A few weeks back I did a series of shots based on a challenge set by Eyeblinks about “The street where I live” . Shortly aferwards, I was set a new challenge by ivansantry – “A car at night”. It took some time, but I finally got around to taking some shots of a BMW M3 as run in the National Hillclimb and Sprint Championship by my dad and I.

So this is the first in the series of shots, taking in the best (and only) seat in the house. And this is what the action looks like from the seat:
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Credits:
– Ivansantry for the challenge.
– There was a lot of learning involved in this one – a huge thanks to Kevin for the instruction and all the strobes, stands, transmitters, etc. Not alone did he provide everything, he also made it interesting, I have a major urge to buy another flash or two now. Damn you and your strobist ways!

A little lad wanders into the shadows cast by the evening sun. This is the last of the series from Ballybunion for the moment – it’s time for a change!

The remains of Ballybunion castle (14th Century) looking out over the Atlantic.

All suggestions are welcome – I’m posting to learn, so feedback is very useful! 🙂

Taken on the beach in Ballybunion. I’m really not sure about the processing. Comments and Critique are very welcome!

Taken just around the corner from the previous post. I liked the idea of the bright red bricks bursting out through the plaster.

It’s funny the different things that catch your attention. I was walking around this building in Ballybunion. The Atlantic view didn’t catch my eye – these crooked windows did.

I have managed to get out and about with the camera a few times recently. So I have a good few shots queued up for the site. Joy!

Two posts in the one week – and they said it couldn’t be done! So I was lucky enough to get to travel to Edinburgh last weekend for Kevin’s (Kevoto.com) stag weekend. Now stag weekends aren’t my thing, but this one was excellent. We sat around, drank tea and ate shortbread (we were in Scotland after all) for the weekend. Between the furious tea tasting sessions, I managed to get a few shots on my way home while sight seeing.

Shannon to Edinburgh in the blink of an eye with Ryanair. No complaints about the flight – just Ryanair at their least offensive.

Cockburn St. – snakes uphill to join with High St. The buildings are just amazing, I don’t think I’ve done any of them justice. When you walk along the streets, you can’t help but feel that this place has real wealth behind it.

Just off Rose St. I found this sandstone building with a dome. There was light spilling in from all angles, playing off the cut stone. I don’t think this crop tells the story unfortunately.

Right in the heart of the city, if you look behind the magnificent old buildings, you find lots of places like this. It’s like the setting for a crime scene – like something out of Taggart… but set in Edinburgh obviously.

A classic line stencilled onto the foot path on North Bridge.

Cobbled streets and shadows cast by the morning Sun.

When I saw this building, I immediately thought of 1984 by George Orwell. In particular, the Ministry of Peace (Minipax in Newspeak) – which was mostly concerned with War.

I love finding random little bits of grafitti. I’d love to know what this is about.

This place is full of odd angles, curves, shapes and lines all intersecting each other in odd places and ways. I’m sure it all made sense as these buildings were being constructed. Every angle has a purpose.

Every side street links to a close – or another street. I could get lost here if I had the time.

All I can say is what a city.

Best of luck to Kev and Edel who are getting hitched today – I hope you two have a long and happy life together. 🙂

Hi all, sorry, It’s been ages since I’ve had a chance to get out with the camera and take a few photos. I realised I’ve been neglecting the blog last week, so I asked the good folk of twitterland to set me a challenge. The first suggestion came from Tommie Lehane (Eyeblinks) –  “The Street Where I Live”. This is a tricky one, I live on a small Avenue. I was more than a bit embarassed taking photos of the neighbours houses, so I decided to approach it from another angle. I can’t say it was a success, I took most of the shots in three five minute sessions, so the execution is terrible – and the processing is worse. I’m rusty, very rusty. But I’m here to learn, so tough!

The Street Where I Live….

…has tasty apples on the trees….

…has old stone cottages with red brick chimneys…

… leads into Adare Manor…

… has beautifully kept gardens…

…but you just don’t know what happens there at night.

Thanks:
Síofra for posing with the knife
Tommie for the suggestion

Notes:
Shot 3. I’d really appreciate some advice on what to do with this one. The processing is a mess.
Shot 5. My flash is stuck on full power. I’ll get it right the next time!

After making a major breakthrough with work over the weekend (which earned me a well deserved break), I decided to get out to see a bit of the action at the Circuit of Munster – run by Limerick Motor Club.

I’m fortunate enough to live close to some of the stages, so after a short lie in, I made my way to a tight hairpin on SS2.

Photography Bit:
The weather was generally good, but massive clouds were racing across the sky – which made shooting an absolute PITA.  Fantastic Sun one minute, relative darkness the next – so you’ll notice the exposures below vary massively. I also got to grips with  my Circular Polarizer… not so easy to use on moving objects though.  You get rid of a certain amount of reflections, but because the cars are moving and they all have different lines for the bends, you get will get reflections in different places every time.

The Photos:
As usual, click to enlarge.

My token B&W shot for the day – Shadows of the spectators in the early morning Sun.

Kevin Barrett corrects a little too early as he attempts to exit the hairpin. He very nearly clipped the ditch on the exit, but got away without doing any damage at all.

Local man, Paul Purtill only knows one way – flat out. Drivers side mirror alreay knocked flat into the body – after a brush with a hedge no doubt.

John Danaher in his beautifully prepared S14 powered Compact. John was kind enough to let my dad and I have a good look at the car last year. Something else! Nice to see him going well.

Pat Price returning to the hairpin after he overshot.

Mike O’Connor sideways in his MKII.

No. 136 after missing the hairpin.

Marshals, Media and Spectators enjoy Sean Kennedy’s sideways antics in his AE86 Corolla. I’m not a Twin Cam fan, but there were two out in the Munster this year – both were flying and really entertaining to watch.

Benny Kennedy must have a great sense of humour with a bumper sticker like that on his Civic (click the image to enlarge).

After SS2, the weather looked to be improving and I really couldn’t face going back to work, so I decided to make my way over to Knocklong and on down to SS6. I found a great spot thanks to the Marshals! Nice.

Derek McGarrity on SS6.

A local kid watches McGarrity exit the junction.

I hope Liam Higgins’ sponsors “EasyFix” can sort out that rear wing for him.

Another local man, Ed Synan carrying some speed through the corner.

Yet another local man and regular Hillclimb competitor, Peter Cummins  in his beautiful Darrian T90. Nice to see Peter in action – normally I’m worrying about him on the time sheets. 😉 I have another shot of Peter on my old site: Click Here.

Eddy Kennelly in his spotless Escort.

As I said earlier, the Twin Cams were entertaining today. Mike Neligan gets it sideways to the delight of the Marshals.

Jack O’Shea in his bright red Mini.

Junior entrant, Chris Butler was the subject of an attempt at a pan/zoom shot. I kinda like it – because it’s different!

Prints:
Feel free to contact me if you are interested in prints.

Funderland is in Limerick this week. Kev and I decided to go along last night. I must say the second I got in the gate I got really uncomfortable trying to take photos in such a crowded place – I’m just not comfortable taking photos of people candid or otherwise. I’m happy to report that it didn’t take long to get over that problem – we were only there five minutes when two security guys were over asking what I was doing. After a short chat with the lads, they recommended a few of the rides that would be worth taking photos of. I was absolutely amazed by the amount of people that smiled, waved and posed for photos over the course of the night. I’ll be a little more comfortable the next time.

The Take Off ride looked like great fun.

I liked the paint job on the Safari Park truck – a Mack no less! Nevermind those ould Peterbuilts!

The clouds were amazing.

I got a few hilarious shots of terrified faces on some of the rides, but this one caught my eye – a load of feet pointing towards the sky.

The two girls below had a great laugh on the slingshot. Unlike everyone else that went before them, there was no swearing, just laughter.

Four out of five ain’t bad – one poor girl just didn’t really appreciate the “Take Off” ride.

A view up throughthe stalls towards the Ferris Wheel.

Closing time.

It was great to get out and about with the camera for a while – no pressure.

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.