Photos and Ponderings

9 Photography Tips You Won't Read Anywhere Else

2009-03-03T21:17:00.002+01:00

First things first: I've moved my blog. It's now at blog.photosandponderings.com. I'd really appreciate it if you update your bookmark, link or subscription to my site. I've been meaning to do this for a while, and I finally got around to it. I now have a proper wordpress blog, with all the endless possibilities for customisation and more likely screwing up that goes along with that. There's a few teething problems, but I hope I'll get them all sorted soon enough. To celebrate, I've spent most of the day writing my longest ever post! What's that smell? Ah, it must be the sickening aroma of college deadlines coming up again...

Though I love other types of photography as well, landscapes are what I started out with, and while only you can decide whether or not I’m good at them, I can at least say I’m prolific. I definitely take more landscapes than anything else, and because it’s fun to share, I’d like to give a few tips on landscape photography that I’ve picked up or discovered myself in the last couple of years.

There are literally hundreds of sites with endless amounts of information on the fundamentals of taking landscapes; everything from choosing your aperture to composition, and there are probably much more important things to read than this post, stuff like the rule of thirds and leading lines and the right type of light to take photos in is written on constantly because it’s more important to know about than anything else. I’m not going to try and repeat these things here, firstly because you’ll probably have read it before, but mainly because people with much more talent and experience than me will explain that kind of thing much better. What I want to do is simply give a list of random tips I’ve picked up that can make a difference to your photography, but most importantly, are a bit different from the ones you see in countless blog posts every day. I’m not saying these are breaking any new ground, but they are certainly a lot less common. They're not in any order of importance either, in case you're wondering.

You’ll probably already need to have a grasp of the basics before you get any use out of these, and if you’re very new to all this I recommend the Digital Photography School as a brilliant starting point. If you have any more of these type of tips, let me know in the comments!

1) Your clothing and footwear can be as important as your camera gear.

My favourite landscapes usually involve taking photos from places that are dirty, muddy, wet or freezing cold, and often a mixture of some of the above. While it’s important to have the right camera gear for the right photos, it’s almost as important to have the right clothing and in particular the right footwear. A good rain and wind-proof set of clothing will keep you warm and give you a much better chance of getting into the right places to take good landscapes. A good pair of waterproof boots, such as my Meindl Island Pros, or something else with gore-tex waterproofing, will allow you to wade through mud and stand in water, and more importantly, as good landscapes take time and patience, they’ll allow you to stay there for a long time without getting disheartened or sick.

2) Don’t be afraid of the big, bad telephoto lens!

While the ‘traditional’ focal length for landscapes is usually wide or even ultra-wide, some of my favourite photos were taken with a telephoto lens, the Sigma 70-300 f4 - 5.6. A long focal length allows you to compress distances, giving you overlapping lines, and isolate subjects. Also, as you don’t need fast shutter speeds (you’ll be using a tripod for all these - I hope!) you can get away with a cheap telephoto lens like I have. Here are a couple of examples of photos taken with focal lengths of 200mm+

3) Good weather is not necessarily the best weather.

While I love sunny days, particuarly here in Ireland where they’re rarer than hen’s teeth, they don’t necessarily make the best landscape photographs. Often, stormy or partially cloudy skys can give impressive and more interesting results - this is one of my favourite ‘ominous sky’ photographs - it had been largely a miserable and wet day:

While completely overcast days are likely to be useless to you, check the weather forecast for mixed rain and sunny spells, and just wait around for a sunny period to take photos.

4) Forget the ‘Rule of Thirds’.

This one will have many photographers shaking their fists angrily at their computer screen. A very basic rule of photography is to place points of interest along lines dissecting the photo into thirds. It’s a great rule, and if you google it you’ll find countless information about it. Basically, in Landscape photography, it often boils down to having 1/3 sky and 2/3 land, or the other way around, rather than placing the horizon in the middle. When I say “forget the Rule of Thirds”, I’m not advocating putting the horizon in the middle, but rather taking this rule to new extremes. I have found that many of my favourite photos have, for example, 1/4 sky and 3/4 land, or even 1/5 land and 4/5 sky. It works particularly well if one of these two elements are much more interesting than the other. Again, I give you a couple of examples:

5) It's all about the foreground...

Okay, this one isn't exactly a state secret, but it's something that helped my landscapes enourmously and I want to pass it on to other newbies. When I started with landscapes, I assumed that the most important element of the photo was the background. This makes sense, because usually when you're looking at a beautiful scene you're casting your eyes to faraway elements: the sky, mountains or lakes, for example. However, when I took photos that just concentrated on the background, I was constantly dissapointed by my results when I looked at the shots on my computer. I think it's because the 2D image created by the camera can't capture the scene in the same impressive way your eyes can. Now the landscapes I'm happiest with are those with a strong foreground element, with the background being almost relegated to secondary importance. At the very least, a strong foreground will draw you in and lead you to bring your attention to the impressive background you originally wanted to capture. So, frame something in the foreground (and if there's nothing there, move, or move something in!). Two of my favourite photos are almost exclusively about the foreground:

6) Landscapes can be portraits too!

I mean this in two different ways. First, I would say that all of the best landscapes I've taken, and most of those I've seen, are really portraits of a single element in a landscape. This 'single element' can be a number of things: A physical element like a mountain peak, or something less tangible like a particularly strong pattern of light. There are exceptions to the rule: Ansel Adams' photographs impress me because of the beautiful range of tones, amazing technical ability and strong overall composition, but I think that the rest of us mere mortals need to simplify things in order to get great photos. A question I often ask myself when critiquing my own photos is: "what is this a photo of?", and if I can't answer the question in one word or line, or the answer is just "a view of ___" then it's probably not an interesting photo. I like the following photo because it has one strong element: the rock:

Secondly, and this is a much simpler tip - don't forget that landscapes can be taken with your camera in portrait orientation too! As you can see, many of the photos above were taken in portrait. I find it works particularly well when you have very strong vertical leading lines, and if you really want to place the emphasis on either the sky or the land, and not both.

7) Sometimes, just don't bother.

Well, this is one tip that you definitely won't see very often! I know it sounds a bit depressing, but I find that if learning what type weather or viewpoints definitely won't give you good results will actually save you from being disheartened in the long run. There have been occasions when I've specifically set apart time and effort to go and take landscape shots, maybe even driving or walking for a good deal of time, only to find out that the conditions are just no good. Rather than spend hours taking shots, trying to squeeze something from scene only to go home, look at the results and become depressed, I think it's better to give up, go home straight away, and take what you can from it. If the weather was bad but the location was good, you can think of it as scouting for your next attempt. If the location was bad, console your self in the fact that at least you won't waste a beautiful day there by going back another time.

8 ) You have to post-process your images.

Well, I hate saying "you have to" about anything, but I think it's an important point. To put it simply: I would say that very close to one hundred per cent of your favourite landscape photographs have been post-processed - whether that be a simple contrast or saturation adjustment, dodging and burning, or a complicated HDR. When I started taking photos, I didn't realise this, and thought I could never even come close to the photos I saw around me by seemingly ordinary photographers.

I would say, at the very least, you should be adding a decent bit of contrast and adjusting the saturation. I also find myself fiddling with the colour hues in pictures with extremely strong colour elements - the camera is stupid and my our eyes have a much better idea of what a scene actually looked like. Also, I use Graduated Neutral-Density Filters in almost every landscape photo I take now: I highly recommend getting a set. Although this is done in-camera it is technically altering the scene so I include it here. Remember: you're not cheating - you're just levelling the playing field.

9) A photograph doesn't have to be what you 'saw', just what you 'remember'.

These are very different things: The first is objective (to a certain extent) and the second is subjective. Without wanting to get to philosophical about the whole thing, I personally don't see why a photo has to necessarily bear much relation to what was actually there, within reason. If I'm remembering a scene, and a feeling of warmth or cold or fear comes into my mind, then representing this in the photo through tweaking things is arguably at least, or perhaps more accurate a reflection of the scene I witnessed. After all, the scene doesn't exist any more except in my memory - so shouldn't it be that I attempt to recreate? Somebody said that the only truly objective photo would be taken from space with a camera with a very quiet shutter. Every photo is subjective: embrace the fact rather fight it, and ignore those (generally non-photographers!) who look down on your photographs because they believe otherwise. The following photo probably wasn't quite so blue - but, you know what? I don't care. I like how it looks and it's how I envisage the scene in my head. That's good enough for me.

Slea Head Statue

2009-03-02T15:39:00.002+01:00

I think Religious statues and monuments are fantastic photographic subjects - I find many of them 'kitsch' but in a good way. And they're often in photogenic and strange places. I always seem to make them look ominous and bleak though...

Dingle Peninsula

2009-03-01T21:39:00.003+01:00

I went to Dingle with the UL Photo Society at the weekend. The weather almost invariably decides to become an evil villain and toy with us in any way it can: producing spectacularly un-photogenic weather. This trip was no different, but we did manage to get in some shots on Friday night. Here's one:

I'm in a bit of a dilemma as to what to do with my blog, design-wise. I like being able to write a bit and show a few photos in a row, as I do now, but I also like the idea of having one of those proper photoblogs with just one photo per post. This would allow me to 'showcase' my photos a bit better, as they always look more impressive when they're bigger. I've just got a year's free hosting through digiweb, on account of being a feckless student-type, and if I ever manage to actually get it running, I'll have a proper Wordpress-powered blog, with all the thousands of themes and designs available to me that goes along with that. So stay tuned, there should hopefully be big changes on the way...

Cliffs Of Moher

2009-02-25T14:59:00.001+01:00

Doolin Pier

2009-02-24T19:15:00.002+01:00

I sort of feel like I'm finally coming into my stride as regards landscapes. I finally have all the gear I've been lusting after for the last couple of years: an ultra-wide angle lens, a decent tripod, a remote shutter release and a set of filters, but more importantly, I can, to an extent, pre-visualise a scene. I think I'm beginning to look at a scene, and immediately see whether the conditions make it worthwhile dropping everything and taking out the camera (and risking the wrath of your better half!), or just driving on and coming back another day. This Saturday in Doolin was definitely one of the former. There was a dark, brooding sky, lots of movement in the sea and great colours from the sunset. It was one of the rare occasions in the year when the stars align and I find myself at the coast, in the right weather conditions at the right time. Even though I hadn't planned anything, when I saw it I knew I just had to forget about everything else - I had been driving for 2 1/2 hours and was starving - and see if I could get some shots. In the space of less than an hour I had taken some of my favourite shots of the year so far. Here are two, and I'll probably post a few more over the coming days:

The Living Bridge

2009-02-19T16:19:00.001+01:00

The Living Bridge again, taken from the other side of the river, and during the day.

Killaloe Time-Lapse Video

2009-02-13T13:47:00.003+01:00

Here is the video I was talking about the other day. Just a quick note on how it was done: I set my camera on a tripod on my balcony and set it to fully manual exposure(you don't want the exposure suddenly changing in the middle of your movie) and fully manual focus (obviously enough you don't want the focus to change half-way through either). I also used a small aperture and a ND Filter to give a long-ish shutter speed. A long shutter speed is preferable because you want a little bit of motion blur in your shots, so that they will blend together a bit when you combine them. Then I connected the camera to my laptop via USB, and using Nikon's Camera Control Pro in timelapse mode, I set it to take one picture every ten seconds. I left it run until the battery in my camera died, and it took 1700 pictures.

When I had all the photos, I imported them into Lightroom, made some small adjustments, and synched all the photos up so that they looked the same. I then used a piece of software called VideoMach to put them all together, at thirty frames per second, which gives a smooth video. That's about it!

Here's the video:

UL in the Snow

2009-02-12T15:01:00.001+01:00

One thing I love about being addicted to Flickr and a load of photo blogs is that any time anything happens, such as the snow last week, I get a steady stream of pictures of it, from almost every inconceivable angle and location. It's like having omnipresence! I was really jealous of the huge amount of pictures of snowy landscapes I've seen over the last few weeks, something I wasn't able to do myself because a)we didn't get anywhere near as much snow as the east coast and b) because I was too busy/lazy/cold to get off my ass and take more photos. I did catch one very thick flurry, however. Here are some photos of UL:

Killaloe at Night

2009-02-11T19:11:00.002+01:00

This is a combination of a load of one-minute shots taken from my balcony last week. As you can see there's quite a lot going on. The reason it's lots of dots rather than a continuous line is because I left a gap between each shot. The reason for this was because I was actually taking these shots to make into a time-lapse video, which is below the picture. I have another, much more impressive one of these to post but I'll leave you in suspense because I only have a limited amount of stuff to post at the moment! If you're really interested just check my youtube account...

Path of Light

2009-02-03T21:07:00.001+01:00

No Snow - No Fair!

2009-02-02T19:21:00.002+01:00

It seems at the moment that the Mid-West, and Limerick in particular is the only place in the entire Western Hemisphere that isn't covered in a lovely blanket of snow. I went out this morning and took some infra-red shots to compensate. Anything green goes completely white, particularly when converted to monochrome. I haven't had the easiest relationship with infra-red, but I think when it's done well it can be stunning (for example, Darren Greene). I think the trick is very stark, minimalist subjects and lots of sunlight. Some day I'll manage it.

New Toy

2009-01-28T20:57:00.002+01:00

I was in Bristol recently, visting family, but while I was there I took advantage of the weak Sterling and treated myself to a lens I've been coveting for a long time: the Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6. I've led myself to believe that an ultra-wide angle lens is an indispensible tool for my main interest, landscape photography, but also one that will be great for other stuff like architecture and 'enviromental' portraits. My first impressions of the lens are good - the wide angle is very dramatic and different, just as I had hoped. Of course, paying such a reasonable price for a lens with such an extreme focal length means there will be certain compromises, and it does not seem to have anywhere near the contrast or sharpness of my personal 'gold standard': the Sigma 105mm f2.8 Macro, which puts everything else I own into the shade. I knew all this, however, so I'm extremely happy with my purchase.

I haven't had much of a chance to try it out yet, but while I was in Bristol I took a few snaps - unfortunately I wasn't in the city long enough to get too involved photographically. I love big cities, and the best ones have a certain character that makes them inexplicablly yet undeniably unique. Even with the advent of identikit high-street shops, and architecture that could be almost anywhere on the globe, places like Bristol somehow seem to exude a one-of-a-kind identity that can be picked up even on a passing visit.

I'd love to tell you that I chanelled some of this through the photographs I took there, but that is unfortunately not the case. It's partially due to the time constraints, but mainly because I have never been much of an urban photographer. I have never progressed past taking snaps of buildings which interest me aesthetically, or that I think would make an interesting photograph. A couple of these are below. The first is a random building and the second is part of Bristol University:

Star Trails During the Day??

2009-01-26T21:24:00.005+01:00

Just in case you were wondering, this is what happens if you take a long exposure at night, when there's an extremely bright moon in the sky, and set your ISO to 1600. Of course, I did this just to show the readers of this blog what would happen if they did it, to save them some embarrasment. I never would be so stupid to do this accidentally myself, oh no...

Incidentally, somebody very kind out there nominated this incompetent old thicko's blog for the Irish Blog Awards 2009, heaven knows why - out of some misguided notion of pity, perhaps ;) But seriously, thanks a million to whoever nominated me, it's much appreciated. As I've said elsewhere, the knowledge that one person likes my blog at least enough to bother sending in my name for nomination is extremely satisfying. It's an honour to share the same page on an internet with what is an excellent list of photoblogs.

P.S: Expect lots of high-brow, well-thought out posts over the next few weeks, as I try to pander to the judging committee. It's like Oscar season for blogs.

P.P.S: Actually scratch that, I've had a better idea. I'm going to rename the blog to reflect the new content emphasis.

What do you think of "Photos of Scantily-Clad Ladies and Ponderings"?

Inch Rocks

2009-01-19T23:51:00.004+01:00

This is the final image from the huge glut taken over one sunny weekend in Kerry. This is a particular favourite. It often transpires with my work that the harder a photo was to take the better the final image. This was definitely more difficult than most. I was balancing on some slippy rocks, as the tide came in around me. I took this photo and then had to grap the tripod and camera, and stick it in the air as I was worried it would get soaked! After one particularly big wave, the water came right in and I got spooked and decided to run for shore. Unfortunately the water was now at least up to my knees, and by the time I realised it was too late so I kept on wading back to the beach.

While wading through water as it slowly entered my boots isn't exactly what you would call fun, the experience symbolises everything I love about landscape photography; however cheesy or cliched the final image may be. To me landscape photography is about going the extra mile: going to the place no-one else could be bothered with, at the time everyone else with more sanity is tucked up in bed. It's about the sense of adventure and a unique sense of place, which I have only experienced through the viewfinder of my camera. Photography forces you to slow down, stop and really look, when the rest of your group has long given up braving the winds and retreated for a coffee or to the safety of the car.

It might, to an outsider, seem like perhaps one of the dullest hobbies on earth: standing around in the cold at ungodly hours of the morning doing nothing but adjusting settings on a camera and pressing a button now and again must appear to be akin to trainspotting or some equally inexplicable pursuit. For me, however, this type of photography at its best, on an astonishingly beautiful sunrise in unimaginable solitude, or a unique landscape discovered after a hike of a couple of hours, can give me butterflies in my stomach or make my knees weak with excitement. Landscape photography isn't trainspotting: it's extreme sports.

Epic Milking of One Weekend In Inch Continues

2009-01-17T17:09:00.002+01:00

And I'm not done yet!

Inch Again

2009-01-12T23:32:00.002+01:00

"Hey, hey you - yeah you. The dude in charge of painting the day in the morning."

"Yeah?"

"Well, um, I mean, you did a really nice job on the near stuff like the trees and cars and houses, but, um, did you forget to paint in the background? Just sayin..."

Now that we're back to our regular service, impossibly grey skies streching into infinity, I begin to really appreciate days with actual sunlight. Here's another one from one of those rare days, last weekend in Kerry:

2009-01-10T22:03:00.003+01:00

I rearely post pictures of Limerick, so here are some:

Footsteps

2009-01-08T16:41:00.002+01:00

Just one today. I'm going to milk this Kerry trip for all it's worth, oh yes...

Kerry Sunrise..

2009-01-06T20:50:00.002+01:00

...Two words I love to see beside each other. Actually, it was quite overcast, but I still took a couple of shots. Just like when trying to give up cigarettes for the New Year, sometimes I think it's best to have one last blowout before actually quitting. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. There's quite a lot more to come - this weekend was quite the landscape binge.

Happy New Year

2009-01-02T13:06:00.004+01:00

If there's anyone reading this, I'd like to wish you a Happy New Year. I trust that the hangover (in the literal sense at least) of 2008 has worn off by this stage. 2008 was, overall, a good year for me photographically. I didn't get any more gear, but I tried a lot of stuff and came away with some photos which I love. As my stuff is quite weather dependant, particularly the landscapes, the last few months have not been as productive as I would have liked. I think that the summer made up for that though.

I don't see myself as having any major breakthroughs or epiphanies in my photography this year - I think it was more a year of honing skills rather than learning new ones. The main skill which I have honed has been the ability to see 'photographically' - I've developed some kind of internal viewfinder which can be switched on in my brain. I have a fair idea without even bringing a camera to my eye the effect that various compositions and focal lengths will effect a picture. I can tell what will work in 2D and what won't, and how to give illusion of depth where none exists. Of course, I still have a huge, probably infinite amount more to learn, but this is an example of how I think I've improved.

What about 2009? Well I have a number of resolutions which I will try to follow. I'm going to try and be as consistent as possible with my photography, and take pictures very regularly rather than in big lumps as I often do now. I'll also try and blog more often. As for specific photographic subjects, I think it's time to slowly ween myself off landscapes, at least to a certain extent. I would like to get more photos of people, and maybe try and do some street photography, if I can get over the terror. Limerick is not beautiful, but it's real and vibrant and interesting, and the streets of the town could be a wonderful photographic subject. I'd also like to try and do some formal studio stuff, even if its just using my little flashes and some other cheap lighting equipment. As I said, last year didn't bring many new skills, so portaits and studio lighting would be one I'd like to pick up in 2009.

Ok, that's enough of that. I took some photos on the first day of the year, although I was a bit wobbly due to being still slightly drunk from the night before... The light was suprisingly bad, and it was very difficult to get a properly exposed shot without a very long shutter speed. This brings me to my last New Year's Photographic Resolution: Stop complaining about the light!

Star Trails

2008-12-29T21:40:00.003+01:00

It has been, yet again, an unfortunately long time since I've been out taking photos. Finally, the night before last, I went to West Clare to try and get some photos of star trails. I've tried this before, but never with much success. This time was definitely better. I think the main thing I have learned about taking pictures of star trails is that it is very important to have a strong foreground. I like the photo with the trails moving around the North Star, but the photos with stuff in the foreground have more potential, I think. I'm going to have to try this again.

Technically the photos were fairly simple. You need to have a remote release for your camera. The first two of this set are single exposures, of about 30 minutes long each. The photo with the more complete trail is a combination of five exposures of varying lengths from five to thirty minutes. This is because the camera can only take exposures of up to half an hour, but also because it's apparently bad to leave the shutter open for too long. I tried combining the exposures in the GIMP without much success, I had much better results with a program available here.

We had a rare perfectly clear night, and also a perfectly clear sunrise the next morning. I'm starting to realise just how much of photography, for me at least, is dependant on the quality of light. In the early morning, with the golden light grazing off everything, creating wonderful texture and colour, I felt like a photographic Midas. Anything I photographed seemed to look wonderful, no matter what the subject. My favourite examples of this are below, the reeds and the stone wall; two subjects that could have been extremely boring in any other type of light. It really pains me to think how rarely we get days like this in Ireland. I can't imagine what it would be like to wake up to this beautiful, textural light almost every morning of the year.

Ice

2008-12-11T13:30:00.001+01:00

Just some quick photos of the ice we've been having in the mornings recently:

Splish Splash, redux

2008-12-03T17:46:00.006+01:00

I've been meaning to do this for a while. Then I did it. Then I was meaning to blog about it for a while. Which I'm doing now. Anyway, what I'm ranting about is my wish to try getting photos of high-speed splashes of water and milk. I've done this before, but I wanted to try again using the same lighting scheme as I did for my pictures of smoke. Although I don't have the setup shots here, I did take some, but you'll have to use your imagination for the moment. It's a very basic setup: a snooted Vivitar 285HV diagonally behind the water pointing towards it, and then opposite that, on the other side of the water, a piece of white card to reflect back some of the light. This gives a very 'low key' image, as the picture is outlined by light, but is mostly black. You'll see what I mean in a sec, if you don't already...

The actual taking of the photographs themselves is essentially a numbers game. I took about one thousand shots in total, as there is basically no way to tell whether a shot will be good or not until you look at the camera screen, and if you did that after every shot you'd go completely insane and throw the camera out the nearest window. So I put the camera on fine Jpeg and just let it fire away as I was making drops of various sizes. I'll outline quickly the process to get to this end result::

First you need to have a container for the water into which the drops will fall. A glass does the job just fine here. It's also a good idea to have another container (a shallow bowl, say) under the glass to catch all the water - saves cleaning up afterwards which is always good!

The next thing you need is to set up your camera. It needs to be on a tripod because you will be prefocusing and then switching to manual, and the camera cannot move while this is happening or else everything will be blurry. So set up your camera and tripod fairly low, so that the camera is pretty much in line with the top of your glass. I use a Nikon D50, which works pretty well, although I could have done with something with a faster frames-per-second. You definitely need a DSLR for this, as you will need to manually focus. I also used a macro lens, the Sigma 105 f2.8, but you don't necessarily need a dedicated macro lens - one with a decent close focusing distance will do.

Next you need to focus, and this can be pretty tedious. I used a pencil, which I stuck in the water, as close to the middle of the glass as I could. Half-press down your shutter, focusing your lens, then take a picture. Check the screen to make sure it's perfectly in focus. Here's my picture of a pencil:

You now need to switch to manual focus, and make sure you don't move the camera or the lens for the rest of the shoot. Although this doesn't mean everything will be in focus, as you won't get all the drops directly in the middle, it will make you have the best chance of getting a high proportion in focus. Which is the best you can hope for really.

Now on to taking the photos themselves. There are a huge amount of variables here, and getting any one of them wrong will probably spoil your photo. Hence the need to take so many. I'll go through any I can think of now.

Shutter speed: Pretty much irrelevant. My photos are lit entirely by flash. If I took a picture with the same settings and turned off the flash, there is nothing but darkness. So your shutter speed just needs to be fast enough to cut out all available light. When your photos are lit entirely by flash, they will be frozen perfectly, as the flash duration is at most about 1/4000, and I think at 1/16th power it's about 1/16000th of a second. So doing this is incredibly more efficient than trying to use shutter speed and ambient light to freeze the action. My shutter speed for most of these photos was somewhere between 1/15 and 1/60, chosen pretty much arbitrarily. If you use a very slow shutter speed, so that ambient light gets in, you might start to see a 'dragged' image - a clear image lit by the flash followed by a blurry one lit by the ambient. It might look cool, I haven't tried it yet!

Aperture: Pretty small. You want to give yourself the best chance to get in-focus pictures, so an aperture of at least f16 will allow you to be slightly off and still be in focus. It also helps to cut out all ambient light, which, as explained above, is what we want to do. A side-effect of this small aperture is that you get cool starburst type effects in your photos, like this one:

Grooveh huh?

Flash: External flash is fairly necessary here, although I suppose you could use on-camera flash to freeze the action if you wanted, but you'll probably end up with quite flat images. I use radio triggers to fire mine, from ebay. You'll probably want the flash on a low power, 1/16th or less, so that your recycle times will be high and your batteries won't die - again, so we can take as many photos as possible in a short space of time. The manual for my Vivitar 285HV says that after about 20 pops in quick sucession the flash needs a break for a couple of minutes, so keep that in mind before you abuse your flash. Don't blame me if it explodes!

The drops: Now comes the fun part. I tried various methods to get the best drops, and probably the best one was out of a small jug with a thin spout. I tried a dropper, but it's no good as you need a constant stream of drops rather than the ability to control a small number of drops. If you could set up some system that constantly and slowly drops liquid with no human intervention you would be laughing. Fill up your jug just a small bit and aim it, or whatever implement you've decided to use, at the centre of the glass of water and tilt it just enough so that drops come out. Try not to get impatient and tilt it loads, it's best to wait and hope the drops come! Once you have a steady stream, start shooting, and vary the height and distance from the centre to ensure that some of them are in focus. There's no point trying to anticipate the drops falling, just shoot as many as you can and hope for the best. After about twenty shots, check the back of your screen to see if any of them look good. Remember to zoom in to check for focus because if it's a tiny bit out it'll look crappy when you view it on your computer screen. Armed with the information you have now, alter your camera/drop maker settings until you get it just right.

When you're finished with water, try other stuff. Milk works really well, probably better, and it's amazing how different the drops look to the water ones. I also tried dropping objects in, but I didn't manage to catch any on camera. I might try it again though.

If anyone actually made it though that lot, here are some pictures I took from my latest drop-related adventure. I hope this is of use to someone.

Kerry

2008-10-20T21:22:00.003+02:00

I went to Kerry for the weekend with the UL Photo Society. Unfortunately, the weather was atrocious, but I got a couple of images I am reasonably happy with. I wish I had the skill to be able to take great photos no matter what the weather.

UL Living Bridge

2008-10-20T00:42:00.002+02:00

The Living Bridge, if you don't know, is a new pedestrian bridge in the University of Limerick that gets its name from the fact that it (purposely!) sways up and down when you walk across. It cost sixteen million and was built by the same company that built the Eiffel Tower - although I suspect that most of the engineers on that particular project were unlikely to have contributed to this one. I've been meaning to take photos of this for ages, it probably should have been on my list. Anyway, I finally got around to it, and here they are:

56 Photography related things I want to do

2008-10-15T02:03:00.008+02:00

I was going to make a simple list of photography stuff I wanted to do - just for myself, to have something to motivate me and work towards. However, as this is essay time which means I will do anything but what I am supposed to, I wrote this. I'd love to hear other suggestions in the comments. The list isn't meant to be exhaustive: this is stuff that I want to do, rather than think that everyone should do. This list isn't in any order at all, it's completely random. The headings are probably a bit iff too, I just wanted to break up all that text a bit.

Locations

1. Photograph the Northern Lights

Northern Lights_253 by ru_24_real (flickr.com)

This is very high up my list of things I want to photograph. I’ve always been fascinated by the amazing colours and patterns of the Aurora Borealis. Some of my favourite photos are of this natural phenomenon.

2. Photograph the Grand Canyon

Great patterns, great texture, great light. What’s not to love?

3. Go to Yosemite, home of Ansel Adams

El Capitan Yosemite National Park, by Jim's Outside Photos (flickr.com)

I can take or leave a lot of the ‘famous’ photographers, but I love a real master like Ansel Adams. A lot of his best work was taken in Yosemite, and I think it’s pretty much a compulsory pilgrimage for landscape photographers. I’d probably have to try and re-create some of his more famous works, then be depressed when they inevitably pale in comparison

4. Photograph from Space

OK, I realise this one is probing the edges of reason, but as space tourism takes off, there’s got to be some kind of chance it’ll be reasonably affordable during my lifetime! Surely this would be the ultimate landscape photography destination.

5. Photograph the Icazu Falls

These waterfalls are incredibly impressive. They’re so big that it would hopefully be possible to get some original shots, unlike most waterfalls

6. Photograph Antelope Canyon

Some of the most spectacular photos I’ve ever seen have come from here. The light is amazing.

Upper Antelope Canyon - by Mandj98 (flickr.com)

7 Take photos at Glendalough

Images of this place were some of the first that inspired me to get in to photography. It’s serene, there are lakes, and there are mountains. A landscape photographer’s dream come true.

8. Take photos at the Giant’s Causeway

Another place I have seen many incredible photos. It’s just so far away...

9. Do a long exposure with people at the Iron Man in UL

This won’t mean anything to most people, but every time I pass this statue I think to my self that it would be cool to do a long exposure of, with the statue not moving and surrounded by blurry people. Someday I’ll do it.

10. Go to Prague and take photos

Fascinating historical architecture, beautiful winters, famous bridges.

11. Go to New York and take photos

Crazy people, crowded streets, non-stop action, fascinating architecture, huge buildings. Oh, and some of the best photo stores on the planet. That enough?

12. Go to Bombay to take photos

Any big city in India, really. The colour and energy of these places fascinates me.

13. Venice

More history than you can shake a stick at, lots of water, and lots of fog.

14. Take photos of New England in Autumn

Gotta love those colours...

15. Go on Safari

This is another one high up the list of photography destinations, for almost any photographer. I think it’s pretty obvious why. I’d love to get some stunning black and white photos of wild animals, like these.

16. Spend a day in a hide

Not something I really have the patience for, but it would be a great experience to try it once.

17. Go to Fota Island Zoo

I’ve been here before, as has pretty much every kid in the South of Ireland. I’d like to go back with a camera. It’s slightly more open than most zoos – should be good for photography.

Techniques

18. Do more drop/splashes, using the lighting I used for the smoke photos.

I’ve taken some photos of drops and splashes using off-camera lighting, but I always had difficulty darkening the background enough. Using a snoot to direct a narrow beam of light through the drop, as I did with these smoke photos, should produce better results.

19. Get good photos of star trails, with the northern star in the middle

This is something I’ve been trying to do since I took up photography, but never succeeded. It’s always too cloudy, or there’s too much ambient light, and my only wide-angle lens doesn’t have any infinity mark on it – stupid cheap kit lens... I really want to get a good photo of star trails, with the northern star in the middle of at least in the frame, and the trails making circles around it.

Star Trails @ Fusoshan by Fishtail@Taipei (flickr.com)

20. Get one nice street shot or environmental portrait

This isn’t something I ‘m good at, but I’d love to take a good classic black and white street shot, or maybe a wide-angle environmental portrait of some interesting subject. I’ll never be Cartier-Bression, but I’d like to try every technique at least once.

21. Use off camera lights to get that cool film noir effect.

Come and get me coppers, by intsjustanalias (flickr.com)

Been meaning to try this for a long time, if only because it’s quite simple.

1. Shoot hard light through window blind at person wearing a hat.

2. ???

3. Profit.

22. Make a good time-lapse film

I’ve tried this, and like most things I try, it’s harder than I thought. I’d love to do a whole day, from sunrise to sunset. My main problem is finding somewhere interesting I can leave a camera for a whole day!

23. Make just one decent HDR image

Mine all looked over-cooked. How do you do it properly? Evidently half of The Internet doesn’t know either. There’s a lot of truly awful HDR imagery around. But when it’s done right, it can look spectacular.

24. Take one of those long exposure in a moving car at night photos

I think everybody has to do it at least once; it’s a law or something.

through the tollbooth....again, by Ben Mcleod (flickr.com)

25. Take photos through a microscope

I’d love to try this just once – I don’t think it would hold much interest for me in the long term. I’m always extremely impressed by the Nikon competition that happens every year though.

26. Take photos while scuba-diving

This is something I imagine takes a lot of gear in order to get results that are anything but awful. The combination of terrible light and sticking some thick waterproof plastic over your camera and lens can’t be good. If I ever do this I’ll need to rent some gear.

27. Learn how to use Photoshop

I know Lightroom inside-out, but I’ve never gone near Photoshop. I downloaded the trial and felt a bit ill – there are way too many buttons. However, in this digital age, it is an essential skill.

28. Get a great photo using just rim lighting

Just one light, and a black background. Just enough light to get the outline of a person or thing. Here's another cool example:

Frame Work, by Auzigog (flickr.com)

29. Spend a day with a fixed lens

Everyone says this, but I’ve never tried it. Shooting with a fixed lens makes you much more careful about composition. You can always zoom with your feet.

30. Get some great pictures in the fog and trees

This one is filed under ‘I’ve tried and failed’. I love good fog photos – the sense of mystery and the minimalism.

31. Make a very long exposure photo of the sea at night

I’ve seen some very cool shots like this, particularly at Photoblog 2.0

32. Photograph a fireworks display

The web is swarming with ‘how to photograph fireworks’ tutorials for some reason, and I think I’ve read just about all of them. Someday I’ll actually have to put this knowledge to practice.

33. Make a short film

There’s always been a strong link between photography and moving film, and with the ability to shoot video on the new Nikon D90 and the Canon 5D Mk II, the two disciplines are going to be closer entwined than ever before. I’d love to give it a go. The thing that has always put me off trying a digital camcorder is the huge depth of field: everything is in focus, severely limiting creative effects. With these two cameras, with their huge control over depth of field and manual focus, digital video just got much more appealing to somebody like me, who values the aesthetic of film as much as the narrative.

34. Do one of those transparent computer screen things

You know, like here. Cool eh?

35. Make a large print and frame one of my photos

Apparently making high-quality prints from digital images is an art unto itself. Also, it would be nice to actually have physical print of something I’ve taken. Everything I do is in ones and zeros.

People

36. Photograph a new-born baby

Black and white, on a black background. It’s a cliché, but it works.

37. Shoot a gig with a fish-eye lens

I’ve done some gig photography, and enjoyed, but it looks a bit ‘samey’. The best stuff I’ve seen has been through a fish-eye lens, extremely close up. I’d love to give it a try (and try not to get killed by the band at the same time)

38. Do a portrait session with a band

You know, the train tracks, walking across the road, all that highly original stuff... Really though, there’s a lot of room to experiment and be creative taking portraits of bands. And hopefully they’ll become rich and I can sell all my photos for lots of money...

39. Spend a day in a kitchen, or some other high-energy workplace.

This would be fun. I’ve worked in kitchens in restaurants, in the highly prestigious position of wash-up man. A kitchen is home to a huge range of emotion, from hilarity to rage, and swings from one extreme to another, many times in a single night. I’d love to try to depict this through photography.

40. Photograph a wedding

OK, so risking the most important day of somebody’s life just so I can say I’ve done a wedding might be a little selfish, but I’d really love to try this one day, at least as a second shooter. It’s a great mix of professionalism, high-adrenaline, and artistry.

41. Get a photo of an ‘interesting’ face

face - old man, by china.sixty4 (flickr.com)

You know, one of those wrinkly people whose face ‘tells a thousand stories’.

Gear

42. Buy a Sigma 10-20mm or other wide-angle lens

I’ve been ogling the Sigma 10-20 for about a year and a half. I love landscape photography, but I really want to get wider. I really think an ultra-wide-angle lens would push my landscapes to the next level.

43. Buy umbrellas, light stands and adapters and finally learn how to off-camera light properly

Another thing I’ve been meaning to get for a long time. It doesn’t take much of an investment, and it’s well worth it. I’ve been reading Stobist for the past year or so, and I’ve been inspired to try my hand at off-camera lighting. I’ve had a certain amount of success using bare flash and some DIY modifiers, but it’s never really been completely satisfying.

44. Borrow a Leica for a couple of days

Leica IIIf, by selva (flickr.com)

I’ve already said that I’ll never be Cartier-Bression, but borrowing a Leica (preferably an old film one) and swanning around town for a few days is probably the closest I’ll ever get. I would love to try out this legendary camera.

45. Get a graphics tablet

If I finally learn to use photoshop, or even just upgrade to Lightroom 2.0, one of these would hugely improve the speed and accuracy with which I could do things like dodging and burning.

46. Rent a studio and a hire a model for a day.

Another thing I’d love to try out at least once – see what I can produce with professional equipment and professional people.

47. Build a studio in my garage

Nothing fancy – just get some umbrellas and light stands, and a couple of backdrops. It’s amazing what can be done with very little money.

Learning & Improving

48. Make a photo essay

I’d love to do this – come up with an idea, take a load of photos with the intention of telling a story rather than just for their own sake.

49. Win a competition

Preferably one with more than one entrant. I enter competitions now and again, never with much success. The closest I’ve come was being shortlisted for the World Photography Awards last year, and that gave me a boost that lasted for months. If I actually won something I’d probably explode.

50. Write something about history and photography

I’m doing an M.A. in History – it’s my primary interest. There is a huge area of study around the history of photography, and also history as seen through photography. I’ve never really looked into it, but I’d like to.

51. Teach a class

I think that one of the best ways to learn is by teaching. I’m not an expert in anything, but I know I’d learn a lot merely by organising and planning a class. It’d feel good to give something back, too.

52. Read a fancy photography book

Perhaps On Photography, by Susan Sonntag. I really enjoy photography, but I’d love to learn more about the theory behind it.

53. Get a photo to number 1 in explore on Flickr

This wouldn’t be a particularly big compliment on my photography, judging by the some of the stuff that makes it to the top on Flickr. It would be kind of exciting though!

54. Sell a photo

Just one. For MILLIONS preferably...

55. Get paid to photograph something.

Different from selling a photo. I would really like to be commissioned to do some kind of photography job. Wouldn’t have to be fancy: Maybe taking photos of a house for an estate agents, a product for ebay, or even a family portrait. Doing something for money really focuses the mind – this would undoubtedly make me a better photographer.

56. Buy a fine-art print from an up-and –coming photographer

It’s great to support other photographers, even if you don’t intend on making a living from it yourself. Also buying something, with the intention of displaying it, really clarifies the mind on what one actually likes. There’s a big difference between admiring a photo on the net or in a gallery, and being able to put up with it every day.

So, there you go. Hopefully this will be of interest to somebody - you might even get some ideas. If I do any of these, I might start crossing them off, and posting about my results on the blog.

Cratloe Woods

2008-10-13T00:45:00.003+02:00

Forests, for me, have always been one of those subjects that should provide better photographs than they actually do. I think it's the chaos and clutter: it's hard to find order amongst the random scattering of trees. Good photos have a purpose, a subject stands out and turns a photo from a mere collection of pixels (or silver halide, if you're into that sort of thing...) into a photo of something. I have always found subjects hard to pick out in forests. I went to Cratloe, a nearby wood, this morning with the hope of finding trees shrouded in fog. By the time I hauled my lazy ass up there, the fog was inevitably gone. Faced with the prospect of yet another disspointing trip to a wood, I decided to try something different: I stuck my oft-neglected 50mm f.1.8 onto the camera. I was suprised how well this worked. At f1.8, or f2, this lens turns a seemingly chaotic scene into one with a single, well-defined subject. These aren't my favourite photos ever, but I'm happy enough with how they turned out.

Another thing that I find hard about photos of trees and woods is the post-processing. I tried fiddling around with the green and yellow channels in Lightroom, and this is what I came up with. I'm not sure if it's over the top or not.

Clare Glens

2008-09-27T17:17:00.002+02:00

Lisa Hannigan

2008-09-26T21:30:00.001+02:00

2008-09-24T01:23:00.002+02:00

After my recent dearth of photography, I have thankfully picked it up again in earnest. Coinciding with the first decent weather of the year, I and fifteen members of the University Photo Society took a trip to a part-animal-sanctuary-part-business called Animal Magic. I took a record breaking and hard-drive-busting 1,036 photos. I haven't had so much fun, in both photographic and everyday terms, in quite a long time. Animal Magic contains a veritable menagerie of animals: falcons, kestrels, doves, owls, spiders, snakes, dogs, skunks and hedgehogs can be counted amongst its lucky inhabitants. I say lucky because although many of the animals were rescued from bad injuries and awful circumstances, they now have the pleasure of being in the care of two of the most passionate and enthusiastic animal lovers I've ever met. I've never had much of an affinity for animals, but after this outing that has definitely changed somewhat. I've rediscovered a portion of that child-like wonder for animals that one gets from a first visit to a zoo.

On to the photography side of things: We were extremely lucky as we were able to walk around and take photos of these amazing birds of prey, and the various other animals pretty much uninhibited. Thanks to this, I came away with some decent static images of the birds. After this, they flew some of the birds of prey for us. Wildlife photography is hard. I mean really hard. I've never done anything like this before, and found it utterly impossible to focus on the birds fast enough to get any post-worthy shots.

Still, even with this, I took many photos that I am extremely happy with. It was like a month of photographic opportunities compressed into one day. Anyway, here are the results:

Spider Web

2008-09-18T12:16:00.003+02:00

Another from yesterday, in Lough Gur.

Lough Gur

2008-09-17T20:26:00.003+02:00

I haven't felt very motivated this summer - the rain is my excuse. I don't know how much that is actually true, and whether I've just been lazy, but for the kind of photography I usually do - landscape in particular - wet weather just makes things unpleasant and unproductive. Today was one of the first nice days in the last few months, so off I went... I feel very out of practice, which is something I wasn't really expecting. My 'eye' is definitely not working as well as it was a few months ago or last year. Still, it was nice to do something again.

This photo is my first attempt at using the localised corrections in Lightroom 2. I've never used photoshop or any other localised correction programme before, so this was all new to me. I like the results, but not the extra time needed. This will probably look awful to me in a few months anyway.

Water and Rocks

2008-08-26T05:07:00.003+02:00

My last one from Dingle, so now I'll actually have to go out and take more photographs...

Stare

2008-08-17T01:15:00.002+02:00

I've tried insect macro photography before with little success. However, I found this perfect subject. It was big, so I could fill the frame with it, but most importantly, it stayed almost perfectly still for about ten minutes, allowing me to take loads of pictures and experiment with different settings and composition. I even bent grass less than an inch in front of it to get a better shot, and it didn't so much as flinch! I finally overstepped the line when I went off to get a penknife, and tried to chop off some blades of grass which were obscuring its face - it hopped off, almost lazily.

Drying off

2008-08-15T18:58:00.003+02:00

Just a bit of fun: Went to Curraghchase with Coco the dog yesterday, she had a bit of a swim. Unfortunately she doesn't have huge floppy cheeks or ears, which would have made these much more impressive.

Another from Dingle

2008-08-12T17:15:00.002+02:00

Here's another, taken at the same beach and at the same time as the photo in the last post. We left before the sun had fully set, thinking we had got the best of it. On the way home, past Tralee, we were treated to the most stunning red sunset I've ever seen in my life. If we had just stayed twenty minutes longer on the beach, I think I could have taken some of my best photos ever. I was still very happy with what I did take, but if only...

Dingle Peninsula

2008-08-07T00:49:00.004+02:00

I was away at the weekend, which was an unusual break from the norm of working and sleeping (there's an ad on the radio which describes work as a day of back-breaking toil broken up only by periods of mind-numbing boredom, or words to that effect. It's funny, this is exactly how my job could be described! It's like they took the words out of my mouth!

Anyway, here is the first of a few of my photos from a weekend away, largely spent in Dingle. (I've blogged about Dingle before, here if you're interested). However, my favourite photo, the one below, was taken on the way home - still on the peninsula, but more towards Tralee. If you're interested, click through to the photo on Zooomr to see the geo-location data (and sign-up and comment, if you feel so inclined..)

Some Actual New Photos!

2008-07-15T06:41:00.002+02:00

And yet again, my blogging dried up, for various reasons. However, I'm back, baby! Until the next unintended hiatus! Exclamation point!

These were taken in Spanish Point, probably my most frequent photographic subject. I've posted up photos of the place here, here, here, and finally, here. I wouldn't say that Spanish Point is my favourite landscape location, however, I have easy access to it and somewhere to stay nearby. Sometimes, I'm learning, this is equally, or even more important than the beauty of the spot and the skill of the photographer. Plus, I like the fact that I'm building up something of an unintentional 'collection' of photos of Spanish Point, at different times, seasons, and weather conditions. Photos often add up to more than the sum of their parts when viewed all at once. Sometime soon I'll post all my favourites in one post - that's a threat.

Anyway, here you go!

Sorry about all the commas...

By the way, if you click through to the photo hosted on Zooomr, you can view the geolocation data which I added afterwards - if you're interested in knowing where exactly these were taken.

Killaloe

2008-06-15T19:08:00.003+02:00

Spent a couple of hours in Killaloe yesterday. Even in the dull weather it felt like a "Monte Carlo of the somewhere" The west, perhaps, or maybe just Clare. Yachts and fancy houses with their own marinas is the order of the day here, although from the following photos, you wouldn't guess it:

I didn't really intend to photography the more run-down aspect of the Killaloe waterfront, it's just what caught my interest. Age and decay is usually (not always!) more interesting than new and gleaming, in my experience.

Crack-ro

2008-06-11T12:44:00.000+02:00

Anything I Can Muster Up That Isn't Macro

2008-06-06T22:23:00.002+02:00

I did take some more Macro photos today, and as I've repeatedly sworn that I would take a break from it for a while, I'm going to finally excercise some restraint and post something else. So this brings me to Coco - the 'fetch' wunderkind, doing what she does best. These aren't exactly of much artistic value, but one of the things I like about photography is that sometimes that's ok. I can't think of another art form that gives so much joy from work so casually produced. Other art forms are hard: even self-mocking surrealist or post-modernist work is inpenetrable to simple, inartistic people like me. Perhaps the artistic equivalent to the photos below are the cheesy paintings of dogs playing poker, or maybe even the clichéd images of kittens playing with wool on a greeting card. I don't care though. They make me smile.

The weird claw thing holding the ball in the last photo is probably the world's greatest invention. It's a €2 piece of plastic with a claw at the end for picking up the ball. It means no more bending down to pick up the ball, no more hands covered in dog drool, and you can fling it miles with a flick of the wrist.

This week, I 'ave been mostly reading:

2008-06-06T20:35:00.002+02:00

Martin Parr's Best Photography books of 2007
I'm always on the lookout for good photography books. Pity I never actually buy any.

Richard Ross photographs 'Architecture of Authority

Interview with Morgan Silk on the F Stop
With really good information on how he took some stunning photos of US Navy Seals.

10 Mighty Tips for Macro Photography
Actually 10 links to other sites, all in all a crapload of information about the subject.

Mediastorm.org
This isn't new or anything, but it is to me! The site is filled with photo stories about all sort of subjects, made by renowned photojournalists. And the site is beautiful in its own right - it is a stunning piece of web design.

That's about it for this week!

Standby for some photos of Anything I Can Muster Up That Isn't Macro!

Black and White Rose

2008-06-03T19:37:00.002+02:00

I love having a macro lens and a couple of flashes. It means I have almost infinite crap to shoot when the weather is bad, or I'm too lazy to go outside.

Barney the Spartan

2008-06-02T20:29:00.002+02:00

I love you

You love me

We're an ancient Greek city-state known for its military prowess and ruthless efficiency

It even sort of rhymes if you insert a pause just before the very last syllable.

Smoke Photography

2008-05-30T17:35:00.003+02:00

I mentioned earlier that I might try to follow this smoke photography tutorial, and with the absence of anything better to do, and rain outside, I actually did just that.

Usually when I try to do anything with off-camera lighting it's enjoyable, but often incredibly frustrating. Trying to take self-portraits for example, can drive you slightly round the bend - trying to get the lights, exposure and focus right is difficult and a little bit annoying. It's the same with water drops. Focus and timing are a pain.

However, doing this smoke photography has been one of the easiest and most enjoyable and rewarding half-hours in quite some time. Everything actually worked straight away, and I got results that look somewhat like those in the tutorial. Although I didn't have any of the required equipment, I was easily able to find random stuff around the house to fill in. Anyway, here are a couple of my favourite shots. At the end I have posted a couple of pictures of the set-up. I would explain further how I did everything, but the tutorial above does a much better job than I could.

These two have been altered somewhat: I inverted the colours in the GIMP and messed around with the colour balance a bit. The rest are pretty much out of the camera with some curves adjustments made.

Here is the setup. I used a black t-shirt hung over a chair, a cardboard box snoot, a black page of a calendar as a reflector, and yes, that is a tin of sardines holding up the incense. The second photo is a wide-angle shot with the flash firing, to give an idea of what it does. Notice in particular how the snoot stops any light from reaching the black t-shirt in the background.

All in all, that was extremely satisfying. I highly recommend giving it a go, you probably won't have to buy any new equipment and you won't have to leave your house!

This week, I 'ave been mostly reading:

2008-05-30T13:52:00.002+02:00

Here are some interesting articles out of the 400 I have read in the past week, according to Google Reader:

What does the rise of video mean to you?

A very long video by photographer Joe McNally speaking at Google.

The Business of Rock and Roll Photography

Black and White presets and Web Galleries for Lightroom.

Two articles about originality by Chase Jarvis.

Joe McNally talking about some of his favourite photographers, with some great links.

Tutorial on smoke photography - I might actually give this a go later on, stay tuned!

Tag Galaxy: A very cool way to browse pictures in Flickr etc. - you have to take a look at this.

Guy who took a polaroid every day for about 20 years.

'Behind the Lens' with Steve Winter, who explains the logistics of a National Geographic shoot.

I know it might be seem a bit arrogant that little-old-me, by just reposting links of other people's stuff, sometimes second or third hand, could become a valid disseminator of news, but personally I love finding stories from random sources, so hopefully there are others out there who might also enjoy this too. I think that the more cool stories spread, the better.

Enjoy ze weekend!

The Sigma 70-300 f4 - 5.6, or Why I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Crappy Zoom

2008-05-29T01:26:00.005+02:00

One the few purchases was the Sigma 70-300mm f4 - 5.6 Macro. I was still a naive, wet-behind-the-ears photographer, and I thought that a 'zoom lens', even one worth less than €200, would enable me to take stunning photos of hummingbirds in flight, across continents. At night. In the fog. Sitting on the shoulders of a Parkinson's patient. Sadly, it wasn't to be, and as my 'arsenal' of lenses grew modestly, I realised just what a dud this particular one is. It's soft, unless at f8 or above, and nowhere near the end of the zoom. It's slow, the whole way through, to the point where anything taken at speed in less than midday sun will more than likely be blurry. The below represents just about the best I have managed with this lens from a wildlife point of view (the reason I bought it). It was taken at f8 - the only usable f-stop, in extremely bright sunlight, but even so I had to up my ISO to 400 to just barely freeze the action: the shutter speed was 1/320, the minimum needed to stop a bird in flight. It's also not very close: if I went in any closer than 220mm it would have been unusably soft. The fact that the photo is mildly underwhelming is testament to the poor quality of this lens for this type of photography.

So am I just whining, again? No, actually, I have a point, sort of. While this lens is essentially useless for wildlife or fast-moving photography, it does have other uses which I had didn't have in mind when I bought the lens, but have become hugely useful. A slow telephoto is perfect for capturing some slightly different landscape images. When you're sick of the same wide, sweeping shot, a lens like this is perfect for squashing together the perspective of a line of fields or the lines on a beach. It also allows you to isolate details in mountains, for example. For all my complaining about the lens, in fact, it has been on my camera for some of my favourite ever shots. Here are a couple:

This first is one of my all-time favourites. Notice the compressed lines on the beach:

Here's a wider shot taken at the same time. It's just a bit, meh...

Another shot that was boring as a wide-angle. The hedges are all compressed, creating interesting lines again.

Lastly, one of the Swiss Alps. This is that isolating detail business I was talking about...

Eyes to See You

2008-05-28T00:31:00.001+02:00

Well, I thought it was a good title...

St. Nicholas' Church/School, Adare.

2008-05-26T09:00:00.000+02:00

An interesting, foreboding evening sky. An old church with intriguing architectural details. It should be a photographer's dream come true (well, maybe not quite such hyperbole), but for whatever reason, it didn't quite come together. Architectural photography largely eludes me. With most other types of photography I can pre-visualise to a certain extent. I have a catelogue of ideas, gleamed from other photos I've taken, or photos I've seen and admired, which runs through my mind before pressing the shutter. These serve as a platform from which my limited creativity can launch. However, I can't seem to put this into action for photos of buildings.

Well, enough maudlin musings. St. Nicholas' Church is the one opposite the new entrance to the Golf Club on the way into Adare. It's a cool building, and I actually spent my first year of primary school there. I remember little of it, but the terror of climbing its steep stone steps to the tiny classrooms sticks in my mind.

Grass and a Bee

2008-05-23T20:08:00.003+02:00

This week, I 'ave been mostly reading:

2008-05-23T19:28:00.004+02:00

Some stuff I've been reading this week, just wanted to share.

Article about a Wedding photographer who turned into a photojounalist as he was shooting a wedding during the earthquake in China.

Interview with a photographer who took the Vladimir Putin photo for Time's Man of the Year cover.

5 tips for acquiring old cameras.

Canon Professional Network story about a music photographer called John Marshall.

Stuff and a video about the Casio EX-F1 - a camera that shoots at 1200 fps.

Article about the use of in-camera sharpening

Photoshop Disasters

Interesting article on the nature of originality in photography

Have a nice weekend. I'll probably be spamming your RSS reader again shortly with some photos of Adare taken yesterday evening.

Shadow

2008-05-21T17:03:00.000+02:00

Last of the Sunsets - honest

2008-05-19T16:17:00.001+02:00

Well, I think I have milked two evenings in Spanish Point for just about all they were worth now. I had been disappointed that I hadn't taken any landscapes in a long time, as they were the reason I got interested in photography in the first place. Now I think that I need to take a break from them...

Another Landscape

2008-05-18T15:30:00.001+02:00

Spanish Point again.

Coco

2008-05-17T20:56:00.003+02:00

This is Coco, the idiot savant whose talent is 'fetch'. This dog could keep going for days. She also looks like a character from something in this photo, I think it's an imp or something from the Harry Potter films but I'm not sure and Google hasn't cooperated.

This week, I 'ave been mostly reading...

2008-05-16T18:54:00.002+02:00

60 Photography Links You Can't Live Without

Teaching Yourself Photography

Do You Love Your Subjects?

Why it's All About the Glass

10 Best Methods to Take Great Photographs

9 Lighting Types to Harness and Improve Your Photography

Spanish Point Sunsets

2008-05-16T17:06:00.003+02:00

I was in Spanish Point for the past few days, and now I have a backlog of photos to sort and process. It's a great feeling. Here are a few from last night - we were treated to a couple of spectacular sunsets over the past few days. Spanish Point knows how to do sunsets:

Landscapes were my original impetus for taking up photography, but I've never really taken any I was really satisfied with. I always go with a visualisation of the sweeping, haunting vista I'm going to capture, and I always return with disappointment. I suspect it's a combination of things: a lack of an ultra-wide lens, not enough patience, lack of foreground interest. Plain-old being in the wrong place - some locations are just obnoxiously dull. I'm happy enough with these, but I'll keep trying.

I'll probably put some more photos from the break up here in the next few days. Or hours. If I get bored.

Lemon Splashes

2008-05-13T00:30:00.004+02:00

So this is what I was trying to do when the little water monsters appeared. In my continuing efforts to do anything but study for exams, I decided that it would be an excellent idea to try out some more high-speed photography using my flashes. The setup was simple: A bowl of water with a sheet of white paper behind it, and then one flash pointing at a 90 degree angle to the camera, and a second one bouncing off the wall for a bit of fill. I then focussed the lens (Sigma 105mm Macro) using trial and error, which is a bit infuriating but I don't think there's any other way. This is definitely 'proof of concept' (a great term for when something turns out a bit shit...) rather than a finished idea. If I wanted to do this properly, I'd need a larger container, and one that wasn't rounded: this caused a lot of distortion and difficulty focusing. Still, it was fun, and it certainly helped me in my quest to under-perform in my exams! Which is all you could ask for, really.

Little Water People

2008-05-11T23:19:00.004+02:00

These are side-effects from a little experiment I tried, which I'll probably blog about tomorrow.

You had better be swooning in anticipation!

1..
2..
3..

Swoon!

Swoon, I say!

Dandelion Clock

2008-05-10T20:34:00.003+02:00

Decided to try something different. The photo was exported from Lightroom without any changes made, then processed in GIMP image editor. First I ran the 'old photo' script, then painted on some scratches and whatnot using Prowlers grunge brushes. I picked different brushes, and clicked around the image, changing the brush and the opacity all the time until I ended up with something I liked. That's about it!

Some links to photography stuff

2008-05-09T22:59:00.004+02:00

Because this seems to be What One Does On A Friday.

I read an obsessive amount of blog posts. I have, at last count, 236 RSS subscriptions, and I read about 30 or 40 posts a day. Here is some cool stuff I've found over the past couple of weeks. A lot of it is through secondary sources, but I don't really care:

A review of PicLens. I've tried it out, it's incredibly cool. It is a really nice graphical way of viewing pictures on a web page. You should probably download it. Try it out on a couple of Flickr explore pages once you have.

A story about Pascal Dangin, the 'Master Retoucher'. Be warned: it's very long, but very good.

A story about a miniatures photographer.

A video tutorial to make a contact trigger for a flash, with McGuiver-esque levels of primitive equipment (except for the BB gun) This allows you to do precise, high-speed photography. I really want to make one!

A Camera hack for Canon point and shoot cameras, giving them Raw capabilities amongst other things.

A good way to find nice colour combinations for Lightroom web galleries, or anything else which can have a colour combination.

Lastly, a couple more of my photos of the rapeseed field from last Monday:

Have a nice weekend!

Strobist stuff

2008-05-08T22:42:00.006+02:00

I just want to share a few things I have picked up from the wonderful Strobist blog. Mainly in the hope that they'll sink in to my head a bit better if I explain them to a third party - even if it is just the ether of the internets.

Strobist is a website dedicated to teaching people how to use off-camera lighting to make better pictures. I won't attempt to explain it fully, the website does it much better than I ever could - which is understandable, considering everything I've learned comes from there... Seriously, if you have any interest in off-camera lighting, go there and start reading. Even if you don't have an interest, you probably will after reading a couple of posts.

Anyway, one cool technique that I have been messing about with is using off-camera flash outdoors in broad daylight to supplement the sun. Why do this? Well, there are several reasons: to get rid of harsh shadows being the main one. I, however, wanted to use off-camera lighting in the bright light to make my photos 'pop' a little more, and also give some more interesting textures and shadow to my main subject. These first two pictures, while not exactly prize-winning material, have a pleasing '3d' type effect as a result of lighting them with an off-camera flash which has a home-made softbox attached, and at the same time underexposing the background to allow the main subject to stand out. Hopefully seeing the pictures will explain things a bit better:

Using off-camera lighting outdoors also allows me to keep detail in the sky and on my subject at the same time. Without it in this next picture, the sky would probably have been pure white, if I wanted the flowers to be properly exposed:

Lastly, meet my new model, Buddha. Unlike my usual models (friends and family), Buddha doesn't complain if I ask him to to be constantly photographed for twenty minutes. In fact, he spent the entire photo-shoot in a state of transcendental happiness, which did wonders for my self-esteem. Using off-camera light here also allowed Buddha to pop out from the background - I know it's a bit of a dull photo, but it's a cool technique.

Anyway, I know I haven't explained the how at all, but hopefully I've made a bit of a case for why. To summarise: Off-camera lighting is cool, go read Strobist.

Newsflash

2008-05-07T15:08:00.004+02:00

We have entered into a strategic partnership going forward with LimerickBlogger.org, in an attempt to create a synergy with our overlapping demographics.

Well, OK, I asked them to put a link to my blog on their blog...

I've been reading The Limerick Blogger for quite a long time now, and it has the dubious honour of being my most-read subscription in Google Reader - according to the statistics I've read 108 posts over the last 30 days, which is 95% of everything that was posted on the site... It's a great mix of news and features, and there are some excellent photographers posting there too. I highly recommend it! The Limerick Blogger can be found here.

Have some pictures - click on the one below for a slideshow of a few more.

2008-05-06T19:52:00.007+02:00

Backlog of photos, actually being able to go places, weather that isn't rain... Ah, it looks like Summer is finally here! And for the first time, I can drive. Just about...

Driving is funny. I have a feeling that me, and probably most others, are not actually naturally equipped with the skills necessary to operate such an incredibly complicated and dangerous machine. I really don't think that our designers, whoever they were, quite expected us to invent and run such things on a casual, day to day basis. Maybe the occasional superhero, but not everyday people like me. I often knock things, or drop trays. I can barely tie my shoelaces if I get up too early in the morning. I can't play snooker, and while I like car racing in computer games, I spend an irregular amount of time upside-down in a ditch. Hand-eye coordination is something that other people have.

Yet, here I am, hurtling down a road which was probably designed for a horse and cart and an old farmer with a bit of wheat in his mouth strolling alongside it. A road with barely enough room for two cars to pass. And what is giving me this super-human ability? It can only be fear. I spend most of the time with my hands clenched to the steering-wheel, knowing that the slightest movement at the wrong time could end in my propulsion out the windscreen at a speed that the Human Bullet would be envious of. So I don't swerve. And I continue.

So is that it? Are we all driving around in what amounts to (literally) a white-knuckle ride for a couple of hours a day, perhaps just to go to the shop and pick up a litre of milk? Maybe it has receded into the subconscious, but nothing really changes. The slightest mistake can result in catastrophe, whether we've been driving for months or years. Maybe I'll stick to bumper cars and computer games. But I was never really good at them either....

Anyway, after that, I feel I shouldn't talk much about my photos. I drove (myself!) to Kilkenny yesterday. The weather was lovely. I feel I know my camera now. Not the buttons and dials, I've known them for some time. Rather the end result: what will come out dull, what looks great now but will amount to little more than a speck lost in a sea of complication in the final photo. How depth-of-field will enhance or ruin my photos. So that's good, I suppose. Here's to a Summer of Photos.

Click on the picture below for a slideshow of some more, there's only about 10 or so...

Quick note about this picture. When I uploaded it to the computer last night I had a quick play around with the settings in Lightroom. When I took a look at it again today, I thought "geez, what was I thinking? Nobody will believe that was real, it's completely over saturated" So I clicked 'reset'. And nothing changed, it really was this ridiculous.

Just Chillin'

2008-05-03T20:02:00.003+02:00

Because sometime, spiders need to kick back too.

Lantern

2008-05-01T13:55:00.001+02:00

Nothing spectacular, but I must say I like the cool blue light.

Purple Flower

2008-04-30T11:50:00.004+02:00

Salad

2008-04-29T22:23:00.010+02:00

Some salad. I've never tried food photography before.

2008-04-26T16:26:00.004+02:00

Taking pictures of bugs is difficult. I think I'm getting used to the camera settings, and having off-camera flash makes it much easier (I'm not sure I'd manage at all without it) Even so, using manual flash settings, manual exposure and manual focus is quite a challenge for me!

The main problem though is composition - having only a second or so to take a picture means I pretty much take whatever I get. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from earlier today. It's great what you can find in your back garden!

Must. Start. Blogging. Again

2008-04-22T19:23:00.003+02:00

DISCLAIMER: The following post is long and probably boring. So don't be angry at me if you read it all and hate it.

Well, it has been the longest ever interval between posts in the short and troubled history of my blog. It's been so long, in fact, that I haven't the foggiest idea what a blog actually is anymore. I just have a strange compulsion to enter words into this here text-box and click on the 'publish post' button...

I need to ease myself into this slowly, like a patient recuperating after being unable to walk for some time. Nothing dramatic happened - I just got lazy and busy in equal measure, and found myself with less and less to say and no inclination to say it.

I think when I began, I had a purpose: to write something about my experiences with photography and a strange new place which I would remember over time. Then, returning home from Geneva, I moved in a new direction. I was a learner, and filled with the enthuiasm that one has when faced with a new and exciting field of knowledge, waiting to be explored. I learned new things about photography, which had a huge impact on my experiences of taking photos, on a daily basis. I wanted to share this with the world.

While I still have, of course, an enormous and infinite amount to learn, and still come across new stuff on a regular basis, the initial period of acquiring knowledge has slowed to a steady trickle - the dam burst, the flood washed over, and the regular river is all that flows now. This gave me less impetus to post. My enthusiasm for posting has subsided greatly. As I am now more-or-less comfortable with techniques, when I post a photo it is now, from my point of view, open to raw criticism. I can't dismiss criticism by excusing my faults by way of a lack of knowledge.* Now, my photos, for me this is, should be judged by how they are composed rather than if they are in focus. The quality of the lighting rather than the correct shutter speed and aperture. This is ever so slightly terrifying, but, there is more. I have a morbid fear of becoming self-absorbed. I have swore that this would not become a "what I did today..." type of blog. I could justify posting beforehand as it helped me to learn. Now that I have that bit more confidence, I find it more difficult to write, afraid of appearing arrogant. This blog is not now so much of a learning process for me, rather I wish to publish it for the outside world for the very first time. And that is were the real fear is.

Several photography-related things have happened to me since Christmas. There has been new gear: Two manual flashes and some radio triggers, with which I have been practising off-camera flash, mainly through the Strobist website. This has opened up a new and fascinating area for me, which I will hopefully write about here as I learn more. The publisher of the Strobist blog, David Hobby, has an infectious writing style. Read a couple of his posts and I almost guarauntee that you will, no matter how you felt before, agree that the coolest and most important thing that you can possibly do is to start using off-camera flash. I also bought a second hand Sigma 105mm f2.8 Macro. This is a lens that is so sharp and contrasty that is makes anything look good. It's astonishing, really. It has also opened me up to a new world, that which we do not see without really looking. The second thing that happened was getting short-listed in the amateur section of the World Photography Awards for this photo:

I didn't win anything, but my photo was one of 50 out of 25,000 entries. I was stunned, and although it was probably a one-off, I think I can ride on the encouragement it gave me for at least a couple of years.

Well, I said I would ease myself into this, and I have failed miserably. Before I finish, I'm just going to make a note of a couple of 'resolutions' which I will try and follow with regards to this blog:

1) I will try and post more than once a week.

2) If I don't have anything to say, or time to say it, I will still post photos if I have taken any.

3) Fear of embarrassment/appearing arrogant/self-absorbed will not put me off.

That'll do.

Here are some photos of the last couple of months, in no particular order:

Some actual photos!

2007-12-15T16:00:00.000+01:00

Sadly I haven't picked up my camera for quite a long time now; essays, exams and even (shock,horror!) work has got in the way. I also have a feeling that having ordered a couple of flashes and wireless triggers from ebay has given me some sort of unconscious 'excuse' not to take any photos. I'll just wait until the flashes come. Sure there's no point in trying until I have all the equipment... I have to stop it though! In the meantime, I did finally pick up the camera, and took a few pictures of the Christmas tree. Nothing spectacular, but at least it's something.

My 'studio'

2007-11-08T20:13:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm finally back, and yet again the pangs of guilt over my neglected blog overcome me. I'm quite excited about the following photos. They are of an mp3 player. And a Swiss Army Knife.

Why am I excited? Has the stress of two-essays-and-two-presentations-all-in-the-space-of-one-week-oh-dear-god-what-am-I-going-to-do caused my brain to melt into a pile of slush? Well possibly, but that's not why I'm excited about these. These mundane photos represent the future... The future, I tell you!

This is the first time I've ever attempted to use manipulate light to my advantage. It's something that I have been interested in for a while. Nearly all of the best photos you have ever seen contain two things: photoshoppery, and manipulation of light using flashes. Granted, these humble efforts are far from being included in such a list, but the important thing is that I tried. And the results? Far better than I could have expected.

This was the set-up. My studio, if you will... Stop sniggering - a man has to start somewhere! That unassuming piece of tinfoil in the lower right corner? That was held on front of my flash, so that the light would bounce off the piece of paper balanced precariously on the top and diffuse the harsh shadows and uneven lighting with a direct flash.

You're still laughing - or at least raising your eyebrows in bemusement. I asked you to stop, remember?

So, what happens if you pop up the flash, point the camera at the subject, and shoot? This hideousity:*

Or this:

Yeuch. Not much more to say about that.

And with my Super Advanced Super Studio SetUp TM?:

Prepare to bask in the glory of this:

and:

Okay, so they're not exactly Ansel Adams-esque. But I'm proud of them. And hopefully this is just the beginning - the next step is people. And then.... The World!

* Yes it's a word!!! Tsk!**

** No, no it's not...

Just one picture...

2007-10-10T18:52:00.000+02:00

I took this in the same place as the photos in the last post were taken, but only realised I liked it after I had made that post. It needed quite a lot of 'photoshopping' (in inverted commas because I actually use The GIMP and Lightroom) to make everything black & white except for the red, and then I replaced the sky with another one because the original sky was completely white and very boring. I constantly look over my old pictures that I didn't see anything in the first time around. There's plenty of rough, but the occasional diamond.

Autumn in Adare Manor

2007-10-08T01:22:00.000+02:00

I like autumn. All those hues of orange and red. Not having to get up so early to see the sun rise, and not having to stay out to late to watch it set. Cool, but sunny afternoons. The return to the cycle after hectic summers. I mostly like it because it has allowed me for the first time in while, to just post up some pictures with no whinging. I like when things are back to normal...

Click on the photo below for a slideshow.

The Evil Eyes

2007-10-03T23:41:00.000+02:00

My cat is, by all accounts, a perfectly pleasant cat. It's not a scraggy, old, flea-ridden mog. She's got quite beautiful long black and white fur. She's got a normal cat face - free from blemishes or disfigurements. You could even go so far as to say that she's a rather cute looking cat.

The thing is though, I don't really like her. She's kind of annoying. She runs away every time you go anywhere near her, or god forbid, try to pet her or pick her up. She has an incredibly annoying habit of miaowing constantly if you go out into the back garden, even though there doesn't appear to be anything bothering her and she has plenty of food and whatever else cats need.

She's also quite an effective killer. Every couple of days, she presents us with a freshly killed mouse, or bird, and recently, an impressively large fish from our pond. Behind the façade of the cute face and gentle demeanour, there is a killer lurking, one with all the cold efficiency of a deadly assassin.

None of this was on my mind when I went into our back garden recently to take a few pictures of the cat. I was actually thinking the opposite: I just wanted to get a few cute pictures of the cat because I hadn't taken anything in a while and I had a free model who couldn't really object. I intended to take flattering pictures because I thought it would be good practise for taking pictures of other living things, namely humans.

But flattering pictures was not what I ended up with, at least, that's what I think of them. While taking them and particularly while post-processing them, I ended up with photos that look like the cat is plotting to take over a small country in South America, or perhaps point a giant gun from space and hold the world at ransom. In one picture, somebody commented that she looked like "Batman's cat", and Batman, while certainly not evil, definitely has a sinister, gothic look about him. I suppose it's all that black.

I think this says some really interesting things about photography, and how the person behind the lens can influence the picture and use it to create their own representation of something, rather than a faithful rendition of something in the world; be it a landscape or a portrait of a person, or as I've found out, even a cat. Clearly my less-than-flattering feelings shone through to the photos, and whether I wanted to or not made no difference. Honestly, I made no conscious decision to take sinister or dark photos, nor did I mean to post-process them to make them even darker. I just found myself doing it. One picture I converted to black and white, and using a layer mask I painted the eyes back into colour. I did it just because I thought it might look cool. The picture I chose just because her eyes were widest in it. This is what I ended up with:

Pretty evil, eh? Here are a couple of pictures that I posted earlier in the week of the cat, taken at the same time as this one:

So that's that. The next time somebody takes a photo of you, study the results very carefully. They might just think you're the next Bond villain. Or Batman.

God I wish I was Batman...

Reluctant model

2007-09-27T22:20:00.000+02:00

I was going to shoot Declan O'Rourke tonight. Yes, I know what you're thinking: "that's a bit mean!" you exclaim. But hilariously, I didn't actually mean shoot him with a gun, but with a camera! At his gig! I know, I know, I should be a comedian and make lots of money...

Anyway, I checked everything. I was hoping to get some into the college paper or magazine. I checked my lens for dirt. My battery for charge. My ISO. My ISO again. My ISO yet again. Centre-weighted metering, AF-S, and any other acronym I could think of I checked. But then I got on the bus, got half way to the University just to find out that it was cancelled. Sigh. On the plus side, I did go the whole way around the bus route in a great big circle for the first time in my life. That was pretty amazing.

So instead of what hopefully would have been decent photos of Declan O'Rourke singing, I'm going to treat you to some photos of my cat taken earlier in the day. I've never really liked cats - our ones in particular. I don't know whether it's the air of superiority and disdain, or the fact that they spend every waking moment futilely trying to sneak into the house. I mean jeez, get a hobby! Go out and meet people, join a club or society! Gawd.

My reluctant model today was our aptly-named mog Fuzz, who gave me bemused, almost pitying looks as I took her photo. She stretched a bit, and then with all the enthusiasm of a potato, strolled away from me as one might casually leave a bad dinner party, or some other minor annoyance. Slight curiosity for a time, and then nothing.

As usual, click the photo below to be whisked to a Gallery of Earthly Delights.

Anti-speeding adverts

2007-09-22T15:41:00.000+02:00

Apparently we're pretty bad here in lovely ol' Ireland for speeding and road traffic accidents and of course drink-driving, and the government have produced some pretty shocking television ads promoting safer driving. However, I've never seen something like this before, and I must say I'm pretty impressed. It's innovative, to say the least. I came in on Monday morning to the University of Limerick where I study, and was suprised to see a crashed car at the front gates. On closer inspection, it turned out to be an ad promoting safer driving and asking drivers to slow down. There are another two similar 'displays' in other parts of the campus. The cars are covered in graffiti-style slogans urging people to slow down - probably to appeal to the 'kids', but it also means (whether intentional or not) it takes longer to recognise that these are not genuine crashed cars, increasing the impact of them.

The cars look genuine; they have stickers from a recycling company nearby so presumably they were sourced from there, but whether or not they are actually as a result of car crashes I don't know (I would assume that it's unlikely, both for legal reasons and for the risk of upsetting families) It's still most definitely impressive. Any advertising that surprises you and makes you look twice is bound to have an impact, and in this case it's even better because it's for a good cause. And now, some pictures!

As an aside, I made the age-old error (well, since digital came in anyway) of forgetting to check my ISO before taking the pictures, resulting in these all being shot at 1600. Oh well, luckily the exposure was ok - I don't think they look too noisy.

The Cult of Leica

2007-09-19T15:38:00.001+02:00

My poor, abandoned, malnourished blog. Nothing but filler and experimentation for a few weeks. I promise I'll return to love you again soon; I'll re-hydrate you virtual soil with the water of amateur-ish photos. I'll feed you with the fertiliser of badly written rants. And then, my friend, your seeds will re-sprout, and you will blossom once again with the flowers of more than five page views a day. Oh, the memories! In the meantime, I really want to share this fantastic article I just read about Leica cameras. I want one, oh yes I do...

In order to not have to delete you, as per my promise, I went and took some photos to upload. The things I do for you! I hope you appreciate it.

Click on this following photo to go to a web gallery:

They may not look like much, but I'm actually quite excited. By placing one lens on front of the one on my camera, I can focus extremely close up. It's not exactly ideal, but it's fun and it lets me see stuff from a different perspective. Expect more of this poor-quality nonsense over the coming weeks.

The Sky at Night

2007-09-15T03:09:00.000+02:00

Here's a couple of photos taken over the past year or so of the moon and the stars. This is in no way connected to the fact that I just figured out how to host fancy galleries for free and want to use it...

Click on the image to go to the gallery.

Nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop...

2007-09-11T18:53:00.000+02:00

After spending a couple of glorious days in Kerry - soaking up the only sun of the entire frickin' summer, I'm increasingly convinced that I have reached a potentially dangerous plateau with my photography. The last year has been largely exhilarating; learning new techniques, in the camera and afterwards in post-processing, as well as rules and tips about exposure and composition. And it worked. I'm not an amazing photograper - I probably never will be - but I'm almost immeasurably better than I was this time last year. Looking back at old photos is (sometimes painful!) proof of this.

However, the whiny emo at the back of my mind is finally telling me that my best stuff may be behind me; I reached my level and this is where it stays, ridiculous though this may be for somebody who has only taken photography seriously for less than a year. I've spoken previously about how my will to learn new techniques drives me forward and motivates me to take photos, and even though I view this as to some extent negative, an even worse scenario is one where I don't feel I can learn anything at all.

Perhaps I've just reached a stage where I am a technically competent photographer. Perhaps it is time to learn other, more important skills; how to think creatively and how to 'see' a photo before putting your eye to the viewfinder. I'm also extremely interested in the other side of the lens - controlling lighting and in some cases subjects. Skills I certainly don't possess at the moment. While I realise I have much to learn, I have a feeling I'll never get that concrete satisfaction you get from seeing an obvious, indisputable improvement in your work.

Gear is another issue; Somehow I feel that acquiring new stuff could be the key to moving off this plateau and back to an upwards slope in my photography, despite the irrational argument here. I have an almost painful lust for an ultra wide-angle lens (the Sigma 10-20mm), and although I try not to, I often think that it will be the answer to all my problems. Which it won't be. As it could be a long, long time before I can afford even that inexpensive piece of kit, I'll have to make do with what I have and not let it make me complacent and lazy.

After that musing, I should probably post some photos (the first time I post something without photos I will probably delete this blog - I'm bad enough as it is) As I mentioned above, I was in Kerry for a few days last week; one of the most glorious places on earth in good weather: one of the most miserable in bad. Luckily we had the former. Despite the weather, I came away with fewer 'keepers' than I was hoping for. It's difficult to make time for photography when you go away with one other person, but that's a subject for another day... Without further ado, some photos. Click on the image below to go to a slideshow of my favourite images.

The Ultimate Collector

2007-09-05T13:48:00.000+02:00

Another short post, this time by time limitation rather than design. The man who owns the apartment in the following photos is fascinating; one of the best photo subjects I've ever come across. He has an interesting, time-weathered face, a head of shockingly red dyed hair, and the most amazing apartment I've ever seen. He collects everything. Absolutely anything. His living room is like some kind of deranged museum. Personally, I would go a little bit insane living here, but he obviously gets a lot of joy out of it.

He could charge people to come in and take photos of it. I would have stayed there all day.

Some Macro

2007-08-29T19:07:00.000+02:00

I really like macro photography too. I'd love to be able to get in closer, however. My 70-300 'macro' telephoto zoom can get decent photos of full flowers, but what I really want is more abstract compositions.

Someday I'll get a proper macro lens or some extension tubes!

Pigeon

2007-08-29T18:57:00.000+02:00

I like pictures of pigeons. I think they need unusual composition and some of their 'natural habitat' - the city:

Also, this is my shortest update ever! Woohoo!

Kinvarra and Fanore

2007-08-25T15:21:00.000+02:00

Some more photos taken - thankfully - so I can stop whinging about photography for a little while. Or maybe not. Again I wasn't particularly happy with my lot, and I still have the sinking feeling that I'm regressing rather than progressing with this photography business. I love landscape photography. It might be cheesy, or perhaps even in the main non-artistic, but it certainly is a craft, one that can to a certain extent be mastered through hard-work, perseverance and of course creativity. It usually gives tangible results; you can look at yours or other's work and to some degree say "that is good" or "that is bad". It relies slightly less on taste - at least as far as recognising the skill and talent that went into a particular photo.

My problem is in 'seeing' the picture well before I take it, and specifically, getting to the right location at the right time to take the picture. My trip to Fanore had all the right elements: we were by the coast in one of the most beautiful locations in Ireland. The sun was setting over the sea - it wasn't a completely clear evening, so there were dramatic hues and shapes in the clouds and sky. Further down the coast, well within reach, was the famous cliffs of Moher. All in all a landscape photographers dream.

All very well, but it's all useless if you don't know where to go. We drove too far, for too long, and it eventually got to the stage where you need to leave the car and just get the hell out and take photos. But why? I knew I hadn't found a good place, and I've taken a million sunset pictures before - no need for more boring ones - they need something else now. The act of taking photos was just a reflex; just going through the motions to prevent all the driving from having been in vain. Here are the 'results':

Interestingly, on the way home we came across this little valley steeped in fog:

Personally I don't think the photo does it justice; It was too dark by the time we got there, and the valley was completely in shadow while the sky was still quite bright. It was also far thicker than it looks on camera. I love fog - someday I'll take good photos in it!

Well, that's all. Hopefully my next post will be 100% whinge free!

Moment of Clarity

2007-08-19T01:15:00.000+02:00

I was going to write a post with a couple of pictures - nothing special, but mainly as a celebration of how I had overcome a (fairly) lengthy period of photographer's block. But, I just had a slight epiphany while out smoking a cigarette so I felt I should commit it to virtual paper while it's still fresh in my mind.

I was thinking, as one does, about the reasons why I enjoy photography, and came to a somewhat depressing realisation, which may or may not be entirely true but certainly made me think. I've noticed a certain pattern in the way I take photos and my motiviation behind them. I spend a lot of time looking at photos I admire, and trying to emulate the ideas and techniques behind them. This I have no problem with - I think it's something everyone does and it is probably the best way to learn the craft.

My epiphany revolves around the way I do this, however. As I try to emulate these pictures, I will often try it out as a 'proof of concept'; I will attempt to take a certain type of picture, and even when I don't entirely succeed I am happy if I think that I have got the basic technique right and with a little more effort, or perhaps the right conditions, I could take a picture 'just as good' as the one which I am copying.

I think this probably started with those long-exposure water shots. I always wondered how they were done before I bought a digital SLR and was using a completely automatic point and shoot camera, and it was one of the first techniques I tried to copy when I bought my Nikon D50. I had some success, then read up on filters and bought a cokin filter set with an ND filter. Even though I haven't taken any photo of flowing water that I am particularly happy with, I am satisifed that I have the technique mastered, and unfortunately this has subconsciously made me think that this is ok - it's as if just believing that I could take a picture as good as one I have seen somewhere that impressed me is all I need to do. The picture itself has never materialised and up until now this didn't really bother me.

If the above situation was a one-off, then perhaps I wouldn't be worrying so much and writing a blog post whining about it, but the more I think about it the more examples I can think of. The following picture is a particularly good example:

As you can probably see, this picture is nothing special. However, it's perfectly indicative of my problem. I was always interested in taking photos of star lines, having looked at and admired many photos of the night sky with amazing circles of stars taken over a period of a couple of hours. So I researched what I needed - a tripod, a full battery, a wide-ish angle lens, a light-pollution free sky. I tried a couple of times with little success; I didn't realise just how bright the sky around cities is, or how much of a drain on batteries long exposures are. Finally, I was somewhere dark enough to take a picture, and I tried it out. I left the shutter for about half and hour or so, and got this. It wasn't very good, but I thought that if I had just left the shutter open longer, and perhaps composed the picture a little bit better, then I could have taken a picture just as good as those I admired. Again, unfortunately, the picture never materialised. This was enough.

Again, my infra-red pictures followed this pattern. I looked at photos. I read up on filters, which lenses didn't produce hotspots, and how to post-process the pictures. Eventually, after many failed attempts, I finally produced some pictures like these, which I blogged about in my last post:

I'm repeating myself now, but again, I wasn't happy with the picture as a whole - I don't think it has anything special. But, yes you guessed it - I was happy enough to leave it at that.

It's the same for others. Those ubiqutous long-exposure, sunset-and-rocks photos, the photos of a huge sun reflecting on the water, the list goes on. It's hard to believe that I've only just realised what I have been doing all this time, and worryingly, if this trend continues, I'll run out of techniques to try and stop having fun (I can't deny that I enjoy what I do - no matter what the problems are with it) That would be a disaster.

So I'm drawing a line in the sand. I'm going to take an infra-red picture that is as strong compositionally as it is technically. I'll do the same for good ol' sunset-water-and-rocks, and I'll take a well-composed picture of proper circular star lines. This post will remind me why I'm doing it, and I won't rest until I've posted at least one good example of everything I've tried. I've 'mastered' the proof of concept, now it's time for the real thing.

It's infra-red, but not as I knew it...

2007-07-30T15:05:00.000+02:00

I've tried this before. Infra-red photography intrigues me; the chance to turn the familiar and cliched into the strange and interesting is intoxicating. But it never works out. I've followed tutorials to the letter, I've tried playing about just about every button (even the ones I don't understand!) in Adobe Lightroom but nothing ever looked anything like the sort of stuff that I saw on the internet. I was in Kinvara, in North Clare over the weekend, and the shots I got finally looked at least a little bit like those I've seen before. Here's a couple:

Ignore the hot-spots - I desperately need a wide-angle lens that doesn't do this, the 18-55mm kit lens is notorious for the blue spots in some of the pictures.

While infra-red is fun, especially when the results come out the way you wanted them, I wonder if it could make me a bit lazy. I don't have 'normal' versions of any of these pictures but I would imagine they would be somewhat underwhelming. The trippy and interesting colours take the focus, and to my eye anyway they take it at the expense of the usual things that draw one into a photo. It's fun, but I doubt it'll ever be more than a novelty for me.

I didn't just take infra-red photos, there was a pretty astonishing sunset that evening - the upshot of the crazy weather we've had recently. One of these days I'm going to stop myself taking pictures of sunsets on beaches, but the quality of the results compared to the rest of my stuff makes it too tempting to stop just yet...

Galway Street Performance

2007-07-21T00:42:00.000+02:00

I've blogged recently bemoaning my lack of ability to take pictures of people, so I won't go into that again in detail but there was an observation I wanted to get off my chest and I guess here's the place...

Every year Galway, normally a vibrant, fun town, goes just a little bit more mental. For two weeks at the end of July the city is host to what is probably Ireland's best Arts Festival. Galway is perfect for this; art has always pervaded the culture and the spirit of the place, and its regular citizens, blow-ins and tourists alike embrace and enjoy this spirit - indeed, it makes Galway what it is. (something I'd like to talk about one day, but not here)

Galway puts on a splendid show: besides the organised events, the main street in Galway, Shop Street, is host to an astonishing density of buskers and street entertainers for the two weeks (at the best of times one is never more than 20 or 30 feet from a busker, but this distance probably halves for the duration of the Arts Festival. The quality ranges from the mundane to the inspired, but even the most uninteresting of the entertainers add to the incredible atmosphere you can't help but notice walking down the street. It's easy to lose yourself in it, and think you are in Paris or London, in the middle of a teeming metropolis rather than the reality, which is a small town of sixty thousand people - the last outpost of 'civilisation' in Western Europe.

Anyway, I had a point here somewhere, and I'll strive to return to it. Shop Street for the couple of weeks of the Arts Festival would be a haven for somebody interested in candid people photography. Even me, with my stunted ability for whatever reason, can at least try - taking pictures of strangers bothers and scares me greatly, less so buskers on the street, and much less so again people like the one in the photos below. There's something about face paint or a costume, that puts a great barrier between the photographer and its subject. Probably a pain for somebody more skilled or brave, for me it allows a welcome disassociation and allows me to take a photo without thinking that this is a real person who may be guarded about their image or privacy.

When somebody's very act is visual, it's much easier to take photos. Even with a musician, while obviously I wouldn't be afraid to listen to their act, I would still feel slightly uncomfortable taking their photo because they have not explicitly put their image, just their music in the spotlight. People dressed up, such as human statues, or other visual art, such as dancers or jugglers, invite pictures as much as they invite you to look. This is great for me. While the pictures below (yes, this rant will end soon, and their will be pictures!) aren't amazing - they don't show anything extra-ordinary or great emotion, they at least allow me to practise ,without fear, the techniques of portrait photography. So amen to that.

It's a funny old game...

2007-07-16T01:18:00.001+02:00

...This photography stuff. You can get up at dawn, take a taxi across town and spend about two hours in the freezing cold just to take photos as part of a carefully executed plan and end up with nothing; you can walk or hike for hours and come away with photos that are infinitely underwhelming. Or, you can be eating a nice meal in a restaurant, go out the back door for a cigarette, and take some of your favourite photos of the year:

I like to think that my photography isn't pure serendipity; that order, reason and skill take precedence over blind luck - but this is a position that I find increasingly hard to defend when I have moments like this (I'm not being vain or anything - I don't think these photos contain the work of a genius or anything remotely close, I just happen to be personally proud of them)

They also illustrate to me how much the weather controls my photography, of my main interest, landscapes, at least. This is of course part of luck, and somewhat frustrating. For somebody like me at least, who unfortunately doesn't have the skill to take good landscape photo in the most seemingly drab conditions, it makes planning photo outings - the most enjoyable way of taking photos that I like - something of a hit-and-miss affair.

Oh well, I suppose I'll have to learn to live with it - there are of course things I can do to increase my chances of success. One lesson which I have certainly learned by this is that I should carry my camera everywhere, and a tripod if possible (these images are slightly blurry because they were handheld at a very long focal length) It is also gratifying to think that there was at least some skill involved; I didn't have to take the pictures the way they are - that bit at least wasn't pure luck. A healthy dose of each is needed, but I'm beginning to think that the luck factor is of more importance than I previously thought.

Spanish Point

2007-07-12T21:49:00.001+02:00

Spanish Point is becoming a bit of a regular photography subject for me, but it's got more to do with the ease of getting there than the landscape itself. This time I was there for the hilariously titled "Willie Week", a week-long festival of traditional Irish music and hard drinking. It's OK, but it definitely doesn't get my heart racing. Here's a couple that I took earlier in the week:

And that was that. I'm starting to realise that there is something really obviously lacking in my photos, and that is people. I have a massive problem taking pictures of people; they always seem to come out wrong, no matter how hard I try. Taking landscapes is easy - I can experiment with different settings and take a lot of pictures of the same scene, especially with digital.

As I become more picky about the quality of light and time of day I take these pictures, that time is shrinking but it's still aeons compared to just one or two chances you get with a portrait. For some reason I find it incredibly hard. Just having one or two goes to take a pictures isn't enough for me yet, and I've got a bad feeling it's going to be a long time before it is. I've read at least as much, if not more about portrait photography as I have about landscape in an attempt to rectify my problem, and while I can (I think) see my landscape stuff going on at least a slow upward curve, the same is not true for the former.

This didn't really bother me up until now. I didn't want to photograph people; our beauty is nothing compared to nature's, for me at least. But I'm starting to realise that pictures need something - something to draw people to, with which they can relate to, and that in many cases is other people; so many of the famous photographs that my limited knowledge is aware of contain people's faces, expressions of joy, sorrow and anger are universal and will nine times out of ten affect us as a viewer so much more than a beautiful but vacant landscape scene.

Maybe someday it'll come, or maybe someday it won't. Perhaps I'll always photograph nature and stay away from people. And I might be happy - and get over this current disappointment. There's something a bit galling about looking back on years of photography in the future and not having one nice picture of people I know!

Salthill Airshow 2007

2007-07-09T01:05:00.000+02:00

It's been a while since this has happened but it was definitely one of my favourite photography outings of the year, with probably the best haul of decent photos in one day I've ever had. - I probably wouldn't have enjoyed if it wasn't for the opportunity to take photos, not for moral reasons or anything like that, it's just that the spectacle seemed surprisingly mundane despite the best efforts of the obviously talented performers. Even though I've always been delighted by such things as planes and other boy-in-man's-body sort of stuff, I found myself strangely bored and unmoved by the display. Still though, taking photos was hugely enjoyable; another re-affirmation of the reasons why I photograph and why I'm continually interested and enjoy it. (Well that sentence was a bit of a meal, wasn't it?)
I was worried about the performance of my humble camera - I've tried to take pictures of fast-moving subjects in the air before this (mainly birds), and to say that the results were underwhelming would be a massive understatement - I've never got a decent picture of a bird in flight, a type of photo I mistakingly thought I would be churning out on a regular basis when I first bought by DSLR. However, I experimented a bit with the settings on the camera and using a combination of 'closest subject' focus, and continual rather than servo focus mode I managed to catch the planes flying by more often than not.

And that was probably the most technical sentence I'll ever write, long-winded and badly structured as it was.

The event itself could have been a photography nightmare; constantly changing light, thunderous downpours and drab, cloudy skies could have ruined both my photos and more importantly, my camera. Luckily there were periods of sun in between the waves of rain, and having dramatic clouds rather than a clear blue sky actually helped matters rather than hinder. As I wrote above, I was immensely happy with my crop of photos, and here they are:

New Camera (sort of)

2007-06-17T22:23:00.000+02:00

It's probably an awful thing to admit too, but I've never taken a photo on film that hasn't been from a disposable camera. I'm probably part of the first generation of fairly serious hobbyist photographers for whom this is the case. All this is going to change, however, as now I have access to, and part-ownership of, a beautiful old film SLR - a Pentax ME. Behold its might!:

Ok, that's not the most informative picture, but I want to build up the suspense slowly, so by the time the camera is fully revealed you will be weeping at its beauty and lauding me as the bestest blogger writer on the Whole World Web. Here's a slightly more informative picture, but it is in black and white and a close-up, so it's still 'arty' and 'cool':

Pretty, huh? Here's the last one, because I need to get this over with so I can buy cigarettes before the shop closes:

I'm largely terrified of it: I have no idea how to take photos successfully, and it's very difficult to fathom not being able to review your picture immediately afterwards to see if it's ok. Thinking about the camera has really led me to gain a new respect for photographers who use film - imagine being so good and confident in your ability that you could take just one or two exposures for every shot, perhaps knowing that this could be the only time you will experience the moment? Digital has taken all the risk and suspense out of the craft, something of course helpful but at the same time it is sad to see it go. Never again will there be an extraordinary event such as happened when Robert Capa's photos of the D-Day landings were almost ruined, but resulted in some of the most iconic imagery of the 20th Century. For me photography will always be about perfection and confidence, and no matter how much I use a film camera, digital will still be my medium - I'd be kidding myself if I thought any different. Oh well, I'll just have to embrace it!

Onto the camera itself - what struck me first was the the looks of the body (did I mention it's pretty) I really love that style, it makes my new-fangled Nikon D50 look cheesy and uncouth. I think any camera produced up until the mid-eighties had this timeless style, something now long lost for mainstream cameras. Unfortunately the lens is far too bulky, but seems to be of good quality - it's a very useful zoom range and has a great widest aperture: 1/2.8. This is something that can be easily fixed, however, as brilliantly I can buy a brand new Pentax lens and it will work perfectly on this camera.

The last thing that struck me was the quality of the viewfinder - it's large and bright. It's a real pity that they don't put these on cheaper DSLR's today, although I suppose 90% of the people using these cameras aren't going to manually focus and that is the main reason for needing one.

Hopefully someday I'll put up some photos I've taken with it!

Dingle Dangle

2007-06-09T18:05:00.000+02:00

For the first time I actually feel slightly disheartened that nobody reads my blog - it's getting difficult to motivate myself to write anything when really it doesn't exist. I had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend in Dingle, with superb weather and of course a spot of photography. My only regret is that I didn't get a chance to take photos in 'nice' light - no dawn or dusk for me. Still though, I took a few photos I was quite happy with:

Oh well, I'll persevere, and hope that somebody enters the forest that is my Internet, and hears the posts, falling like trees in the wind of my consciousness. Or something.

All (fairly) quiet on the photographic front

2007-05-27T20:20:00.001+02:00

I haven't had the time or inclination to take many photos recently, but there were a few fantastic night-time skies, and I did spend an hour or so with my telephoto lens and the wireless remote, trying to take pictures of the moon. It's hard. You need absolute stillness, and although I figured my shutter speeds were fast enough, I never took into consideration the movement of the moon which is massively magnified when you use long lenses. Even though the pictures looked crystal clear on the LCD, they were disappointingly soft when transferred onto the laptop. Here is the only one I was reasonably happy with, and even this required great sharpening and cropping.

Astrophotography is like this great white elephant in the corner of the room that I refuse to acknowledge the existence of. I know I'd love it. I also know that I don't need any more equipment, other than a simple device made out of a couple of pieces of wood and a bolt, and a stopwatch. I used to think that photographing 'deep sky' stuff was a question of great magnification, but in fact what you need is lots and lots of time to collect enough light to bring these things out. I can feel that this sort of photography is within my reach, and I can already imagine the shivers of excitement that I'd get when successful for the first time.

I also know that it might drive me utterly, irreversibly, insane. Astrophotography involves stuff that my brain was not programmed for, such as Hard Sums, and Following Instructions Properly. Even trying to follow the instructions for something that is supposedly simple, calibrating an equatorial mount, drives me just a little bit mental. It's frustrating that something so incredible is within my reach, but at the same time quite far.

The only other photo I put up on Flickr recently was this one:

This was actually taken a few months ago. I never delete any photos. Ever. Even blurry, out of focus, boring photos that were just taken at the spur of the moment and have to real meaning. This isn't because I think I might use them, but I think more just a natural instinct that I have as a hoarder; I subscribe to the timeless fallacy of the hoarder, that "it might come in handy one day". Well for once it did. This shot, in colour dull and lifeless, sort of appeals to me in black and white. I saw it while looking over some old pictures, and when I turned it into black and white, it instantly looked miles better. You can make out the nice lighting of the trees, their long shadows due to the fact that it was taken late in the evening. The figure on the right, just out-of-place when in colour, takes on something of an ethereal quality when the picture was transformed. I think if I saw this picture I would be fairly impressed.

But is it art? Probably not. I didn't intend to take the picture that eventually emerged; I must be honest with myself about that. It's technically bad, as it was taken in bad light without a tripod. I didn't see it as a black and white picture at the time, nor did I think about the effect the 'figure' would have on the photo. Still though, it may not be art, but I know what I like. Even if it wasn't an intentional moment of artistic inspiration, I think that the fact that I saw it and realised its potential at some point means that I must be getting somewhat better at this photography malarkey.

Sunsets, dogs and Torc Waterfall

2007-05-10T02:22:00.000+02:00

There's somthing about the sun. There's something about snow, but there's also definitely something about the sun. Especially for an asthmatic smoking moron for whom coughing and spluttering seems like an inextricable part of life. Then the sun comes along and warms places that I didn't even know could be warmed, and stays. Waking up every morning with the sense, even before the eyes are opened, that it's going to be another perfect, blue-sky day, knowing that at least for the moment I can breathe like ordinary people. And of course it's great for photography too; crisp, clear colours, shutter-speeds as fast as you like, being able stay outdoors in comfort for hours and no danger of the camera getting ruined - it's like a dream come true.

Of course, being Ireland, it didn't last that long. One morning I woke up, and the sound of soft rain, almost inperceptible - like a TV with the volume turned down low on a channel of static, and the wet, the wheezing and the sneezing were back. Oh well, at least it's better than nothing...

Unfortunately I didn't take as much advantage of the photo-favourable weather as I should. My laptop had to be sent away, and I realised a couple of things. Without the immediacy of being able to view photos straight away, and scarily, the ability to do advanced editing on them, made me much less likely to take photos at all. I didn't realise how dependent I was on Adobe Lightroom.

Here are the only two photos I took over the last month or so that I am any way happy with. The first two were from Spanish Point:

I also went to Torc Waterfall last weekend, briefly, but of course full of expectation of a wonderful phototography opportunity. This didn't happen, of course. I don't think waterfalls could be any more of a photographic cliche if they tried. They're right up there with sunsets. I did manage to get a few that I quite like in black and white, however:

Pandora to block international listeners from May 3rd.

2007-05-02T21:24:00.000+02:00

I just got his email from Pandora.com, a fan-bloody-tastic internet radio station that plays you music with similar qualities to other music you like:

"Dear Pandora listener,

Today we have some extremely disappointing news to share with you. Due to international licensing constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora's streaming service for most countries outside of the U.S.

It is difficult to convey just how disappointing this is for us. Our vision remains to eventually make Pandora a truly global service, but for the time being, we can no longer continue as we have been. As a small company, the best chance we have of realizing our dream of Pandora all around the world is to grow as the licensing landscape allows.

Delivery of Pandora is based on proper licensing from the people who created the music - we have always believed in honoring the guidelines as determined by legislators and regulators, artists and songwriters, and the labels and publishers they work with. In the U.S. there is a federal statute that provides this license for all the music streamed on Pandora. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent license outside the U.S. and there is no global licensing organization to enable us to legitimately offer Pandora around the world. Other than in the U.K., we have not yet been able to make significant progress in our efforts to obtain a sufficient number of international licenses at terms that would enable us to run a viable business. The volume of listening on Pandora makes it a very expensive service to run. Streaming costs are very high, and since our inception, we have been making publishing and performance royalty payments for every song we play.

Until now, we have not been able to tell where a listener is based, relying only on zip code information provided upon registration. We are now able to recognize a listener's country of origin based on the IP address from which they are accessing the service. Consequently, on May 3rd, we will begin blocking access to Pandora to listeners from your country. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

We will be posting updates on our blog regarding our ongoing effort to launch in other countries, so please stay in touch. We will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you. We deeply share your sense of disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding."

This really is disappointing - Pandora.com was one of my absolute favorite services on the internet. It works, too - I've bought several albums by artists that I heard solely thanks to Pandora. It pretty much stopped my using piracy to source new music. The music companies should be begging Pandora to play their music, not the other way around.

A sad day...

The Dawn Raid

2007-03-29T00:25:00.000+02:00

In my last post I talked about how I got up at ridiculous o' clock in the morning to take pictures in UL for the photography competition, and how I was pretty disappointed at the results. I was expecting some kind of magic light that instantly produced classic photographs, just by the virtue of me being there. Well it didn't quite work out like that, although I did take a few that I was reasonably happy with.

Last Sunday, I made a second attempt. Not out in the University, but rather in Galway. The plan was to get up at about 4.00am, drive to the Burren, and take photos there at dawn and watch the sunrise. An ambitious plan, to say the least. Well, to put it this way, getting me and my better half up at that time of the morning was the equivalent of placing a bet on a drunk elephant to walk across a tightrope while singing the Mongolian national anthem... We didn't do too bad, however. We managed to struggle out of bed and leave Galway city at about 5.30. An achievement in itself.

However, it was looking increasingly unlikely, as we sped down the road, that we would make it to the Burren before the sun began to come up. The best light is supposedly just before sunrise, and the absolute worst case scenario was sitting in the car watching what was looking like an amazing sunrise. The sky was completely clear, just what we were looking for. We quickly made an improvised plan: we decided to basically turn west, and headed for the nearest bit of coast we could find. After some initial worry, we at last got to a dirty, muddy patch of the coast that didn't look in the least bit conducive to taking beautiful photos. I was secretly pretty disappointed at this stage - I felt like the early morning effort we had gone to my have been in vain. I was to be sorely mistaken, however.

Although the landscape didn't look awe-inspiring, it didn't turn out to matter at all, because the light was a wonder all to itself. I've never seen hues like that before, and looking back on my photos they have a slightly false look about them. The light took on a presence of its own, bathing the bare scene in just about every colour imaginable - with perfect tones; nothing was over exposed or too dark.

The other incredible (and difficult) thing about the early pre-dawn light is its dynamism; it changes virtually from second to second, and literally from minute to minute. Without moving the camera I was getting pictures that looked completely different as the time went by. It's exhilerating; it's hard to describe. You have such a short time to take photos, and the light changes so often I found my adrenaline pumping within minutes of setting up the tripod and camera - despite the early morning grogginess. The fear of ruining what is probably a once-or-twice a year opportunity is pretty immense. Anyway, here are the results: These are by far my best single crop of photos from such a short time.

And that was that. All the grumpy bleary-eyed early morning mood, the panic, the fear, and the exhilaration, culminating in these four, and maybe another two or three shots that I am happy with.

"A bit... pointless", some might say.

I say there's not much in the world I'd rather do.

As a side-note; we spent the rest of the day at our intended destination; the Burren. I was happy enough to largely forget about taking photos - I couldn't ask for much more that the morning, and besides, one gigabyte memory card will only hold so many pictures! I did get one I was pretty happy with, however. The photography gods must have been smiling on me that day.

Getting up at Dawn does not a good photographer make...

2007-03-14T22:43:00.000+01:00

In my last post I mentioned that I was contemplating giving in to the mentally ill side of my psyche and getting up at half four in the morning to take pictures for a photography competition being held by the University. Well, I did it...

...and it was quite a disappointment. It was one of those moments when you realise that the mountain you've been climbing with expectation of reaching the top sooner rather than later is actually Mount Everest and you are on an elevator going the wrong way and trying to beat the...no, wait - you're the mountain. You're the elevator, and the mountain is knowledge, and the camera is your Sherpa. No, no, no - the Sherpa is an elevator - going the wrong way up the digital camera. Yes. That's it.

Sorry. I have to indulge myself sometimes. Since nobody is reading this anyway I might as well have a bit of a rant now and again. Very cleansing. Indeed.

Anyway, I found my little photography excursion much more difficult than I reckoned it would be. The photos I took all lack 'pop'; I thing was expecting wonderful, almost magical qualities from the light, but it failed to materialise for me at least. Another thing I never thought of was the fact that at six O' Clock in the morning in UL, the place is absolutely covered in nasty Sodium vapour street lamps, which ruin any shot they are in, and are almost impossible to avoid...

Do I care? Yes, sort of, but mainly no. For one thing there was a certain thrill in lugging around a tripod and camera in a deserted University before dawn. I think I have the enthusiasm at least, and that must count for something. The mere act of going to UL at ridiculous o' clock in the morning was enough for me.

Still, it wasn't all bad, and I did take a couple of shots that while certainly wouldn't win any competitions, will probably be sent in anyway as I can submit ten for each category. I would be happy with getting one printed, if nothing else.

Ok, I've had enough now...

2007-03-11T22:50:00.000+01:00

Please rain, you have had your fun now. It's been raining for at least six years non-stop now, and I should know because I've counted. Dripfollowsdropfollowsdripfollowsdrop: yes we know it's all fun and games to you, but constant pelting us with The Wet has started to become just a tiny bit irksome. Especially when you're in the place W.B. Yeats walked for many years, living off the kindness of Lady Gregory (that poor woman what was she thinking?), getting inspiration to write some of the most hackneyed (but undoubtedly beautiful) poetry ever written about Ireland. When you're somewhere like this and all you can muster up is some crappy photos taken from under a shelter messing around with long-exposures and the zoom ring...

So rain, if you are still there in the morning when I finally want to get up of my arse and take some photos at dawn of the lovely University Of Limerick, I will be most aggreived and possibly have to take the matter further with your immediate supervisor. So there...

Identity Crisis

2007-02-21T19:28:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been home for a while now, and I've changed the name of my blog as 'Four Months In Geneva' doesn't exacly make much sense anymore...

I've always wanted to steer clear of blogging the unimportant everyday stuff that happens to me in favour of actually having a specific purpose for the site. To this end I probably won't update this very often, and it'll be mainly photos. I've taken a few since returning to the old Emerald Isle, but of course it's much more difficult to be inspired by the beauty you have grown up with as opposed to that which you are seeing for essentially the first time.

That beauty is here, is undeniable. The turbulent and often soul-destroying weather produces cloud formations that are ever-changing and wondrous, for example. I was in the Burren in West Clare last week, and the savage... bleaknessof the c landscape there cannot fail to impress. Ireland is a country of immense beauty, all right. It is just not the mouth-gaping, show-stopping beauty of the Swiss Alps. Hopefully my time away has made me look upon this country in a different light - I think already I'm beginning to appreciate what I have.

Here are a few picture I've taken since I've come back. I'm lamenting the lack of a tripod (It was too heavy to bring home) so that will be the first thing I purchase when I climb out of this pit of poverty I'm in at the moment!*

*Massive exaggeration!

This was out in the nearby Cratloe Woods - It's probably been there for months!

I called this one 'Depth of Field', and proceeded to think of myself as incredibly witty and intelligent for approximately seven minutes.

Cows make great photo subjects - they move so slowly they are easy to capture, and I think there is something 'melancholic' about them, or something...

Home at last...

2007-02-21T18:59:00.000+01:00

So, I have been back in Ireland for about three weeks now, and I must say, besides the weather, the public transport, the security, the nice buildings, the weather, the ridiculously small amount of hours spent actually doing something approaching hard work, the fun evenings, the view out my window, the train journeys through some of the most spectacular scenery in Europe or possibly the world, the nights out, the laughs, the lack of any real responsibility for possibly the longest time since I was a child, oh yeah - the weather, the company, the shops, the god-damn hard-to-describe-but-undeniable intelligent nature of of the whole place, the clean streets and lastly, the weather, I must say - it's good to be back!

To be fair, even though I may have sounded sardonic/bitter/twisted/like I was trying desperately to pad out a blog post when I have very little to write about (delete where applicable), it is actually reasonably satisfying to be back on home ground at last. It was an incredible experience, but it came to an end at the right time, and while I'll fondly remember my time there, I don't feel as if I have any inclination to go back to the place voluntarily (Geneva that is - Switzerland still holds plenty more wonder in my eyes)

So au revoir, Geneva. You were a brief love affair, to be looked back on fondly but without regret - and both glad to have moved on with life...