recall from the day and other times it ends up being too blue, too green or too much like nuclear fallout.

Remembering finer days; Because now that I’ve dusted off the motorbike for 2012, I’d like to see some blue in the sky again. Maybe even temperatures above 4-6 degrees in the middle of the day. I don’t ask much really.

Maybe now that I’ve dusted the bike off, I’ll take the opportunity to blow the dust off at least one camera and actually get out and press the shutter button. Oh and get to west Cork on it (the bike, be surprised if you see me riding around Bantry on a Bronica).

Published on February 9, 2012 in Bronica ETRS, Film, Landscape and Wicklow. 0 Comments

Avondale

A trip to Avondale park last year with Vlastik where I took the opportunity to use a few of the rolls of velvia in the fridge. I thought I’d get rid of the remaining slide film as my intention was to develop it then sell the Jobo CPE I bought a couple of years ago on ebay. I think I’ve had my fill of developing anything other than black & white and the Jobo, tanks, chemicals and all the E6 paraphernalia are just taking up space in the ‘junk room’. On that, if anyone is interested in buying a CPE plus, some tanks, spools and whatever else I’ve got, drop me a line.

One thing I’ve never quite managed is metering for scenarios like being in woods where you’re in & around different lighting situations. One minute we were in bright sunshine, then overcast, then under trees. As a result, quite a lot of the 5 rolls I think I shot that day are under exposed. I’ve dragged what I could out of them in scanning & post processing but alas, there’s only so much you can do. Pity, because one of the shots I really wanted was killed stone dead by poor metering, as you can see below.

What I captured compared to what I saw on the day almost made me lock the bronica up in a cupboard when I took the slides out of the tank. I believe I even said ‘I wish I had taken my 5D with me’. Another one below. I got the forest floor metered with some accuracy but sadly lost all the background. Let’s just say I meant to do it that way; Focusing the viewers attention on the tiniest of foreground rocks and not on all that messy shrubbery in the background.

Thankfully, and not to put me off shooting velvia again, most of the shots came out pretty much as intended. If that’s my skill/technique, a triumph of post processing or the hand of God during development is for the viewer to decide. It’s not too difficult to appreciate of the ease and forgiving nature of shooting digital when you come back from a day of film shooting and and up with crap. But that, of course, is an old story so don’t go sharply exhaling in exasperation and rolling your eyes at me just yet.

It does go right now and then and the film captures things in a way you only wished you could have seen them. While waiting for the sun to come back out I shot a couple of frames of this scene. The difference between this and the next shot, taken only about 3 seconds later, is amazing. Timing, or perhaps impatience to move on was on my side.

A low ISO film, a tripod, a cable release, ND filters and a river. No prizes for guessing what happens next. Vlastik may also have some mildly amusing photos of me getting into a precarious position on some slippery rocks and perhaps even more amusing photos of me trying to return to the safety of the footpath. I heard somewhere that it’s now been made illegal to not take ‘flowing water’ photos when the opportunity presents itself. That was tacked onto the ‘HDR Swan photo 2010′ legislation in congress I believe. (Forgive the in-joke).

That was pretty much our trip. An enjoyably sedate couple of hours spent wandering about taking conflicting light meter readings, arranging leaves, pine cones and other detritus while moaning about having to go back to work on Monday. If you haven’t already been to Avondale, I very much recommend it. It’s here, not too far from Rathdrum in Co. Wicklow.

Oh and as it’s my first post of 2012, happy new year.

Published on January 23, 2012 in Bronica ETRS, Film, Landscape, Photowalk and Wicklow. 2 Comments

New Moon

Grabbed this on my way out the door to work yesterday morning. Had I actually thought about what I was doing, I’d have put the 70-200 on Julie’s 5D2 and not my own 5D. It all went a bit wonky in post processing. It’s a bit of an odd feeling, going from shooting a photo to processing, uploading and posting within a 48 hour period. Worse still, I was almost tempted to post it last night. I don’t know if it’ll catch on.

This will probably be my last post for 2011, due mostly to the laziness that this time of year inevitably brings. That and the preoccupation of eating and drinking as much as possible. I might get a post in between the overlapping screenings of “It’s a wonderful life” and Harry Potter films on the various terrestrial TV channels however.

If I’m not back until 2012, have a very happy Christmas and a similarly merry new year. (Yes, I know). Back in 2012 for some truly epic Cork photowalks, some home brewing and more of the same non-specific whingery.

Published on December 23, 2011 in Canon 5D, Canon 70-200, Dublin and Landscape. 2 Comments

That time of year

Been on a bit of an analog thing of late, thanks in no small part to the quantity of velvia scanned some weeks back. No updates in a while because I started a new job a couple of weeks ago and outside all of the settling in, trying to remember as many new names as possible and all that, I haven’t been hugely inclined to udpate the blog. These three were taken with the Diana fisheye lens that Julie got me some time ago for my birthday and/or Christmas. To tell the truth, I’d never successfully used it on the Diana before and it spent much of it’s time on my 5D thanks to the EF adapter that came with the gift.

I completely blew these out too but after some scanning luck and some wild slide bar wanging in lightroom, I got a somewhat acceptable outcome. Not to everyone’s taste I’m sure.  Subject wise, they are of course in the botanic gardens in Dublin on one of the last (or possibly the last) photowalk I attended up there while the place was under a blanket of snow about this time last year. The increasingly dark and cold evenings reminded me of these photos and have made me hope that the snow either stays away for as long as possible or doesn’t come at all this year.

Maybe some ‘novelty’ snow on Christmas Eve/Day. After that, I can’t be dealing with it.

Not very wintry but it was the next shot on the same roll so what the hell. The inside of the greenhouse at a much more friendly temperature.

Published on November 30, 2011 in Diana, Dublin, Event, Film, Landscape and Photowalk. 0 Comments

Last Winter

Now that all the France holiday posts are done, I can get back to reviewing some of the more recent additions to my lightroom catalog. This was from a batch of Velvia I developed recently (and had been sitting on the shelf in the spare room for about a year previous to that). How do I know that? Because other shots on the roll were from Christmas/New Year 2010 at the Botanic Gardens. This was shot with the Diana, something I haven’t picked up in quite a while. I initially thought the light leaks this roll picked up from nearly a year sitting on a shelf would ruin the roll but once scanned some of the shots didn’t look too bad. Almost usable, like the above.

Published on November 9, 2011 in Diana, Dublin, Film and Landscape. 0 Comments

Day 9; Away from everything

One last night in France. No cities, no tours, no nothing. The final night to be spent away from everything in the countryside. At least that’s what we decided when looking around on “Chambre d’Hotes de Charme”. We needed something north of Reims, relatively close to Calais to avoid having to haul ass the next day and above all, something quiet and peaceful. So we found Manoir Francis. If I could choose only one photo that sums up my experience here, it’d be the below.

We received a warm welcome and got a whole host of information about the area and where is best to go for dinner. All the useful stuff. As soon as we got to the room the boots came off, the jeans went on and I sank into the a bed as comfortable as we’d experience all those miles back in Maison Laudiere at the start of our holiday. Course, that didn’t last long when Julie hoofed me off the bed so she could take photos. As usual with this kind of scene, she’s done it justice and then some.

The property is just beautiful. It sits behind a high wall in the middle of a very small village, about an hours ride from Calais. The nearest town is Montreuil, where we ended up going for dinner in a smallish yet impeccably presented restaurant. The food was bloody good too, including a very, VERY boozy creme brulee that Julie had to finish because I’d have been four times over the drink driving limit if I attempted to eat any more of it than I already did. You could tell we were nearing our holidays end given the number of British tourists that sat around us as we ate.

After one hell of a feed I slept the sleep of the almost dead and awoke to a brilliantly sunny yet pleasantly cool Tuesday morning.

After a traditional French breakfast (and some of the nicest coffee I’d had in a week or more) I set about loading up the bike while Julie chased peacocks, ducks and various other wildlife around the gardens with her camera. I later became convinced that one of the rather scraggly looking peacocks was bent on causing harm, cornering me as I tried to go back into the house to collect some bags. No, I didn’t kick it in case that’s what anyone was wondering.

The speed at which I loaded up the bike directly reflected how much I was looking forward to leaving France. It took at least twice as long as it had been taking on other mornings. I was also considering the journey that lay ahead on the other side of the channel tunnel.

We were waved off by our hostess and got on a mix of D roads, motorways and motorways under construction. In a little over an hour we were checking in at the eurotunnel and leaving behind nine and a bit days of what had been one of the most memorable holidays I’ve ever taken. My goal for this second bike trip to France had been to do it properly this time. To keep off the motorways as much as possible, see the country, eat nice food, relax and enjoy the company. It’s now been about six weeks since we returned and I have only one question; When can we go back?

Published on November 4, 2011 in France, Landscape and X100. 1 Comment