It wasn’t until we were back at the car after our first time out of the house in 2023 that my phone helpfully pinged and told me what we were doing at this very time in 2022. No surprises, it was the very same thing we’d just done. I suppose that makes it an unofficial tradition to walk around Fota Gardens in the new year. Not exactly as colourful as usual and with a couple of areas closed, but aRead More
After two years of delays and many more years of wasted opportunity, we did finally get that Norway trip done. Seven thousand plus kilometers of roads, road works, mountains, fjords, ferries and fantastic fun. Or if you look at it the way I chose to do it, 3000km of motorway across multiple countries and about 4000km of actual Norway. Having the bike shipped directly to Norway from Ireland just seems like cheating. It’s not a holiday until you’re stuck forRead More
A little while ago, I came down with a very serious case of nostalgia. I think it started right around the time I was watching some film photography videos on YouTube. The nostalgia built over the course of a few days, at which time I could take it no longer and dug around in the cupboard of piled mystery and quickly found my Bronica 645 medium format camera. More impressive still was that after sitting idle since we moved to CorkRead More
The marina area in Cork has long been a favourite destination of mine for photographing general grime and grunge that everything down there is covered in thick layers of. So I was a little disappointed but not entirely surprised today to read that a developer is looking to spend upward of €350m to restore/rebuild/rejuvenate the Odlums building into a now pretty standard mix of offices, apartments, shops, and so on. Part of this would also be to tear down theRead More
Although the first set of photos I took with my new Fuji-X to FD mount adaptor haven’t made it here yet, here is the second set, taken with the FD 50 f1.8 during a short walk around Crosshaven. Because I got a sudden attack of nostalgia for black & white (and because I haven’t shot anything in B&W for B&W in a long, long time) these were taken in the Acros profile baked into the Fuji X-T3 with the electronicRead More
We’d been out on Île de Ré once before, back in 2014 when we were celebrating our honeymoon. In fact much of this years trip will mirror that holiday seven years ago, except for some of the less than superb accommodation we chose back then. I have indeed learned a lot over the years. We were quite lucky to get a place to stay on the island, it being the height of the aoûtienne and in a location that isRead More
A little bit of a spur of the moment walk by the sea with the camera in early August. This location blends together two of my favourite things; The sea and industrial grime. It also works out quite well for my general sense of laziness, not being that far from home. This feels a little bit like the last post, somewhat of a stream of consciousness except in photos instead of words this time around. As I’m posting again soRead More
It’s been a while since I was at Inniscarra with a camera. It’s been a while since I was at Inniscarra at all. Shameful to admit, but I didn’t actually realise there was much more to this place than just taking the 2 minute walk to see the dam, stalk some herons, and then hopping back in the car. I tried my best to capture something interesting, then tried to reproduce what I wanted to capture in Lightroom a weekRead More
The Bluebells may have been out, but as usual I was taking pictures of everything else. Taken mostly in Ballinspittle woods with a small amount of Old Head of Kinsale thrown in for good measure. I’ve been thinking that a telephoto is missing from my landscape lens line up. Might have to rectify that problem.
Photos may be unrelated to text, as I’m sick and tired of hearing, thinking and writing about how much of a pain in the ass it is jumping from one covid-19 lockdown to another. With that out of the way, here are some photos of a pre-Christmas (2020) jaunt to Currabinny to engage in one of my favourite types of photography, beach and forest stuff. In case you were wondering, there is no hierarchy of ‘stuff’. The list generally includesRead More
Waaaay back in May, I bounced the thought around in my head and eventually here on paper that I needed to be procrastinating less and doing more of the things I love doing. At the time I’d been forced to completely give up on the idea of getting to Norway this year and cancelled or rebooked everything. Ironically, it turned out that we could almost have gone, with travel to Norway opening up again less than 24 hours before weRead More
I feel like I’ve put up some photos of this place before, but I can never be sure what I’ve put on Instagram or on the blog anymore. This was one of the last times we ventured beyond two kilometers from the house. Just on the cusp of the world going to hell. Social distancing was all the rage and lockdown was on the cards. Ahh March, seems so long ago. Thankfully, social distancing wasn’t a problem on this visitRead More
When my mind drifts, it’s usually to the same old recurring thought. “Wouldn’t it be grand to live on the doorstep of the Alps”. Even my wandering subconscious is ruled entirely by thoughts of being on the bike. To be able to ride into the tallest mountains on perfect roads at the drop of a hat or at the slightest passing fancy. But more recently, albeit mostly when I’m looking out at some fantastic scene such as the above, IRead More
Way back in May, when the weather was nicer and night time didn’t begin at 5pm, we trekked our way north to Sligo for a momentous occasion, the first “old guard” photo walk to take place in quite a long time indeed. It is as it ever was, a flimsy excuse to meet up for dinner & drinks. But also to see some sights that I haven’t seen in quite a few years. First to Strandhill for that all importantRead More
Fountainstown beach, Monday night. A walk on the beach to kick some stones and poke whatever washed up on the shore with a stick. Also an excuse to stroll around a bit with the X-T3. No, I’m not sure if that crab was dead or alive. I didn’t poke it with a stick.
You wouldn’t think it to look at me, but I’m a very big fan of filthy things. Dirty, grimy, covered in beastly mud and oomska. Oh yes. If I’m going to be particular about it, old filth is far superior to new filth. The older the better. Rust is a close second to filth. But if you give me rust and general decay in the same place as filth, I’m a happy man. Industrial filth wins over all other types.Read More
Saturday morning and with a brand new camera in hand, I worked my way through the list of locations I keep in my head for a place to go and test it out. Somehow, I settled on Charlesfort just outside Kinsale. Possibly because I’ve walked around the grounds every time I’ve visited there but never actually been inside. It was a strange day weather wise, with the previous nights storm still hanging around while the sun was doing its bestRead More