Roberts Cove at sunset

Every summer we stay at my mothers mobile home for a spell, usually we have lovely weather but this year it just constantly rained. So that I found I was taking the children down to the beach whenever it was dry which sometimes meant late evening. Just as well as I managed to capture this shot.

A bit of wilderness

We've been having some refurbishing done, so my internet access was zilch, quiet literally, so to make it up to you I'm posting some calming pictures. Though the wilds of Blarney is anything but calm. We get many frosty mornings in Ireland and I so love the colour it gives to everything. The leaf is merely one of many in Midleton and the wilderness below is from the wilds of Blarney.

Roberts Cove

When the tide goes out besides a ton of seaweed, lots of other things are worthy of a camera shot, as unlikely as it seems I really like the pattern this bouy and its robe made. Seaweed had attached itself to the rope, myself and the boys said it looked very like a seahorse but that's just us.
I call this 'Out to Pasture' mainly as it looks as if no one wanted to use the boat anymore. There seemed to be less sea worthy boats out there but this one was just left to seed. Or so it seemed at the time. I'm sure it still gets used but putting a story to an object in a photo is half the fun, isn't it?

The palettes of the sky

We live near a beach, actually a few beaches and I do love trying to get various evening shots of the setting sun or a full moon. The colours always amaze me and though I probably only have a very small handful of nice moon shots out of many many taken, this will always be my favourite.

Fota Gardens, East Cork

Most summers we take the children to Fota, its a beautiful old historic house which has a wildlife center on one part of the grounds and a beautiful garden on another part while there is a golf course on another part. Absolutely huge. As much as we enjoy taking the boys to see the animals, they love the gardens even more. I think its the many winding paths and mazes, that they can get lost in.
The blue sky is rare enough and these were actually taken late last summer, haven't been able to take any but animal shots this year. The gardens are beautiful and immense.

Christmas Morning on Loughaderra

I'm trying something new this time, just want to see how the layout will look with the photos large instead. These were taken on my way to my mothers on Christmas morning. I was driving towards the lake and saw a man out with his camera and thought. 'Oh, I wish I brought mine' when it clicked on me that I had. So I stopped the car and began snapping. I love the colours in these.
The sun looked as if it had been trying desperately to break through for a while, the ground was thick with frost so the mist that began to rise off the lake in contrast with the gold from the sun was breathtaking.

If anything this has to be my favourite of the four, the colour from background to foreground is just beautiful with the birds in the air as well as on the water. People have nicknamed Loughaderra in East Cork, Swan Lake for years. With good reason. It's also widely known for its fishing. Needless to say I took a bit longer than I thought getting to Mom's on Christmas morning.

Many a Cold Frosty Morning in Ireland...

Midleton in East Cork is more famous I suppose for its Jameson Experience but it does also have lovely galleries and restaurants, some nice walks and great shops. On Friday morning we have the Country Market and on Saturday morning we have the Farmers market. For the size of the town it is very multicultural and extremely diverse, dare I say even cosmospolitan. This is the river that runs through it and on this particular frosty morning as I drove past after dropping the children to school, I had to turn the car around and come back to take a picture. It was beautiful with the mist rising, almost eerie.

This is another of our extremely frosty mornings. The Church of the Most Holy Rosary can be seen in the background, while the foreground is just a blanket of frost. The colours of the trees I find breathtaking as well against the cold sharp winter sky, some are red while others are green. Midleton is a beautiful place, in September we have the food festival while throughout the year tourists from all over the world enjoy the golf clubs, the equestrian centre, our restaurants. Great place indeed.

All creatures great and small

Every year there is a huge horse gymkhana just outside of Midleton, East Cork but as the grounds were sold for the building of a huge factory, they moved it really close to Midleton, so close infact I could park up the car whip out my camera and sneak in to get some shots. It was great.
When the rare bit of sunshine shows here, I personally love to see the butterflies out and about. I couldn't help taking this one when down in Ballycotton, East Cork.

Animal World

My mother and sister have an allotment. Just before you get to it are some stables, the horses were only too glad to pose for some photos. Magnificent animals.

This was taken at Loughaderra, East Cork. I love this, you can see the water dripping from the mallard and the vibrancy of the deep green. Such a beautiful bird or was it just my camera work? :)

Rural Irish Landscape

This was taken last summer during one of the many rare sunny days we experience in Ireland.
It's a lovely place called Nohoval, there isn't anything there really except for the ruins of an old fort or castle and the cove which is almost treacherous to get to but it's a beautiful bit of countryside.

Youghal, East Cork

This was taken from the promenade in Youghal,
where there is a lovely view of the distant lighthouse.
I was going through a phase as well, whereby I was
changing alot of my photos to black and white.

This is Youghal Strand, the swirls in the water were beautiful. I suppose most people would know Youghal as the place where part of the John Huston / Gregory Peck movie 'Moby Dick' was made in 1954. Its also very well known for its pottery and lace.

Swans at Loughaderra

The fishermen have a path on one side of Loughaderra,
East Cork. I figured they wouldn't mind me using it just
to take some shots of the swans there. Much better view
of them. I love this one, where they're all in a neat row.
Took me ages to set them up for that pose. :)

I do like taking animal and bird shots. I hope I'm getting better at it.

Beach Shot

This was taken on a Winters sunset at Garryvoe Beach
in East Cork. I was driving home the day before and in
my side mirror saw the red sky and went mad that I didn't
have my camera. So the following day without fail, I waited
until 15mins before the time I had noted the sunset from the
day before and drove down to the beach. The sky was truly
amazing down there. I could go into apertures and speeds but
as it's all still new to me, I won't do that just yet.

A lot of nature

I guess until I get used to this, photos and posts will be in a bit of disarray.

So we'll start with the top left hand photo; A Bridge Too Far.

This was taken on a cold frosty morning in Midleton, East Cork. My feet were freezing but I thought it was such a lovely shot, I was very enthuasiastic when I first got my camera that I literally went out early morning or late evening trying my best to get that elusive perfect shot.

The top right is more recent; A Chorus Line.

We were in Acres, Kinsale and just out the back of my In-Laws home are these very enigmatic cows. They stand and stare at the dogs or children for what seems like forever. They quiet happily posed for me as well.

Bottom Left: Baby Llama.

This was taken late July in Fota Wildlife Park, Carrigtuohill, Co. Cork. A lot of the animals had their young sequestered away from the publics gaze but right on the path as we walked along, stood the Mommy, the Daddy and this adorable baby llama. Just begging to be shot - with a camera that is.

Bottom Right: Daffodil Boat.

Just on the edge of Loughaderra, Castlemartyr in East Cork is this great little boat. In Spring time it fills up beautifully with these splendid yellow daffodils, come summer there are completely different flowers, crocuses or some such. My lack of flower knowledge withstanding, I just love this boat.

First Blog entry

Welcome to my Gallery, I am your basic amateur photographer but absolutely love doing it. My husband invested in a second hand Nikon D70s for me about two years ago now and I love it. It's my favourite toy, piece of equipment in the world. There are times I bring it every where with me and the times I don't, I end up regretting considerably. Its a basic extension to my hands. Since that initial first buy with a 55- 200mm lense and a 18 - 55mm and some filters, I have gotten myself a nifty tripod and a brilliant flash. I love night time shots and it kills me that I haven't perfected them as of yet. But I will get there. It's all a learning curve. My mother has a great blog about her organic allotment and has been suggesting that I do one for my photographs for a while now. I was leaving it up to my husband to organise a web page but he is just so busy with work that I thought, blog instead of web page just might be the way for me to go. So every day I will try to upload some fresh ones and explain a bit about them. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them. I do welcome your comments and any tips.