Postcard from West Cork

What a difference a day makes. After the high winds and battering rain that were with me as I went to bed last night, I was surprised to wake up to sunshine and peacefulness this morning. I made the most of this beautiful day and was out with my Canon until I had filled both of the memory cards I had with me. As I can't process anything until I get back to my Power Mac at the end of the week, the images I bring you until then are all from my point and shoot, so I do apologise for the lower quality.

As the evening sunshine came, I took my p&s down to the little strand and gathered some images of a few things that start to make this area so special.

The wide variety of birds and wildlife.
The green fields surrounded by weather-beaten stone walls.
Chimneys venting the distinctive sweet smell of the turf fire.
Strands that have a wonderful medley of pebbles and seaweed.
Rock pools full of vibrant colour.
Lichen, an indicator of clean air.

I shall sleep well tonight.

Wild West

Firstly I must apologise for the image for today as it is not the one I really wanted to post, rather it is the only one I could post. Still, it may have merit of its own but I shall explain. You see, I have gone West, almost as far West as I can go before I fall off the last landmass into the sea, with next stop being America. I am in West Cork on the next session of my documentary study of rural life in the region

As I flew in this morning, I guessed that this wonderful western extremity was going to present itself as wild in the weather stakes when I overheard a ground-crew girl pass a comment to the stewardess that,
'It looked a bit bumpy on the approach'
I can confirm that she had indeed made an accurate observation, and that the wind hasn't let up all day. As I sit here typing this, I can barely hear myself think over the roaring wind noise coming from the two chimneys at either end of the house. The rain has also persisted so that it was practically impossible to continue with the planned photography. However, just to show you how wild it has been, I took some pictures from the shelter of the car of some impressive waves down on the coast road. I guess you would like to see them? Well, you will just have to imagine them for now. As I took them on my 5D mkII the 21 megapixel RAW image is just far too much for my old laptop to process. (That laptop is a well travelled friend but I fear it will have to be retired now. Apart from it being underpowered it is also very heavy and caused me to smuggle an extra 1.8kg through baggage today- don't tell Mr. O'Leary!) So, a less interesting 5 megapixel jpeg image from my point-and-shoot is proudly gracing the top of my post instead today. (The point-and-shoots days are numbered too)

Phew, nearly there. If that wasn't enough, then the laptop crashing three times whilst trying to write this coupled with an internet connection the speed of a snail, you are lucky that you have a posting at all. You may or may not hear from me over the next few days depending on how things go out here in the wild West.

Towers of Power

Iconic symbols that can be powerful for people

From Melon to Lemon

This was a picture I captured a while back. As the lemon leads on nicely from yesterdays picture and it is a 'Fishy Friday' I thought it would be an appropriate post.

I didn't know whether to pity the indignity of this poor tope or praise the fishmonger for a sense of humour. Regardless, it was making customers stop and look.

Pair of Melons

Photography is all about seeing, observing, recording. There is usually something out there if you care to look.

Seen yesterday when I was on my way up to London to view graphic work of an entirely different kind, I couldn't fail to notice this. Permanently inscribed into every transom window in the carriage were these fruits of someone's labour.

The Day the Camera Turned

Click here for full article Pages 37-41

This is the February edition of Style Magazine, featuring Claudia Perkins as the Face of Cambridgeshire. She has deservedly been selected this year, from around seventy portraits taken by award-winning, Cambridgeshire based photographer, Mark Ashworth.

Each year at his studio, Mark runs make-over sessions for women 'from sixteen to sixty', giving the chance to have make-up and hair styling done by professional, Samantha Cooper, before going into the studio for a shoot. One image can then go forward to the Face of Cambridgeshire competition. With half of the fee being donated to Breast Cancer Care, this is a very attractive proposition.

So it was, back early last summer, that I was looking for something special to give to my husband for a notable anniversary. He had often bemoaned the fact that I was always the wrong side of the camera and he didn't have any nice pictures of me, so I swallowed my embarrassment and contacted Ashworth Photography.

For a couple of hours the attention and the camera was turned, and for a moment I was wondering what on earth I was doing. However, Mark was chatty, fully understanding of my plight and my reason for being there, whilst calmly clicking away. Well, I think the result speaks for itself (I'm keeping the rest of the lovely photos just between me and my dearest) and I know someone is very happy. Anyway, the arrival of Style Magazine suddenly reminded me that I should ask Mark if it was ok for me to use one of the photos at the side of my blog, so that you could see the face behind this camera!

Thank you Mark!

By the way, he is running the 'Face of' again for 2011, go to
http://www.ashworthphotography.co.uk/blog/files/category-makeovers.php

Reverent : Irreverent

Today I observed an interesting juxtaposition between location and sale subject.