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And the rain keeps pouring

Donncha — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:37:40 +0000

Rain has been pouring out of the heavens all day with little break. Here’s my neighbour’s car shot through the windscreen of my car this evening. Just back from acupuncture, need to shoot something not sharp to counter the needles I watched being put into my feet and hands, never mind the ones I didn’t see go into my neck, arms, hands, back and legs previously. at least 26 in all. Feel sluggish now.

Phil has amazing rain photos from a few days ago, too tired to link right now, sorry!

Photographic Knowledge

Donncha — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:54:49 +0000

A little knowledge goes a long way. It better. I’ve read all these magazines and most of the books here but have I absorbed all of it? Hardly. I’ve since almost given up on buying photography magazines because they repeat the same old guff year in year out. Possibly with the exception of Black and White magazine which still holds my interest.

As I twittered earlier, I’m going to go back to shooting Jpeg again for a while unless the situation is more challenging. The Canon 40D produces 14MB RAW files but only 3MB Jpeg files. I have 285GB of space on an external drive (backed up to another identical drive) so space isn’t an issue, it’s the rate at which space is being used, often for photos that definitely don’t need the flexibility of RAW. Dumping those beauties to DVD is a right pain when each DVD will only store the equivalent of a few days prolific shooting. Bluray here we come!

I was going to post another Tour of Ireland photo today but these magazines are going up in the attic so the opportunity presented itself. Yes, that’s an issue of UNCUT. Spotted that down in Midleton last year. It had an article about Queen’s new tour. Still haven’t read it actually.

PS. Will has canceled the Pink for October event. Instead there’ll be a photowalk on September 20th. As luck would (not) have it, my wife has a driving lesson at 11am that morning. Must comment on Will’s post.

Tour of Ireland blur past

Donncha — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:46:18 +0000

Not the best image I’ll admit, but to the naked eye these guys were just a blur they were going to fast. I think this was shot while I was quickly zooming out after shooting them coming down the road.

Tour of Ireland Riders in Blarney

Donncha — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:17:58 +0000

Tour of Ireland riders race through the main street in Blarney at speed. It seems like everyone came out to cheer them on!

Will sent me a text this morning saying the legal requirements for a charity event are too much for the planned Pink for October on the 20th of September, but he wondered if we could organise a photowalk in Cork City on the same day instead. I’m not 100% sure I’m free yet but I think it’s a great idea. I haven’t shot much in town in ages. Anyone interested?

Tour of Ireland Leading Group in Blarney

Donncha — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:38:17 +0000

Yesterday the Tour of Ireland rode (quickly) through Blarney village, but the main group was proceeded by these three cyclists by almost 4 minutes. Good thing too, good practice for when the rest sped through in front of us at breakneck speed!

Tour of Ireland

Donncha — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:29:52 +0000

The Tour of Ireland bicycle race passed through Blarney on it’s way to Cork City this afternoon. There was a sprint to the finish line in front of the local Catholic church before the cyclists made their way down the dual carriageway to Cork and up Patrick’s Hill, twice!

I was there ready to shoot the participants, but I was overwhelmed by their speed. It only took the main group about 11 seconds to come around the corner at one end of Blarney and disappear through the other end. I’m kicking myself I shot in Programme mode when I should have been in Aperture Priority mode, but I did get a few nice panning shots that froze the rider while the background blurred into smudges and streaks of colour.

The Canon 40D performed admirably. ISO was set to 100 because it was a bright day, AI Servo focus to track the riders and keep them in focus, and high speed continuous shooting mode which delivered 6.5fps. It was all over so quickly I barely had time to take a breath. I shot around 230 images while waiting and during the short time the racers were in Blarney. I knew I’d go a little mad with the shutter button, so I preselected Jpeg mode rather than my usual RAW mode.

Here’s a transcript of the commentary during the race. This bit, while serious, made me smile:

13.10: The race leader has been to see the race doctor, who reports a very unusual injury. He had a thorn embedded in his tongue – presumably from an overhanging branch, or perhaps even some dried fruit he ate – which was removed by the doctor. The thorn, not his tongue.

Hope you like the gallery, hopefully some of these shots will be posted here in single posts during the week!

[View post for gallery]

Red and White and Cork All Over

Donncha — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 11:25:10 +0000

Young Cork supporters take the tour bus around the city a few weeks ago. Cork plays Kerry isn’t it today in a replay? Yes, I’m a big sports fan, honest.

The light fantasic loo

Donncha — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:31:29 +0000

The toilets in the Cork International Airport Hotel are a pretty amazing sight to behold. Here’s the gent’s loo. The lighting changes constantly. I took a few shots within seconds of each other and they were all different. Luckily it wasn’t in use when I wandered in ..

This is the first shot I’ve posted from the Canon 40D. Unfortunately it’s quite noisy as it was shot hand held at ISO 1000, but the noise really only became noticeable after I applied the Lomo plugin to it. Love this camera. This photo and others taken at the hotel are also in this post. I used my 580EX flash for most of the people shots, but one or two were in available light with the ISO pumped up.

Red and White Flowers

Donncha — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:45:11 +0000

Colourful red and white flowers in the doorway of Supervalu in Blarney. I half thought about posting Damien’s picture from yesterday’s get together, especially after what lexia said but that’d be too cruel!

All locked out

Donncha — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:19:26 +0000

A neighbour’s gate is securely locked. As secure as a 3 foot high driveway gate will ever be I suppose.