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
Given the amount of ground we were covering, there were always going to be a couple of ‘down’ days. Days where the aim of the game was to get to the next 2 night stop and get to places where we’d already researched the area. From Maison Laudiere to Dijon is roughly 580km, not an impossible or outlandish distance to do in a day but for the sake of Julie’s sanity and my aging bones (and that it’s been aRead More
While taking my time on the way back to the ferry from Derbyshire on a nice sunny morning, I found this place while quite lost. I was looking for a place to buy a sandwich and a cup of tea before hitting Holyhead for the ferry but that’s neither here nor there. For those interested in my sandwich and tea exploits, I did eventually find a shop with marvelously cheap & tasty sandwiches only about 5 mins from this spot. It struckRead More
A photo rally point yesterday on the edge of the country in north west Kerry. Somewhere not too far from Ballinskelligs to be precise. (Edit; also as photographed elsewhere, but with a bit more style than I can muster) After coming back from the UK on Wednesday evening (and having had a very relaxing journey back), I repacked the bike on Thursday and along with Julie headed south to Cork for the second in a row of long weekends. GettingRead More
This was Wednesday, my fourth flight of the week. The week started on Sunday morning with two alarms set for 4 and 4:05am. No snooze. It takes two alarms to wake me up and get me out of bed. Quick shower, no breakfast (that’s what the Aer Lingus lounges are for after all) and into the car for the drive to the airport. Playing dodgems with the taxis for 20 minutes or so before locating a free space in sectionRead More
After I bought the bike back in January, I began hearing about an event called “Photo Rally” on a few of the bike forums. The idea behind it is simple, there are 24 locations throughout the island of Ireland and you need to travel to as many as possible to earn a bronze, silver or gold award at the end of the year. It’s not a recent idea either. It began way back in 1975 with a Limerick man. PhotographingRead More
Buying a bike in January is exquisite torture. Mostly because with the shitty weather, you can’t actually get out and have a proper spin until mid February. It was still a bit too cold to enjoy thoroughly (a fact which I discovered to it’s fullest extent after I removed my helmet at Newcastle beach) and the dark clouds that hung over great portions of the journey appeared as if they might decant a biblical quantity of rain on me atRead More
Too much time spent with the truly epic 300mm f2.8L IS. Darragh’s 300 2.8 for that matter. Can’t understand how I didn’t have a link to Darragh’s blog here either. Maybe because I’m truly awful at keeping up with peoples blogs these days? Anyway, wonderful event. I’d forgotten how good it was to photograph bike sport. Last time around it was motocross, a lot slower and a little easier (although a lot more muddy) than the masters. But bloody hellRead More
Mattie Griffin doing his stuff in the pouring rain at Japfest in Mondello park at the start of September. The weather didn’t stop him from putting on an amazing show, performing stunts that other (possibly sane) people wouldn’t attempt on a bone dry road. More from Japfest in the coming days.
June 2003. Whilst at a very loose end one day and wanting to clear the head of unpleasant thoughts, I invented the tour which shall forever be known as the “Solstice Sojourn”. Started at home in Carrigaline, west taking in Bandon, Clonakilty, Skibbereen, Schull, Leap, Sheeps Head, Bantry, Glengarriff and a few other towns that I can’t remember. All in all, took about 9 hours and was held for two years running on the longest day of the year. IRead More
May 2005. I only really remember this as one of the first times I actively tried to sell my previous bike, a Yamaha Royal Star Venture. Put on by the Freewheelers MC in Waterford, the show was my first opportunity to get up close to and photograph trial bikes. When asked by one of the riders ‘which paper I work for’, I remember having to think fast and come up with something good so I’d be allowed further access toRead More