Since moving back to Cork a few years ago, I’ve started to rediscover some of my favorite local places where I’d go to get out of my head for a few minutes and enjoy the familiarity of the scenery. More often these days, I don’t think to grab a camera before leaving the house, but looking at it another way, I guess I always have a perfectly serviceable camera in my pocket. The photos just very rarely make it anyRead More
It’s been a little while since we were really in Kerry, not just passing through Kenmare or Killarney on a round trip from Molls Gap or Strawberry fields (a wonderful pancake house near the Kenmare side of Molls Gap). Really in Kerry, like so far west the land stops and the next stop is America. We took an overnight trip down to the land of ‘here be dragons’ beyond Kenmare to celebrate our anniversary and stayed in Parknasilla. Of course,Read More
As per usual, it’s been a quiet few months photography wise. The camera phone has completely overtaken the DSLR as a means of recording events, places, people, everything. The farthest those photos ever make it is to instagram. As a means of delaying the onset of cabin fever as we approach the end of this festive season and indeed the end of the year, we left the house for the first time in days and made it as far asRead More
So 2014 was shocking. But only in a ‘motivation to blog’ way. Looking back, I can see I’ve got three posts for the entire year. Looking at my Lightroom catalog doesn’t tell an entirely different story. I’ve got maybe two or three sets of photos that are waiting to be processed and yes, it’s entirely likely they never will be. I’ve got two more honeymoon posts to get written and about a third of the photos yet to process. But lookingRead More
Well, it’s been a while. Amazing how moving to a different county, getting a new job and oh yeah, getting married, tends to divert attention from blogging and even picking the camera up. After Julie got a tip from Jamie on the location of some bluebells, we added it as a pit stop on a fairly short tour around west Cork last weekend. I’m not keeping it a secret, the forest is at Ballinspittle. That’s just outside Kinsale. Head towardsRead More
I thought “I’ll post some photos of a recent trip to Fota Gardens, then link back to previous visits” but I can’t find any previous visits. Well, there’s one, but I would have imagined there should be far more than that on here. Maybe I’ve just been very selective about posting photos of the gardens on here. Yes, selective. That’s the word. Not lazy. Never lazy. The car park at Fota, which I always kind of appreciated for it’s roughRead More
Doing a little bit of an end of year clearout of the Lightroom catalog, I found these had been sitting there for quite some time. I’m attempting to make a point of revisiting Fort Camden (which you’ve already seen plenty of in the past on this blog) every second or third time we travel to Cork for the weekend. This occasion was even more special as some new sections of the underground tunnels had been cleared out, restored to theRead More
Julie heard of a ‘Vintage Market’ taking place last Sunday just outside Dublin at the ‘village of Lyons’ near Celbridge. Turns out the place is a wonderful spot, even if the vintage market turned out to be more of an antique fair. However, she did manage to pick up a couple of pieces of interest and while thumbing through some old posters and postcards, I found the below. It’s a postcard from Crosshaven, Co. Cork although I believe it’s beenRead More
In Cork two weekends in a row (a rare treat) and the promise was made to seek out some bluebells to photograph. Currabinny woods has nealy always been a good spot, something I believe I pointed out on the morning we were setting out to go and take some photos. Without knowing I’d already jinxed the operation completely. Although there were bluebells, there was nowhere near the amount I’ve seen in previous years. So instead, I contented myself with usingRead More
A little bit delayed but better late than never. Premier Pro was driving me nuts so after upgrading to 12gb ram, it’s driving me slightly less nuts. Nuts slightly less. Either one. For some reason (after doing some minor colour corrections), it took about 1,000 times longer to export this video from Premier Pro than it did pre-corrections. I’ll figure that one out eventually. I’m still pretty much in the testing phases with these drift cameras, their first big tripRead More
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 takeRead More
I will eventually round up the photos from the Cork photowalk a couple of weeks ago. This is the last of them, another visit to Camden with the rest of the gang this time. It’s pretty much the same up there, although with the notable exception of several new rooms now being open to the public. Most of these rooms were hosting an art exhibition but there were one or two that were bare, as pictured above. Although not veryRead More
The second stop in last weekends 1.5 day photowalk in Cork, the church of St Anne in Shandon. I spent much of the time walking up there hoping it was open as on a few previous trips I’d found that the opening times were a little optimistic. As always, the claustrophobic and acrophobic were invited to remain at ground level, the climb to the top of the tower isn’t one that either of those two groups of people would particularlyRead More
When you’re not in your luxurious quarters, you’ll be able to roam the grounds, play some football, listen to your favorite bands on your very own state of the art music system, build sandcastles, enjoy dipping your toes in the cool Cork harbour water and wave at the locals. If you’re good, you might even get back to the mainland in 14 months. Yes, you’re on Spike Island courtesy of the department of justice. If you’re there in 2011 however,Read More
No, not the place Jaffa Cakes are made. Unfortunately. Cork’s Half Moon Street, just around the corner from the Opera house and across the road from the Cork City cherry coke emporium. Leading up to the photowalk, the week is now more than half over. Only a couple more days to go. YJCM3FU8H448
As much as I’d like to have a witty title, those that know me will know I’m anything but. A little appetite whetting in advance of the Cork photowalk thats taking place later this month. This, as the title suggests, is the English Market in the center of the city. A wealth of food, drink and some clothing can be found inside along with some more obscure outlets. I’ve always had a soft spot for the market and when livingRead More
In the outer harbour, some of the crew perhaps partaking in a profusion of pints in Pine Lodge or possibly Bunnyconnellan. Such a regular occurrence that it’s quite unusual to take the high road from Fountainstown to Myrtleville and not see a freighter or tanker in this very position. I love Cork, even more so when the sun is shining and you can take a nice evening spin on the motorbike.
I’m not going to give a long, complicated spiel about the history of Fort Camden, you can read it for yourself over on the Rescue Camden website. My own history with Camden started many years ago being brought to Crosshaven by my parents, walking up point road to that formidable hill only to find the Goliath fort on the top of the hill. I can’t count how many times I’d stood on the grass bank outside the fort, straining toRead More
It must be the very first time I got all the way through scanning three entire 120 rolls of Velvia without swearing loudly and thrashing my arms like a mad man. Anyone that’s ever been in that position will know that what you get on screen is a hell of a lot different than what you get when you hold the developed film up to daylight. Although these shots might not be the best examples of what Velvia is goodRead More
The weather is beginning to turn again and although some Donegal weather forecasting prophet has predicted more snow in the next couple of weeks, I think I’ll take a chance on a green Patricks day instead of a white one. So yeah, weather turning. Thoughts of getting back out and taking some landscapes. Loaded up lightroom and this jumped out of my catalog list. It’s from an almost forgotten roll of velvia I scanned some time back. I’m pretty sureRead More