Bartraw White Strand

Here is your SkyWatch Friday image.

Back to my normal black and white landscape posts for you with the second in the series from the latest Westport trip. The image is 180 degrees view from the first image (Bartraw Beach). I have moved up into the sand dunes and facing into the rising sun. You can see the way the sun lights up the tops of the grass and it was very hard to try and balance the exposure as the lower right portion of the sky was very bright.

Me & Me Tigers

I had to show you the image taken by one of the Keepers of me holding one of the cubs ( the female ) form last Saturday. It's not the most sharpest of image as I think the Zoo Keeper turned the dial on the camera instead of pressing the shutter button because it was set to f16 at 1/20 second. I am now their Official Photographer and will be documenting their stay at the Zoo with photos every couple of weeks as they grow up.
Just in case, I'm the one with the glasses on this head.

Brother & Sister 2

Here is your My World image.

This is My World at the moment. The new Tiger Cubs at Dublin Zoo. I am just putting the finishing touches on the images for the press release this week. They will be in colour, but you can see them first in wonderful B&W.

Bartraw Beach

Here is your Monochrome Maniacs image.

We start this new series of image with the very first image taken form the latest Westport trip. It was taken very early on the morning of my first day in Westport. At this time of the year sunrise is around 4:30-5:00. This was taken about 6:00 in the morning. The sun was over my left shoulder as you can see the shadows from the rocks in the foreground. Al the elements were right for this image. The tide was out so the rocks in the sand were visible. The sun low in the sky for wonderful shadows and side lighting. The pattern of the clouds was interesting and Croagh Patrick was visible in the background. I know you can't see it but there was a wonderful warm colour to the sand and grass. This can be used to great effect in black and white photography as the normal mono tone grass and sand take on a more interesting texture when converted to black and white using your red or orange filters. ( ie wonderful contrast )

Brother & Sister

Here is your Scenic Sunday image.

I couldn't wait any longer to show the Tiger Cubs from Dublin Zoo.
I know it's not your usual Scenic Sunday image but who cares?
It was just amazing to see the cubs and to hold them on Saturday morning. Oh yes I did manage to rattle a few 4gig memory cards worth of images. The female is on the left and the male ( with the bigger head ) is in the right. No names yet. As with most animals in the Zoo they usually have a competition for the children to give the animals names. As theses two are not on public view, so no names, except for few who had the chance to see them while I was in the enclosure taking this and many more photos.

So except to see some more tiger cubs and images from my recent trip to Westport next week.

Melmore Head Sunrise

Here is your SkyWatch Image.

Not your average Sunrise image either, what ?
Just back from the "working holidays in Westport". The reason for the What The Duck post below.

We had a wonderful time over in Westport. I think my children were with us, but don't think I saw them for more than 10mins at a time.
I did manage to get out and take a couple of images. Some wonderful, some good, some bad and some very sad images. More on this during the coming days. Of the 500 or so images 70 have gone through the first stage of post processing in DX Optics and are ready for the conversion process into b&W. It won't be until next week or maybe the weekend before I will have the time to work on them.

The "working holiday" time table was as follows: up at 4 in the morning and shoot until around 9. Back to the hotel for breakfast and out with the family doing the usual holiday thing. Back to the hotel for dinner. Back out again at 8:30 in the evening until 10:30 followed by a couple of pints at the hotel, then bed. My holiday "workflow".

Getting back to the image above. It was taken form Melmore Head, Rosguill, Co Donegal a while back while away on a weekend trip the the local camera club. I managed to get a couple more bodies to get up at 5 in the morning to catch sunrise. It was a learning experience for them and they enjoyed it and more importantly they now understand the magic of Landscape photography.

What The Duck

Clew Bay Sunset

Here is your Scenic Sunday image.

Well this will be my last post for a few day as I'm off to Westport today to try and capture even more wonderful sunsets. The above image was taken on my last trip to Westport. This was taken at the Bartraw, White Strand Beach looking out over Clew Bay.

I was shooting straight into the setting sun at this location. However, waiting for the sun to set below the distant mountains, I was able to capture the above image with not too much difficulty.
Only one 3 stop ND Grad filter was used to balance the sky and the reflections in the foreground water. You can add this one to "My Classic Sunset" series, but maybe not that interesting?
What do you think?

I will have access to the Internet etc... (God Bless the iPhone), but as I already said no posts. Oh ye, just in case you are wondering, I will have photo's of the Tiger Cubs next week for you after the Zoo go public with the news story and images. You know the proverb " don't count your chickens before they hatch".

See you all next week and have a good one.

Your Classic Sunset II

Here is your Skywatch Friday image.

OMG only one post since last friday.

I have being very busy with commercial work and the Zoo this week. Next week will be the same amount of posts as I will be away over in the West of Ireland until Thursday. I hope to get at least one image up of the Tiger cubs for sunday/monday.

Here is another one of "My Classic Sunsets". It's again from Oldhead , Westport. The location is the same as the last post with only a move to the right by a few feet.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and talk to you all again soon.

Oh yes, lets hope this wonderful weather we are having here in Ireland lasts another week.

Mr Daddy Kepala

Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

I have being very busy of late and so no posts for the past couple of days.

If you have being following my blog lately you will have seen image of this fellow before. Well now we have to call him Mr Daddy Kepala as he is the proud daddy of two cubs.

I was down in the Zoo at the weekend to get photos of all the new babies and also the world record attempt for the biggest Teddy Bears Picnic with stands at over 34,000. Dublin Zoo hold that record already but the Teddy Bear Picnic was held in Zoo's all over the world on Sunday last.

The Tiger cubs are too small and I would not disturb mother or the cubs with flash photography as they are still indoors. So you will have to wait until next week to see them. I will be taking the photos at the weekend and then they will be released to the public.

Your Classic Sunset

Here is your SkyWatch image.

Well Ok not your normal classic sunset image, but it's one of my sunset images in good old black and white. ( what else is there ? )

This shows Clew Bay and the Nephin Beg Range across the bay. It was taken from the beach at Old Head in Westport during a wonderful sunset.

I believe that Westport is my next trip away at the end of the month. I will be looking for a few more different locations along the wonderful coastline of Co Mayo to add to my collection. Sunsets like this one will not be available as its a different time of the year and the sun will be setting in a different position.

Mist on Lough Cullin

Here is your Watery Wednesday image.

The above image was taken a good while ago when the Viewpoints team, Peter Cox, Carsten Krieger and myself get together for a few days. This time we were in Co Mayo. After a really early start to the day to catch sunrise, we decided that breakfast was in order. However, never one to miss a photo, we spotted this view above. Breakfast will just have to wait a bit longer today.

The fun we had trying to get into position. We had to walk through some bog land and we sank up to our knees. We also could not find solid ground to put the camera and tripods down. We were wet and the smell. Who cares a quick drive back to the B&B, shower and breakfast. Nice.