Sí and I went for a walk around Ballyvaughan yesterday. Normally when we are here, we are racing, so it was nice to take it easy and take a bit of time to look around. Here are a few shots from the day.

The now famous signs beside the aptly named “Tea Junction” cafe in Ballyvaughan.

I don’t normally take very many photos of flowers, but Summer has officialy kicked off here in Ireland and the place is just bursting with colour – they’re hard to avoid!

A group of Daisies – all slightly different. Some perfect, some trampled, some mutated…

I keep noticing this flower (below) – I’ve no idea what it is can anyone tell me? Or does anyone know any good sites for identifying flowers?

For Chris (the Aussie) – a rock field – with flowers in it!

More unidentified flowers in the shelter of rocks in the Burren.

A great view from the Bird Hide just outside Ballyvaughan

Travelling back towards Limerick, we passed the ruins of Carron Church. Below: a window behind the Alter (I think the Alter was at this end).

The wall of the church rolls away down the hill.

A rather boring shot of Poulnabron Dolmen.

Thanks to Sí for putting up with my constant stopping to take photos.

Welcome to my new site! I bought this domain name last Christmas and decided I was going to move my blog here. One thing I never liked about my old blog was that  I had nearly four hundred photos of completely disjointed subjects. It really was great for learning a bit about photography, but I don’t have anything that resembles a body of work that has my own stamp on it. For that matter, I don’t even have a style of my own. So after a lot of thought, I decided to go with more of a story telling approach. The idea being that I will shoot along a general theme or subject over an extended period of time (anything longer than an hour really) – this will give me a chance to make my own of it. Well, that’s the idea anyway!

I decided to get up early Saturday morning to go for a walk in the beautiful Clare Glens on the Limerick/Tipperary border. I had been here before, but usually got distracted with the camera and never made it very far along the walk. This time I was determined to get right up to the top of the loop. Here are a few shots I took along the way.

Click the images to see larger versions!

The river winds it’s way through the rocks – waiting for nobody.

A branch hangs over one of the smaller drops in the river.

A big old tree has come to rest at the top of one of the more spectacular falls in the Clare Glens.

It may sound like a silly thing to make a study out of, but as rocks go, this one was relatively pleasing to the eye. This involved getting into the river with camera tripod and the gear. I think it was worth it though.

It has taken thousands and thousands of years for the river to take it’s current shape.

Who says you can’t have Sun and Sand in Ireland? The sun manages to break through the canopy above. The light conditions change every few seconds – it’s hard to keep up with it.

All of the Pebbles on the side of the river have been polished smooth by years of movement along the river bed.

A Pine cone lies on a tiny sandy bank at the side of the river. I’ve no idea how it got there – the river, a dog or a child are the most likely suspects.

The water runs over and through the rocks. Not a great place for a Kayak – although I may be wrong, some people just love pain. 😉

I sat here, in the middle of the river, for about half an hour. I decided to have an Apple and cleaning my gear because of a Phantom scratch in one of my filters (it was a thread from the cloth I was cleaning it with). Not a soul around – all you could hear is the water crashing over the falls above and the birds singing. Hard to believe you are only fifteen minutes outside Limerick city, but that’s Ireland for you. It doesn’t get any more peaceful than this.

Two abstracts – I like them, not everybody’s cup of tea though.

 The near perfect angles of these rocks caught my eye.

Wildflowers soaking up the Sun on part of the upper bank.

Pebbels of all sizes and colours in the bed of the river.

So, it’s time to move on – 381 photos later and I want to head in a new direction with the blog. So, like the people at Park Avenue, I’m moving my business across the street to denishogan.ie. Please do subscribe to my new RSS Feed.

First post on the new site to follow tomorrow!

Thanks for visiting this site – hope to see you over on denishogan.ie soon.

My dad and I recently pulled the Avenger out of storage to get it ready for a few HRCA races this year. I went to see my parents yesterday evening and noticed the door of the garage was up – of course the Avenger caught my eye and I couldn’t resist taking a few photos.

When processing, I got to thinking of all the time spent in and around this car. My dad first started racing in it in the early ninties. It was always a competitive car – he upgraded to the current engine in the mid-ninties – a Chrysler BRM 1600cc Twin Cam 16v. An incredible spec considering it is nearly thirty years old. And it’s a very rare engine. Since the early ninties, he has been bringing the family (whoever was available at the time) to Hillclimbs, Sprints and Races all over the country. And I’ve been dragging my friends along to the same events for about as long.

The Blue Avenger, as it is referred to, has a long history here in Ireland – including a very successful hillclimb career. It’s a car that lots of people want to drive, but very few are allowed to.

This is much more than a car – I’d go so far as to say it is more like a family member. It may sound strange thing to say, but this particular car has brought family and friends together for twenty years now. I suppose the fact that it gets to sit on Carpet in the garage says a lot!

Given that the Blue Avenger has had such a big impact on me over the years, I’m hoping to do a Photo Story Board of the car over the next few months. Watch this space.