Jamestown Weir

20111204-_DSC3165-D700-Edit, a photo by Peter Kelly1 on Flickr.

I spent an hour in Jamestown a few days ago. When I arrived it was pouring out the heavens but after ten minutes or so it began to clear. The sun showed its face for a few minutes before sinking below the horizon, but in those few minutes the light was lovely.
This is a six-shot in-camera multiple exposure to try and capture some of the motion of the water. Those below are single-exposures.

 

Kayaker at the Sluice Gates

Last week a few of us travelled up to the sluice gate at Lough Allen which controls the flow from the lake into the River Shannon. It was a lovely sunny autumnal afternnon and we each got a few images we liked.

1/20th sec f22 ISO100

10 multiple exposures processed in-camera

Then, as luck would have it, a group of young'uns from a nearby Adventure Course arrives, a kayak was unloaded and one of the lads (Deco) proceeded to entertain us with a display of his talents. culminating in a daredevil drop from the rail of the bridge into the churning water beneath.

I had the 80-200mm f2.8 attached, and remembering how the buffer fills so quickly and the camera stops shooting when on continuous mode, I swithced to DX mode. This means the camera is using less than half of the sensor (smaller files and more images in the buffer) and also the lens behaves like a 120-300mm. I was shooting on manual exposure throughout, constanly re-adjusting fr the strong highlights, at f2.8 to leave the water splashes in focus but not the water around.

Multiple exposure blended in Photoshop. It's a little crude because I panned down as he dropped rather than use a wide angle lens fixed on a tripod.

MIlky Way, Longford

MIlky Way, Longford, a photo by Peter Kelly1 on Flickr.

You would think that after a 2 hour drive home, at midnight, that I would only want to keep going. The night sky was clear, not a cloud. I had been thinking of trying to capture the night sky in its glory. Not a star trail image but a picture of the stars and the Milky Way.
I pulled into a side road and another side road and got out the camera, tripod and head-torch. I set the ISO to 6400, aperture to 2.8 and shutter to 10 seconds. I wanted as short a time as possible to keep the stars sharp. No trails. The trees I lit with a second or two from the head torch to give a more uneven light than I would get from a flash unit.
I tried a few variations of ISO (up to Hi1 which equates to ISO 12800) and exposures down to 5 seconds with and without headtorch.
Post processing mainly involved White Balance, noise reduction and Tone Curve adjustments to separate the black of the sky from the grey of the Milky Way. The first photo is my favorite. There are such a lot of colours up there!

The next 2 are pictures taken without any light on the trees, which I think is loser to how the sky loos when you're out walking the country lanes. Except for the orange glow, which is light pollution, I think. Next time I hope to be far, far away from civilisation.

This was taken two days before. You can see how much more eveident the light pollution is in this one.

Roisin's Graduation

Roisin's Graduation, a photo by Peter Kelly1 on Flickr.

Such a busy weekend last week. Before the cycle in Westport I attended Roisin's graduation in Maynooth. It's a beautiful college with a good chilled atmosphere.

Into the Gale

Into the Gale, a photo by Peter Kelly1 on Flickr.

Last weekend saw the annual fundraiser cycle for VIVA (Vets in Voluntary Action) in Westport, Co Mayo. Instead of participating, this year I was photographing the event. Never was I so glad not to be on a bike and congratulations to everyone who took part. After contending with extremely difficult conditions near Delphi all returned in one piece (more or less). The pictures that I have in no way depict the conditions. It will be one to talk about for years to come but I think most will be back for more next year. Headcases, the lot of them.

Stradbally Cove

The day after the cycle we took a short trip to Stradbally Cove. Mid-day is probably the worst time to be taking photos but I like these two. The cove is narrow, deep, sandy with a stream running through it at one side. I've always loved how the running water cuts through sand so quickly creating a mini Grand Canyon between the tides.

Dungarvan

Myself and Owen arrived in Dungarvan for the Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford. This was principly a cycling trip but I had the camera with me, just in case. It was a beautifuly clear evening, quite a rarity in Leitrim but not so in Waterford. The picture of the streetlight has a desolate air about it and if you look closely the Starry Plough is visible in the sky. The cycle (no photos) the next day went well. It took 6 hours to cover the 160km including 3 Category 1 climbs.

HoeDown

This was back in June at Natalia's and Willie's, a night of tea-lights, music a haybarn, friends and fun. The Creaking Willows and Uni & her Ukelele and others were playing and singing. I was there with my camera trying to photograph in the falling darkness. 

Lough Key Photoshoot

I had this idea, following on from the picture in the previous post. That picture was, for me, a proof-of-concept image, taken and processed quite quickly to see if could be done and look realistic. However, almost immediately an idea grew that would suggest a darker or more threatening mood. Then, with the camera club being invited to display in the Dock, the impetus was there to bring the idea to completion.

With the location already decided in my head, all I needed were models, costumes, lights, make-up and hair, and helpers to shift things around. I borrowed some dresses and costumes from the local drama society, some flash-guns from some friends and arranged for make-up/hair. My daughter, Róisín, agreed to model for me. his aught me by surprise because normal I get a dirty look when I point the camera at her. I think the words "dress up" convinced her. I didn't tell her that she would be up a step-ladder balancing on one leg though. In the end, Make-up and hair was unavailable and I had to do some modelling myself. It was a bit of a pantomime, acting out the individual characters. Many thanks to John Walsh who turned up as a spectator and ended up as gofer, holder, technician and camera-man. I am sure we gave all the passers-by something to talk about, and there were a lot of passers-by.

It is always good to look back and see how it could have been done differently. I had wanted to use one of the flashes to provide some backlight and some illumination on the figure in the background. However, I had it set to "remote" using Nikon's CLS system, ie, triggered by the flash attached to the camera. Unfortunately, it was out of line of sight and too far from the camera to trigger. If I had set it to "slave" (or SU4 as it is called in the menu) it would have trigger from the light illuminating Róisín on the wall. Ah well, by our mistakes we learn.

Either It's locked...Or I Am

Either It's locked...Or I Am, a photo by Peter Kelly1 on Flickr.

I just heard that Boyle Camera Club want to use this image as the promotional poster for its upcoming exhibition in the Dock http://www.thedock.ie

I am delighted. It's not the image I submitted for the show, but it's one I really like. So..expect to see me floating around Carrick and Leitrim over the next month.

1955 Austin Westminster

1955 Austin Westminster, a photo by Peter Kelly1 on Flickr.

I recently added a new lens to my collection, bringing the total to two. It's a Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8D. This has since been replaced by Nikon (Currently the the 70-200mm VRII) which sells for 3 times the price.

I was at the local vintage car show and wanted to try out the telephoto zoom. I am seriously impressed. It'll take me a while to get used to it. For the last two years I've mostly been using a wide zoom (17-35) on my Nikon D700 and only occasionally a telephoto on my old Olympus E500.

I had intended to sell the Olympus, to help finance the NIkon but now my daughter Róisín has decided she wants to give it a try (again).

I got a few shots at the show and met John Walsh, another member of the Boyle Camera Club http://boylecameraclub123.blogspot.com/. With him being a Nikon user as well, I wanted to borrow his strobe for a project that should culminate in an exhibition in the Dock in Carrick on Shannon in September. More on this later.

Where better than here?

I've seen a few photography blogs out there lately, mostly by professional photographers, and am taken with the idea of putting out a few words around whatever project or theme I'm working on.

Over the last year I seem to be taking more and more photographs and trying out lots of new ideas. Creatively, I'm often stuck but ideas sometimes come from nowhere. Recently I made up a portfolio for a course application. I didn't get it (I'm on a waiting list) but the process of detailing a complete project from start through to finish was a new experience and one which I would like to continue. Where better than here?

So.. here goes.