Simply Beautiful Photographs, Tips on Composing Photographs, Gallery – National Geographic

Simply Beautiful Photographs, Tips on Composing Photographs, Gallery – National Geographic

Week 17 - 21 April 2012

Cherry Blossom along the Newry Canal 

There are three things that change the landscape and bring a breath of fresh air and inspiration to me during April:

1. The fields of yellow rape seed flowers across the drumlins of County Armagh and Down; 
2. The bluebells which appear in the ancient woodland around Carlingford Lough including my favourite spot at Narrow Water; and finally 
3. The pink cherry blossom which thrives in parks and gardens across the country.... 

The mature cherry trees which form a continuous corridor along the Newry Canal which runs through the centre of the town are so often over looked - Each year they bloom like crazy - masses of pink flowers and blossom. Each year I promise myself I will get the perfect picture of this all too short phenomenon - I haven't captured it this year but I'll keep trying!!

Cherry Blossom along the Newry Canal

Cherry Blossom along the Newry Canal

Cherry Blossom along the Newry Canal

Cherry Blossom along the Newry Canal

Cherry Blossom along the Newry Canal

Week 18.... 23 April 2012....
A Blue Notion..

I now live in the townland of Ballinacraig in the town of Newry... I didn't grow up in there but often heard of the famous 'Blue Motion' Quarry in Ballinacraig that my parents used to swim in... My understanding is that the Blue Motion was filled in many years ago but around  home there are plenty of other abandoned quarries in the townland of Ballinacraig, (the townland of the crags)

After my journey home from Belfast on the train I suspected we might get some nice colours in the sky - so after a quick change I headed out for an hour... I found myself on top of an old abandoned quarry on the Moorhil Rd looking towards Camlough Mountain....

Sunset over Camlough Mountain - no filters

Sunset over Camlough Mountain - Hoya NDX400 filter

Sunset over Camlough Mountain - no filters

Sunset over Camlough Mountain - Hoya NDX400 filter

 I wasn't happy with the results even with a 9 stop filter on the camera!! so I decided to change my perspective... there was a dead thistle growing among the gorse undergrowth which I thought would work well as a silhouette against the red sky....

 After deciding there was nothing further to be gained from hanging around on the top of a deep quarry in the dark I decided to head into town to capture the town at night under a fantastically clear deep blue sky.... and a tiny sliver of a crescent moon... Jonathan Swift is reputed to have said 'High Church, Low Steeple; Dirty Streets, Proud People' on a visit to Newry.... the church he referred to was St Patrick's COI located on hill above the town. The church is supposed to have been built in 1578 and is considered to be the first protestant church in Ireland.

Against the night sky the church has a castle look perched high above the surrounding land

I was accosted by the local constabulary while taking this photograph....
so much for a normalised society in Northern Ireland!!

St Patrick & St Colman's Cathedral Newry by night

St Patrick & St Colman's Cathedral Newry by night 

Week 16.... Friday 13 April...... Unlucky for some....But not me

Friday 13th.... Not always my most successful day but today I spent it on the most spiritual place in Ireland the Hill of Tara in County Meath.... 

The Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny) on the Hill of Tara,

The Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny) on the Hill of Tara, 

My other half on the Hill of Tara

Hill of Tara

Fairy tree on the Hill of Tara

It was my first time to visit Tara and despite the weather, which was overcast and mild, and despite the other visitors who were there around lunch time...  I still felt the hands of the ancient Irish king and warriors touch my soul... 

Legend has it that St Patrick was summoned to Tara by King Laoghaire and convinced him to convert to Christianity

Week 16... Thursday 12 April... Gold (Ór) National Museum Dublin
Ór - Ireland's Gold
As a family we spent a few days in Dublin after Easter and during this wee break I took the opportunity to visit the The National Museum of Ireland. The museum's collection of prehistoric goldwork, ranging in date between 2200 BC and 500 BC, is one of the largest and most important in western Europe. It was beyond words how beautiful these ancient pieces are.... people talk about Aztec Gold and Egyptian Gold but the Irish pre-historic gold collection is amazing... well worth a visit. 

Not from the Gold collection but rather from the Early Christian collections - the final photograph is the Shrine of St Patrick's Tooth - a wooden shrine encased in bronze and decorated with ecclesiastical figures and a setting of gold, silver, brass and amber. The tooth reputedly fell out of St Patrick's mouth on to the doorstep of St Brone's Church, County Sligo.

Week 16.... Tuesday April 10 2012... Dawn at Dusk....

After the miserable Easter weekend weather I have a few days off... so decide to take advantage of the dry weather to grab a few sunset shots.... As usual I'm into the car and heading south towards Cranfield. I ended up at Soldiers Point and Greencastle Pier for about three hours which were thoroughly enjoyable. 

The highlight of the shoot was finding this boat called Dawn and shooting it against a fantastic pink dusky sky

 The colours tonight were very dramatic... some big old stormy rain clouds were still floating around and I was caught in at least three showers... one of which was hailstones.... talk about four seasons in one day.... I love the drama of the dark blues and golden yellow hues in the sky in the picture below:

 Reflections of the sunset sky on the incoming tides....

 Sunset from Soldiers Point, Greeencastle, Co. Down

The Seatruck Ferry navigating the narrow channel at Greencastle approaches the Haulbowline Lighthouse at dusk..... the ferry currently operates 22 sailings per week on the Heysham to Warrenpoint service.

Week 15.... April 8 2012... A wet weekend....

My photographing activities during the previous weekend have been limited by birthday celebrations and family commitments....  however this weekend is Easter weekend and the weather isn't much better!! It's a wet miserable couple of days that really disappoints after such great weather over the previous few weeks!! The most I could muster was some shots of the rain on my kitchen windows !!!

Rain Rain go away.... Come back another day....

Rain Rain go away.... Come back another day.... preferably when I'm at work

And some shots about 8pm when the rain finally started to disappear.... overall a disappointing weekend

Sunset over Camlough Mountain - hidden by cloud

Pink sky at night Shepherd's Delight

One thing about being frustrated at my lack of photo opportunities during the day meant that I was experimenting over a glass of wine with the K5 late at night... A lot has been written about the Pentax K5's high ISO capabilities and the sensor has been highly praised - the shot below of my beloved PRS SE Soapbar guitar was taken hand held at ISO 3200 - the high ISO allowed an exposure of F4 @1/8Sec - the areas of black in the guitar stock-head show virtually no noise... a far cry from my K10.... this has inspired me to try out more high ISO pictures with the camera.