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Tuesday 31 March 2009

Lough Dan 4




Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

This is a image of the actual lake. It's taken from the same spot in the Lough Dan 2 post, but turned 90 degrees to the left. It's very hard to photograph a large open spans of water with no points of interest to draw you into the image. Here I am trying to use the small ripple waves to bring you through the image . The image does nicely for the Watery Wednesday theme and continues the Lough Dan Tour. From the spot we had our lunch in the first post you can continue your walk around the lake by a path that follows the shore line of the lake.

I don't think it's as good an image as the previous post, but helps tell the Lough Dan story. The final image form this series will be on friday for the SkyWatch Friday theme.

The Story is nearly over.................

Monday 30 March 2009

Lough Dan 3




Here is your My World image.

The Lough Dan Story continues....
In the past couple of posts, I have shown you the views down at Lough Dan and also told you about the walk down to the valley along to the lake itself. Well the image above was taken from the road half way up the mountain walk back to the car. I think you can get a sense of scale in this image of the mountains and valley. It was in kind of a rush to get this image as the dark clouds were rolling in faster than I could walk and you can just about see them on the right hand side of the sky. Just as we got back to the car the heavens opened with rain and hail stones.

When you get down to the valley the walk is along the light shade running through the image. You pass through a small forest and can see deer in the field to your left. If they hear you, they will stop, look up and keep an eye on you until you are out of sight. I must bring the big guns (ie 400mm) with me the next time to get some photo's of the deer.

This is the best location to take this overall view from, as further up you can't see the valley and the mountain on the left blocks the complete view.

So there you have it Lough Dan, But wait there's more............

Sunday 29 March 2009

Lough Dan 2




Here is your Monochrome Maniacs image

And to continue on the story from Lough Dan. The previous image was taken in front of the big trees you see in this image. After I got the image I relaxed a little bit and had another cup of tea. After this I walked around to see if I could get any more images before we started the walk back to the car. I spotted this view but had left the camera and tripod back at the spot of the last image. So like a man possessed a quickly walked along the shore-line the fastest way back to grab the camera and head back before the light changes. The light was changing all the time with the fast moving clouds. You just had to wait a few mins for the light to change again. After this image I headed back and packed way the lunch equipment and started the walk back.

But there's more..................

Saturday 28 March 2009

Lough Dan




This is your Scenic Sunday image.

And they can't get much more scenic that The Wicklow Mountains and Lough Dan.
It's funny how things turn out. The reason I say this it's because I should be down in Connemara this weekend for my 40th birthday. Yes I'm 40 today (Saturday 28th). But due to reasons beyond my control I was unable to go. However with Friday off work I drove down to the Wicklow Mountains for a few hours walk. It's a wonderful walk down to Lough Dan. And I mean down because you park your car at he side of the road which happens to be on top of the mountains, which means that it's a very steep walk to finish with back up to the car. According to the weather we were going to get wet all day long with showers and high winds. Well guess what they were wrong, kind off. It was windy and cold up on top as we started our walk, but as we started to descend into the valley between the mountains with had no wind and a wonderful sunny, cloudy sky as you can see from the image above.

Lough Dan is one place I love to go for a walk with the family as it's safe and easy on the legs apart from the final bit back up to the car. I have been here many times before and have bucket loads of photo's but still I was not happy with them as I knew that I could do better. As I have said already it's funny as I should not been there on the day. This day turned out to be the best day for photography in all the years I have walked here.

What you see here is the river that flows into Lough Dan and it's the place we stop to have lunch and a cup of tea. As we got down to the lake the clouds came along and put a stop to the photography for a while. I waited and waited, but was enjoying the peace and quite. Looking up at the sky, a got the camera out and ready on the tripod for the moment the sun came out from behind the clouds and lit the scene before me. Still I waited for the clouds to move into the correct position for the image I was looking for. So after a 1 hour walk, lunch and a cup of tea, the image I have been looking for. Boy was I happy and it gets better as I have about 7 more photos form this day that I am very happy with. 39 years and 364 day's I had to wait but I think it was worth it.


Google Maps Link to see Lough Dan

From this link you can see Lough Dan in all its glory. If you look to the right of the name Lough Dan you can see the 's' shape the river makes before it flows into the lake. The small bit of sand you see it the sand bank in my image above. You can also make out the cottage and tree.

Thursday 26 March 2009

Donabate Storm




There is your SkyWatch Friday image.

I had only a couple of mins before the rain started as you can see from the clouds rolling in from the Irish Sea. Lambay Island is just visible on the horizon. The waves were starting to grow in intensity. It was a case of set up the tripod , take the photo and run like hell back to the car. I love this type of weather conditions as the time just before and after have the most interesting sky's. No clear blue sky's for me thank you. I have a big heavy duty plastic bag which I put over the camera while still on the tripod as there is no time to start packing the camera, lens and filters away form the elements.

Wednesday 25 March 2009

IPPA Awards




You might has seen the image above before, as it was posted back in November last year. But the reason I posted it again is that received a Diamond Award in the recent Irish Professional Photographers Association judging on Monday. A Diamond is the highest award given to an image in the judging. This was my first time to enter such a event and to come away with 4 Gold and 1 Diamond is wonderful.

Out of the 200 or so images submitted for judging only 4 received diamond and mine was one of them.

You can see the 5 images I entered by clicking on this Link.


Tuesday 24 March 2009

Sky Reflection




This is your Watery Wednesday image.

This image was taken at the same location as the "Boats on Lough Sheelin" image. It was a lovely claim sunny day so I decided to use the water surface to capture the reflections of the clouds in the sky. We also have the reflections of the tree and the rock on the left. The water was very shallow at this point at the lake was like a mirror surface.

Monday 23 March 2009

All about Composition and your Camera

All about Composition and your Camera

EMPHASIS

Light

Mass dominates over smallness, sharpness over blur and light over shade.
Light is the source and life blood of photography. It is the material which we are supposed to shape with our tool, the camera, and is a material superior to that tool. The effect of light will outdo any other effect the camera is able to produce. It will be stronger than any pictorial distinction which size or definition can create.
Even a comparatively small area of light will attract more attention and convey more emphasis than all the rest of the picture which is darker. Some blurred and even empty patch of light will draw our eye more strongly than all the shadows, however well defined and full of meaning they may be.
Light's emphatic power is so limitless and acts so automatically that it can be the photographer's pitfall. More than any other means at his/her disposal, light will tempt you to superficial exaggerations and confusing elaborateness. All the initial effort put into selecting the right subject, the right distance, the right view, may only too easily be scarified again by yielding to the temptation of playing around with light
Masterpieces of photography do not necessarily originate from studios with the most imposing lighting equipment. Even light cannot give emphasis amidst an orgy of lightness.
And this goes for all the methods of photographic emphasis : they live on contrast. Anything said just before may be found equally true turned the other way round in some cases. If the image is full of large masses, the sudden smallness of a detail may command attention. If the image is sharp all over, some spot of intentional blur may win importance. If the image is bathed in light, the only point of shadow may catch the first glance. Values are relative.

Sunday 22 March 2009

Don't Look Behind You




This is your Monochrome Maniacs image.

First off what a weekend for Irish Sport. After 2 major heart failures on Saturday. The Irish Ruby Team won the Grand Slam, the first time in 61 years and then this was followed by Bernard Dunne winning a World Title in boxing later that Saturday night. The Irish economy and the world economy is in serious trouble but we are going to kick and punch our way out of the mess.

So keeping with the sports theme, here is a photo taken along time ago. It's well over 15 year old at this stage. The photo shows a rider on the final run on a stage in the Tour de France bike race. The rider is Charly Mottet from the RMO team looking over his shoulders to see how much a lead he has. I got the photo by sticking my hand out over the barriers and got the camera back in just in time as to not hit the rider. Charly Mottet did in fact win the race an a got a winning photo. This image was entered into my very first inter-club competition and won the best photo overall. What was my prize you may ask? Well a roll of colour film.

The host of Monochrome Maniacs Aileni would be happy to know that the photo was taken using a Canon T90 film camera with Tri-X film and a standard 50mm lens and not with your 10 frames a second machine gun with 400mm lens. The good old days !

Saturday 21 March 2009

Boats on Lough Sheelin




This is your Scenic Sunday image.

Well the story behind this image is for all you Ladies and your wedding day. I while back I was asked to take the photo's of a friends wedding. It's something I do but don't advertise, only for friends. Well on this occasion the weather did not play ball and it started to rain just as after the couple left the church. There was nothing I could do about that. However it stopped for about 30 mins, enough time to get the group shot at the hotel. The looks I was getting fro all the ladies because there high heels shoes sunk into the wet grass and the Que in the toilets so they could clean their shoes. The things we photographers have to suffer for that photo. ha ha.

All the bride wanted was a photo of them standing down at this lake, Lough Sheelin, Co Cavan. On the day it was not possible, but I said to the bride I will come back here to the hotel some other time and get the image to clone them into the photo. On the day I was to go to meet the couple to show the photo's, was a wonderful sunny day. So I loaded the cameras into the car and headed to the lake. If you have being following my blog you will have noticed that I only do B&W landscape images.

On this day I had wonderful side lighting from the setting sun. I think the above image was taken around 7 in the evening. I also had claim water and a nice sky. I showed the couple the photo's of the wedding day and told them about the images I got before I meet them. So another meeting was arranged to give them the final album. Normally I will give the couple one image of their choice, printed and framed. However I did not tell the bride that I had this image framed also. Well to say the flood gates open when she saw this image is an under statement. This image takes pride of place on the wall along side the image from inside the church ( which I had to change to b&w after they saw this one ). So at the end of the day the image they wanted they did not get, but were more that happy with the one.

Thursday 19 March 2009

Duncannon




This is your Sky Watch Friday image.

Duncannon, Co Wexford on a nice sunny day last year. I was on my way down to Hook Lighthouse for the day. I was trying to remember where we stayed for the few days because my wife's parents stayed in a Mobile home park in Duncannon. Oh!, just remembered we stayed in a hotel in New Ross, that's what it was. While the children played on the beach, I went for a walk, a you do, with tripod by my side. The image above is looking back towards Duncannon with some amazing cloud formations in the sky.

I have posted another image form here and you must have a look. It's real what you are seeing in the image. The cliff's you see on the left are the cliff's in the image above from the other direction.

Wednesday 18 March 2009

St Patricks Day




Please DO NOT adjust your monitors. This is a colour photo. I got special dispensation for higher people to display this image.

You have guessed it right, it was taken on St Patrick's Day by my daughter. Two things were funny about the image. The first one is that my beard does not match the colour of the hair. The second one was a 9 year old girl trying to hold a Canon 1D with 70-200 f2.8L lens steady while laughing at me trying to keep a straight face. We had a wonderful day here in Ireland as the sun was out and the crack was mighty.

Normal B&W post will continue tomorrow.

Monday 16 March 2009

All about Composition and your Camera

All about Composition and your Camera

EMPHASIS

Definition

Human eyes see near and far, the whole and the detail, equally sharp. Normally, they do. They are quick, versatile and adaptable. In the minutest fraction of a second they will adjust themselves to communicate to us the profile of a far off mountain range, the shape of a butterfly's wing, the meaning of countless little letters in a book. And all these pictures will be uncompromisingly sharp, clear, well defined. Normally, we cannot see "blurred", even if we meant to and try to do so.
Subconsciously, however, our brains seem to record everything around us slightly "out of focus" - except the relatively limited area on which our eyes and our interest happens to be focused at that very moment. But that subconscious blur we do not notice at all as blur. The scene on which our eyes get focused is changing so unceasingly, and at such a speed, that we only too willingly assume a uniformly "sharp" world around us. After all, it is much more comfortable and secure that way.
The lens in the camera has slower habits, more mechanical ones. It will record at a time only one subject, one distance, as sharp, and leave everything behind and in front of that point fuzzy. Certainly the lens, too, is adaptable enough, but it has to be adapted. It has to be focused if we want some other subject at some other point ; and while we get that one sharp, everything else, including things, which appeared well defined just a few seconds earlier, fade again into blur.
This peculiarity of the lens, of showing only part of the scene at a time as sharp, helps to stress a point, to emphasise importance, to focus the spectator's interest - as we are focusing the lens - at the thing we want to be more than the rest. At the same time we throw the rest, the things of less importance, the background perhaps, out of focus. Push if back, as it were, into that "subconscious" department of our brain.
Photographing a face, one might focus just at the eyes, in a way allowing the nose, the lips, the ears, to fade gradually into a blur of insignificance. But one might as well decide to have the whole face sharp and blur a somewhat old fashioned wallpaper behind it out of existence. Or does just that old fashioned wallpaper fittingly accentuate the outlook of our elderly model? Well, let us have it. Let us have it as sharp as the face itself. it can be done.
It is happily in our hands to determines the depth of the field to be rendered sharp by the lens. It may be just a few inches. It may cover many meters. The shorter the depth of focus chosen, the more obvious the effect will be, the more intentional the distinction will appear.

Sunday 15 March 2009

Dublin Bay




This is your Monochrome Monday image.

It has being a long time now, over 7 weeks since I had a camera in my hands and was out shooting Landscapes. Well today I did get out and it was a good feeling. Today we were going to visit my mothers and have "Sunday Dinner" with them. On the way down to Dublin I detour was on the cards for a bit of a walk and a photo or two. What we have here is a image of Dublin Bay from Howth Head on the Sutton side. You can see The Pigeon House power station on the right and the Dublin & Wicklow Mountains. The eagle eyed viewer can see a circle pattern in the water on the left side. This is the ripples after my son's rocks splashed in the water.
The image might not win photo competitions but was great to get back out again. Just a quick conversion in Lightroom and some Dodge & Burning in Photoshop (10 mins total) after putting the children to bed after the wonderful dinner down in my mothers. ( Thanks mum ).

Saturday 14 March 2009

Derryclare




This is you Scenic Sunday image.

The image shows Derryclare Mountain and The Twelve Pins Mountains range also. This view can be seen when you drive along the R344 between Recess and Kylemore Abbey in the heart of Connemara. You can see the road in the image along with a small bridge over the river with flows into Derryclare Lough. I had to wait a while for the clouds to break after a short bit of rain. This made for interesting shadows on the tops of the mountains.

Thursday 12 March 2009

Dingle Peninsula



This is your Sky Watch Friday image.

The image shows Dingle Peninsula, Co Kerry, taken from across Dingle Bay at Ross Behy beach. Included in the image is the Slieve Mish Mountains, Mount Eagle, Brandon Mountain, and many more mountains. I put the horizon down very low in the frame because there was nothing of interest, just claim water, but what a sky though. The cloud formation is the image but you still have the detail in the land with the different shades and shadows.

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Torr Head




If I was to be honest, this image would not be one of my best, however it has something special about it though. Any guess ?
Well the image shows Torr Head. A place along the Antrim coast between Cushendun and Ballycastle. On the day this image was taken I was on my way for a few days stay in Ballycastle to photograph this wonderful coastline up in Northern Ireland. It was raining not stop on the drive up to Belfast and then along the coast road A2. We stopped here and walked up the steps to the top of this headland. The rain had stopped and the clouds were starting to break up over the sea. And look what we found Scotland. Yes, that's Scotland on the horizon. So I have an image with Ireland and Scotland in it separated by the North Channel. I thinks its Campbeltown in Scotland we see here and you can get a ferry to take you over there in Ballycastle.
A timely post as if your Irish and you like your sports then you will know Ireland are playing Scotland at the weekend in the 6 Nations Ruby Championship. Come on the boys in Green.

All about Composition and your Camera

All about Composition and your Camera

EMPHASIS

Size

Things near the camera will be depicted larger than others farther away. The basic laws of perspective cannot be tampered with. Yet, the apparent comparative size of near and far will seemingly change when changing the lens. Lens with different focal length will open up different angles of view to the same camera. Lenses of long focal length give a narrow angle of view, producing a large picture of the central scene and leaving out most of the things left and right in front of the lens. Lenses of short focal length give a wide angle of view, producing a smaller picture of the central scene but taking in more of the things left and right in front of the lens. The difference can be appreciable. Lenses of the longest focal length may show a angle as narrow as 10 or even 5 degrees only,, while lenses of the shortest focal length may cover an angle of 75 or even over 100 degrees.
Obviously, the shorter the focal length - that is, the wider the angle and the broader the foreground - the more imposingly will subject near the camera stand out against everything placed further away. Reversed, the longer the focal length - the narrower the angle and the smaller the foreground - the fewer the chances of foreground subjects to be depicted as a whole, while the centre of the picture will be recorded enlarged, sometimes covering the background altogether.
The choice of the foreground,centre and background in conjunction with a carefully selected and a suitable viewpoint will amplify one pictorial element and reduce some others. It will make an insignificant tree-trunk in front of us domineering, while the ten thousand feet mountain peak, farther back, become a mere decorative addition - or vice versa.
But we can do even more. We can crouch down with our camera, making our subject tower over us; or look down, dwarfing it from some higher point of view. Low viewpoints will lift subjects out of their surroundings, making their own dimensions the only dominant ones in the picture. High viewpoints, in contrast, widen the floor space and introduce plenty of dimensional comparisons. Low viewpoints accentuate the outline of the subject. High viewpoints are likely to blot it out.
This, however, belongs almost to the next installment on photographic emphasis.

Monday 9 March 2009

Doo Lough




My World Tuesday


This is not a place from a Sherk movie, but Doo Lough is a lake seperating the Mweelrea Mountains and Sheeffry Hills along the R335 between Louisburgh and Leenane Co Mayo. It's a place that I have only really driven through and have not explored fully. That's about to change as I will be staying in Delphi for a few day at the end of March for my 40th. (no smart comments please ha ha ha). What I like about the image is the curved lines of the mountains and shore line.

Sunday 8 March 2009

Westport & Newport Bays.





On the one and only time I have climbed Croagh Patrick Mountain, I was going to make sure that I got as many photos as possible. And on this day the weather was wonderful. The above image was taken half way up the climb. You are looking out over Murrisk, Westport Bay, Newport Bay and all the way to the Nephin Beg Mountain Range. At this level we were at the level of the clouds and boy does it look made.

Saturday 7 March 2009

Glencar Lake

Scenic Sunday

No photoshop tricks were used in the making of this image.
This is Glencar Lake, Co Leitrim and Co Sligo. The reason for this is the county boarder line splits the lake in two. Ours car was parked in the car park beside Glencar Waterfall which is in Co Letrim, but the view you see in the photo is of the Co Sligo part of the lake with King's Mountain. Do you understand, as clear as mud?
Does it matter, no. The image was taken around 2 in the afternoon, one sunny day. I had to use two ND grad filters to balance the exposure. But the effect of the sun and the rays is wonderful in this image. I don't usually shot into the sun, but I likes the clouds in the sky and was going to crop out the sun until I viewed the image on the computer screen when I got back home form this trip. One look and I knew it had to be left in. I still don't understand how the effect happened. Can anyone answer this question?

All about Composition and your Camera

All about Composition and your Camera

EMPHASIS

Introduction


Emphasis is the art of introducing proportion : making words, sounds, things of importance, stand out against a surrounding of comparative indifference. In photography it is the art of centring all interest on one particular quality of the subject. It is this emphasis - where we put it, how we put it and with what - which will make a photograph an individual piece of human work as distinguished from a dull example of mechanical reproduction.
How to emphasis, pronounce, under-score some part of the picture made by a camera? There are ways : we can differentiate by comparative sizes, we can render sharp or un-sharp, we can distribute light and shade. We can play all these cards together or just one of them at a time.

Friday 6 March 2009

Cottage in the Mournes




This image was interesting in that it shows why you should go back to a location again as what was said in the previous post "Why Black & White and Landscape." The location in question is the Silent Valley, Mourne Mountains, Co Down, Northern Ireland. After coming down from Spelga Dam you follow the signs for the Silent Valley. This cottage was spotted. I got out had a look around but the light was not right. After a wonderful days shooting we headed down to the village of Kilkeel for something to eat before the drive home. However that could be a long drive home if I have my camera to hand. This was going to one of those times. While we went for a quick look at the harbor I noticed that the light was starting to turn and that cottage came back into my head. Load them all back into the car and the race was on. Would we get back up to the mountains again be for the light fades. Because I was there before, ok only 4 hours ago I knew where to position the camera. A quick jump over the wall and running up the hill while putting the camera on the tripod, cable release and filters in place so that I would be ready to press the shutter once I put the tripod down. Bingo. We got about 5 mins of light and then it was gone.
So the moral of this story is Go Back, Go Back and Go Back again to the same location and take your photos. You will never get the same image twice. What you will learn is - the different light conditions will do for your photos - then and only then when you see the difference will you start to understand that photography is all about light.

Why Black & White Landscape ?

Why Black and White ?

In it's history, now stretching back over 150 years, black and white photography has survived the rise of colour and continues to hold its respected position alongside the colour print. Old prints may have turned sepia, but as an art form, black and white photography refuses to fade away. Photography has survived the motion picture, outlasted silent cinema, black and white television and numerous video formats. There remains the desire to freeze the decisive moment or express what one saw as a still photograph. In the press, commercials, fashion and art, black and white is still going strong.

What is it about black and white that makes it so enduring? Sheer logic should dictate that, with colour so accessible, that black and white should have been relegated to the history books long ago. But instead the opposite has happened. It's taken on a new life of its own, and is gaining a steady and growing following across the world. Black and white is now seen ass the natural medium for fine art prints.

A whole new generation of photographers are discovering that black and white can offer them a different way of looking at the world, one which the simplicity and subtlety of tone and shadow triumphs over the distractions of colour. Time and again black and white somehow captures a mood and a feeling that colour, for all its accuracy simply can't. Perhaps that's exactly the point : photography is about so much more than a simple rendering of what's in front of the camera. We want to achieve an interpretation of life, and colour sometimes gets in the way.



What the Landscape ?

Landscape has so many aspects to it. It can be a picture that has been anticipated and that has had to be waited for, sometimes for years, until every element has finally come together in one wonderful image. It could just as easily be a detail that takes up just one small corner of some vast panorama. It could be a picture that makes use of the natural elements such mist, rain of the light which will affect the scene dramatically and then, just as quickly disappear again. Landscape can have at its core a magnificent location, such as the west coast of Ireland. Or it could be a scene of an old cottage down the road from you.

By the same token there's no set equipment that has to be used. A pinhole camera or toy camera to make a photograph, and yet still become one of photography's all-time classics. It could just as easily, of course, be originated on a top-of-the-range camera that costs thousands.

Landscapes can be pursed for years or they can be a fleeting moments that are never repeated. Just as a fisherman is prepared to take the necessary time to wait for something - or even nothing - to happen, so the landscape photographer depends on their reserves of patience, a virtue that is every bit as vital to develop as technical prowess.

Great landscapes usually take time to happen and the fact is that, even when they do, the photographer knows that, on another day when the sun is coming from another angle, the clouds have formed a different formation or the wind is blowing from a new direction, every location will yield images that are different again. It means that landscape photography has no logical finishing point, and the challenge to many is to visit the same places many times to see how many different interpretations they can put into print.

Thursday 5 March 2009

Sunset Bundoran





Here is you Sky Watch Friday image. A sunset over Bundoran and Donegal Bay. I waited and waited for the clouds to cover the setting sun so to catch rays of light. I was standing on the path way along the beach with the camera on tripod while the children played in the sand below.

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Photo Zoo




For the past couple of years I have being taking photographs of the animals at Dublin Zoo. These images are used by the Marketing Dept in the Zoo publications (print and web). Today I went thru the images and picked out 60 which I made into a book. The book is uploaded to a website ( www.issuu.com).

You can click on the Link Here , post title or the image and it will take you to the book. So sit back and enjoy the images.

Tuesday 3 March 2009

All about Composition and your Camera

All about Composition and your Camera

SELECTION

Try to Simplify

Once you have visualised your subject and agreed on the proper distance, set out to find the best side and the best sight of it. This amounts to putting it in the right perspective and the right light.
Again, it is easy enough once you have made up your mind what your subject is to be. Of course, if you just said "a few sheep," this would leave too many possibilities open. But you said "a few sheep casting long shadows over a meadow," and that is better. You obviously want those shadows to come out as clearly as possible : the drama and the pattern of them.
You will circle around your subject and look out for the side which shows both the sheep and the shadows at their best. You will try to get rid of all obtrusive detail interfering with the theme : the white sheep and their black shadows. You will not like patches of light in the foreground. You will not like patches of shadow in the sheep coats either. You definitely will not like any converging lines drawing the eye towards some far background. You have to eliminate all this detail. Search for the right viewpoint. Go round and round, hold your camera higher and then lower it again. This is the way to get down to your theme. You are now on your way to simplification.
The choice of the right distance has cut out matters inessential to your subject. the choice of the right viewpoint will suppress all detail confusing its message.
Again, just as the warning, "get close," does not imply that only close-ups can make good pictures, but merely says do not allow anything to creep into the frame of your camera's view which does not form an essential part of the subject you mean to show - so this advice to simplify does not demand either the stripping of every subject bare of all detail, but of all the irrelevant and distracting detail only.
Now whether some detail is irrelevant or important, whether it distracts from the subject matter or underlines it, does not depend only on what you want to show, but also on how you want to show it. It is a question of style. You can show the same man's face as a pleasantly-shaped surface, or a tragic map of folds, wrinkles and shadows.You have to decide on the message of your subject, just as you have decided on the choice of your subject.
Know what you want to emphasise before you start the sentence. The man who emphasises every word easily becomes unintelligible and unbearable in any case.

What The Duck




We have not had a What the Duck in a long time, so here you are. Kind of sums up my last couple of weeks as I have not been out with this infection in my lungs. I have been stuck in front of the computer putting the finishing touches to my new website ( www.blackandwhite.ie )
Have a look as let me know what you think?


Sunday 1 March 2009

Muckross Lake





The Hot Spot in Killarney, Muckross House and Gardens for all the tourists. Mind you it's a lovely place to walk around with views to match. This image was taken by the side of the path on the walk from Muckross House to The Torc Waterfall. What you have here is Muckross Lake with either Tomes or Purple Mounatian in the background. ( me thinks it's Tomes )
I have been here many times but have always come away with wanting more and not getting the images I am after. I am building up a small collection of images form the area but I think that it's because I have seen so many images from here I want something different and my own.