The five reasons you haven’t gone touring yet. I originally wrote this back in mid-February and planned to edit and publish it not long after that. However, with current world events as they are, I really tried to stop thinking about being on the bike so much. After a few weeks in the Covid-19 uncertainty bubble now, I’m coming around to the realisation that life must go on. Whatever that life ends up looking like. A recent post got meRead 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
This, like many others, is a post that came out of an extended journey on two wheels. I got thinking about miles covered, places seen and where it all began. It was back in 2002 when I got my second bike, which was also my second that I’d bought from new. Back then I had more money than sense. Having written that, even now in 2020 the balance hasn’t quite reached equilibrium. It was my second bike, but my firstRead More
A camera pans around a small, messy room. Past a desk strewn with cameras, camera parts, empty coffee cups and notebooks full of hurriedly scribbled beer recipes, travel plans and other important things that need to be remembered. We see the figure of a disheveled man hunched over a computer, mumbling incomprehensibly. As the camera moves toward the subject, mumbling becomes swearing. The monitor of the computer now partially revealed, we see the sweaty, red-faced man pleading and bargaining withRead 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
More of Neist Point lighthouse on Skye, this time from high above on the cliffs before the long walk downhill to see it up close. Like drinking yourself sober, my procrastination elevated to a sufficiently high level that for a brief moment, it turned into motivation. I assume everyone has photos in their respective queues that have sat for 12+ months, waiting for attention. This was shot with Julie’s 5D Mark 2 but I find since getting the Fuji X-T3Read 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
It’s been quite a number of years since I last went to a vintage car or bike show, but I quickly found that on visiting the show at the Cork airport hotel a couple of weeks ago, my unrealistic dream to own a late 1960’s Mustang Fastback is alive and well. The turnout at the show was impressive, both from the exhibitors and visitors. Although while strolling around, I did hear someone moaning about “low turnout”. Can’t please everyone. Anyway,Read More
Again with the ‘photos unrelated to text’ thing. This is my second attempt to write this post, the first died a painfully irritating death in about four paragraphs of complete and utter nonsense. This photos unrelated to text blog post features Kerry. Specifically, a few from around Muckross House. I only realised after walking around the gardens that there is a pretty large garden at Muckross House. All the previous times I visited, I must have just strolled around theRead More
I decided I needed some photos to illustrate a post, this being a supposed photo blog and all. So I grabbed the X100, a camera I have somewhat mixed feelings about and did something I haven’t done in quite a while. Many years ago (I’m not that old), I used to park in the city center and just pick a direction and walk. With or without a camera in hand. Then when it started to get dark, I’d turn 180Read More
If it seems I’ve only just written a blog entry about our 2015 trip to France, it’s because I have. The same thing that kicked me into motion to write that entry has prompted me to write this one about our 2016 trip (to mostly the same places). The 2019 trip will again be to many of the same locations, because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. July to see lavender in full bloom, then to retreat into theRead More
An interesting spot. Endlessly scenic (as is much of Scotland) and the kind of place you feel should be oozing peace and tranquility. It probably would, if not for the tens of thousands of tourists I had to somewhat skillfully avoid in order to get a photo that made it look like there wasn’t tens of thousands of tourists there with us. All the while getting a serious amount of stink-eye from someone trying to take selfies with her iphoneRead More
More ways than one. Getting back to work on the Lightroom catalog following a creative cloud update that synced my synced copies with syncs of syncs. Lightroom on the iPad was a mess, Lightroom classic on the computer was a mess. I gave up on it over Christmas in favour of eating and drinking too much. Did finally get it solved, at the expensive of losing all the edits I’d completed on the Scotland photos. That was irritating. Also backRead More
Back at the end of November, we took a long overdue drive to the forest at Gougane Barra. Long overdue in comparison to how frequently I usually visited in winter during, lets call it, the height of my photographic journey. Visit frequency dropped off quite rapidly for a few reasons. The introduction of the barriers with the eye-watering entry fee (or at least what I’d consider eye-watering for a forest) added to my imaginary woes. My other standard rant wasRead More
Normally applied as a digestive aid after consuming a significant amount of dinner on Christmas Day. This time (owing mostly to laziness) it had to wait until St. Stephen’s Day. Usually to some beach or forest, in this case Garrettstown. An unexpectedly energetic affair, taking the rocky route between the two beaches thanks to the low tide. Except not really, quit a little over half way due to increasingly slippy conditions and not wanting to face plant onto a rock.Read More
In (much the same) exactly the same way I started the first post recalling our 2015 trip to the Dordogne region, I start this one while thinking about booking 2019 holidays. In the spirit of eventually finishing what I began, here we go. So here we are in the Dordogne, in a sleepy but rather large town called Issigeac. A very French country town. Men sitting around outside bars smoking and having a laugh, people riding around on bikes withRead More
One of the destinations on Skye that I was going to get to, even if I had to crawl to it. After setting someone else’s photo of this location as my computer wallpaper many months ago, I needed to get here to take my own version. This isn’t it. It’ll be along shortly. The road to the lighthouse is very long, very single track and very full of animals. Also very full of tourists that randomly stop to take photosRead More
I had originally mapped this meandering waffly mess out as a 10 part saga. The kind of thing that’d keep on giving all the way to the end. As this is supposed to be a photoblog and not a repository of short stories, I’m going to squash all the final detail in this post. Parts 9 and 10 would just have been text anyway. I didn’t exactly take many photos once leaving mainland Europe. If you take any fantastical revelationRead More