Kylemore...

Finally it's here. The Kylemore Abbey! I didn't go to this place 5 years ago when I was here so I'm finally there. The road length is probably same as that one to Cong. Well, let's not talk about the expenses.
Before hopping into the car I prepared my gear, and specifically, kept my camera with the old 18-55mm lens around my neck, while the rest of the gear in the backseat. I knew already that I will encounter some nice scenery on this long way - and it was no disappointment.

One of the hills of Connemara taken from the cab.

of course shots taken from the cab aren't as good as stable shots on ground, but I would lose more time if I ask the cab driver to stop now and then. And despite my hate for the old 18-55mm, but it is the perfect lens so far that I have for this mission; shooting on the move. On the way to Kylemore Abbey, we passed through different towns and villages, and one of those was Recess (yeah, it is called "Recess"). This town has a statue of Conn of the Sea (or Conn son of the Sea), namely in Irish that would be Conn na Mara, and hence the region's name is Connemara. I'm not sure what's the legend behind Conn, but I should check it out some time later.

Conn na Mara
raised on 1999.

Now, on location. First I took simple shots for a statue of Jesus, but then headed to the big bite: the abbey. There and in front of the door, I went on working on a complete spherical panorama. Despite the sunny weather, I'm expecting lot of problems with this panorama already because of the moving shadows and the moving people - wish if there is a way to control people just like that! Anyway, we will see to that later on when I reach home hopefully. After finishing the panorama, I did a little "experiment" with my infrared gel filter and 15mm fisheye lens, which yielded and exposure of 9 minutes.

Kylemore Abbey

Unfortunately, I didn't head inside the abbey because of the "population" jam apparently. I wouldn't be able to walk around easily among people and taking photos with a backpack and carrying other stuff with me while the camera is hanging around my neck as well. So, I had to call it off and I shot some details from the outside of the abbey.

Statue decorating the top of the gate of the abbey.

For such details I had to use my Sigma 70-300mm and with a teleconverter at some point. Anyway, I continued my walk on the trail after the abbey and reached a simple decorative waterfall and did some tiny long exposure there (in fact holding the the shutter button with my finger instead of using the remote cable here). I didn't process this image yet but anyway because of the stack of ND filters, it became reddish and some WB fixes needed. I'll keep that for home as well. At the end of the way, another panorama was conducted in front of the Gothic Church, and some shots for some details there as well. The trail was going on further but at this point, I had to return (specially with my bladder getting full!).

Now I'm not sure what's the plan for tomorrow, but after tomorrow is supposedly the day for Cong. It is a long road as well. Probably I'll just have a long walk to the downtown again, to use the ATM machine! Anyway, time to post this and have some rest. My legs still aching after the long walks!

Zooming...

I have to say that I'm really not so sure what's the big deal with starting a new year. I hear the same hopes and the same wishes all over again like the previous year and the chain of history and events never changes. Time is just time for me; something to be used as much as possible.
However, suddenly and just without knowing it, I've found myself being one of the organizers and volunteers in the photography group. This might imply that I do have some changes in front of me; maybe a new smartphone with new phone number to be in contact with the group, and a more time-occupying schedule and tasks. In the meantime, there are a lot of expenses awaiting for me this (new) year. The car and a new PC are the major concerns for now. Marriage might come later, if any. Also, I'm upset for the delays in shipping with all this holiday season. If it takes any longer than this I have to proceed with contact-making and see if there is something serious about my shipment. One item out of four is still hanging out there not reaching my US mailbox.

Early in the beginning of the last week, an old friend showed up online. I didn't have a chat with her for a really long time - probably more than 7 years. We were online friends only though.

Gothicum II

As she flipped through my Flickr photostream she liked one of the images taken from Ireland, specifically for the front door of Cahir church; Gothicum II. The shot was in fact a small vertical panorama. She asked for a print of this. The snap shot you see on the left is for the print after spraying 2 layers of varnish. I have a major problem with sprays here as I'm still in the phase of trial and error. The varnish sprays were gloss for acrylic and satin. I waited for the first to dry, then sprayed the next and waited for few hours until it was totally dry.
You might be asking if she paid for it, well no. She suggested that, but I hated the idea of receiving money from an old friend liking one of my pictures for the first time.
Now, I need to work more on trying various varnish types. Something that would make the print really glowing, and contrasty.

Currently, there is a general lacking of ideas in my head to do any photography, thus I've decided to work more on macro photography with reversing lenses. One of the hardships of such method is to determine what's the actual focal length! I'm pretty sure though that with some physics this issue might be clarified. Another issue is to know the magnification power or factor for such a combination. These matters are somehow important to make a studied option about which lenses to combine and whether to attach one or the other to the camera while the other is reversed, that is if it makes a difference (and I'm sort of sure it does). Imagine building a simple microscope with some lenses and a camera that you already have!.

20 Fils

A

Literally, Sugar Cubes

Match Head

Edge of Feather

Ant Head

The shallow depth of field is a major problem as well. Maybe with static problem it is not much of a problem but it would be so with a little moving object like an ant! Increasing the depth (i.e. f-number) might not work all the time as well and it does change the depth only slightly sometimes, add to that, a longer exposure time. Because of the many elements that stand between the camera and the subject (and depending solely on the live view display) it needs some trial and error to get the right exposure time - because not everything you see on the live view is what you will be having in the final image.

Emission
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/2.8, 2000^-1sec, ISO 100.

Let There Be Light
18-55mm @54mm, f/5.6,
13^-1sec, ISO 200.

Still going on with the philosophy of light workshop, and things are going smoothly with it. Most of the information encountered, so far, are already in my pockets. The only thing left for now is the inspiration to do something. Ironically, some of that inspiration hits at the moment while the training in the workshop is still going on, and that's how Emission was made, when I simply pointed my camera to the fluorescent light and putting down many stops of the shutter speed. My aim in the beginning was to capture a glimpse of the original tubes behind the metallic grating, but what I got was something totally different, and colorful. After 2 or 3 successive shots, some of these were bright while the others, like Emission, were colorful. This is simple to understand when we know that such CFL lighting sources depend on the excitement of atoms and emitting photons every time the electrons are back to their original orbits. That's why CFLs are energy-saving devices - because they don't need a continuous electric source like the traditional bulbs which depend largely on heating by continuous electricity to produce light.
I've suddenly found myself documenting one session of the workshop as it was requested from me by organizers, but as I was documenting I had also to indulge in the session itself, and that's when Let There Be Light emerged. A simple minimalistic shot for a light fixture in the wall, in one corridor out of the conference room (of the hospital) where our sessions usually take place. Because everyone was out I had some problems taking this one and I had to zoom in and out trying to avoid distractions. It appears to have some overexposure but according to the histogram, it is quite natural in fact and not overexposed. Probably I should have cropped a little from the right to the limits of the vertical line.

Now, it seems to me a busier time is coming up and a tiresome one too of course. I'm not sure how to cope with all of that yet, but I do hope some merit would shine through. My main concern right now is financial, and probably I'd have to drop some amount of money (and time) to do things that I need to do. I can only dream now of a secondary income source that helps me to sustain my back. I think my work with the group is a first step for the time being, even though my visions are different than theirs, but we have common interests after all.
We have other health issues as well and seems, this time, I have to consider dieting seriously. I'm not sure how to make up the time for this, but I have to. Talk about stress for doing things you really neglected on purpose because you don't have time to do them in the first place. What's so special about this year anyway?

Cashel Rock

Wow! What a windy, tiresome day. I don't even know how I'm typing these words now. After having my shower after getting back to my place, I really don't know how I could bear sitting here for hours preparing and organizing my pictures for today.

My day began with the regular routine of cereals breakfast, and having a bit of coffee. Just a bit, not a mug like I used to do back in Kuwait! However, I think all of this coffee was burnt out on my way to the town center heading to the castle itself; The Cashel Rock.
Although the brochures and the website about this place say that it is around 10 minutes walk to the castle, but anyway I guess I spent one hour reaching the place! Anyway, I think the distance to the castle specifically is almost the same as the distance I used to walk to Oughterard town when I was in Co. Galway last year. On my way, I glanced the castle, which actually gave me hope that I'm on the right track, because I didn't take any maps or anything, simply following the owner's directions which I might have heard in a wrong way or something!

Cashel Rock from a distance, before reaching the town center. Taken with my 55-200mm@110mm.

After reaching the town's center, there were so many shops in front of me for many many stuff. The castle then was obvious from above the houses in the horizon, to my right. I kept on walking to the right and trying to find my way how to head to the castle, because from afar I saw some shops that actually block the way! However, I passed by a church. The St. John The Baptist Catholic Church. At the gate I noticed some dog dung, which was really unpleasant view. Anyway, I got inside the yard of the church a bit and noticed some structures and monuments and graves as well. Not being a christian however, made me a bit buffled and I didn't know much of what are these things. However, and while staring at some grave with a celtic cross as its stone, the father came and greeted me and I told him about my intentions of taking some photos and he also invited me for some ceremony at around 10:30 (and the time was maybe 10:00 or a bit before this). However, to me I have red lines I cannot cross and I didn't know if attending religious ceremonies for other religions is allowed for me or not. However, he gracefully allowed me to take pictures around the place and it was indeed a nice architectural view, except for the sun the almost blew out my mind and eye!

 Some structures from the St. John The Baptist church.

I was always in love with such iconic arts and always wanted to see ones. Although I do wish to go inside the church one day and take a full panorama with my heavy tools here with me, but I don't think that would be easy EVEN though I explained my intent to the father. It's just me that I hate to bother other people and specially in such religious places. I don't think it is proper at all.

Anyway, I walked out from the church and roamed the town center a bit looking for some way to get into the path leading to the castle, but no use! The maps provided there for tourists actually buffled me more! Finally, I've glanced the Tourists Information Office, which I discovered when I got in there, it is also a gifts shop. The lady at the desk there explained it all to me, and the path that I thought it was blocked by some barricade, was actually indeed the path to the castle. I thanked the lady and headed there at once, and one the way I've noticed a tiny museum, but unfortunately, it was closed with no specific timing for openings shown! I walked to the end of the road until I arrived finally at the castle.

The last portion of the path to the castle was going up and it was really hard (with my exhaustion already) to climb. I sat down a little and took some pictures with my fisheye lens for the castle facade. I didn't add them yet to the net because simply, I took them for the mere fun. The facade of the castle had some huge posters and I didn't like the view anyway, but I loved the geological strucutres at the base carrying the castle itself.

After some rest, I climbed up, got the ticket and roamed around. So much was there to see and the place was, for my bad luck, clogged with tourists from all around the world; Germans, Russians (or somewhere from Eastern Europe), British or Australians, Germans and probably Scandinavians! It was so hard to take any decent images at any place. I was trying to walk against the stream of people; I go to the places that they leave or to the places that they didn't visit yet!

Some artifacts in the castle's museum.

The low light inside the castle was problematic somehow and even with high ISO like 800, the HDR shooting was hard to be done and sometimes even for an EV of zero, where the image is usually mildly dark. Now this, granted me another visit to the castle, but surely not tomorrow!

In the castle and even before I go there, in the past two days, I was trying to develop some methodical way to shoot on the go, and I came up with some decisions to work as fast as possible, providing that I won't be needing a tripod or a monopod:

• Once you get the camera out, hang it around the neck and don't get it back again into the case.
• The space of the camera in the case is used to dump the lenses for change and use.
• Do not change or drop the lens from the camera after taking the shot, for the next shot you might still need it. Don't waste time changing lenses.
• If possible, try using the Tv mode as much as possible with good settings to get a good lit image. High ISO might be needed here. Using built-in flash can be useful sometimes too.

I didn't follow these steps exactly like that, but some thoughts that I might follow from time to time myself. I got out from the main building of the castle to the yard where there were some graves and a nice scene of the fields in the horizon. Pictures at this point were even harder to get, because tourists seldom evacuate the place. A heavy photoshopping job is waiting for me...

A Celtic Cross as a gravestone. 

Took it specifically for a friend who likes them!

After getting out of the castle and taking pictures of a celtic cross and the fields, I headed to the chapel which was added later after building the main body of the castle. Now this place was huge with archs like those I found in Cong's abbey, and according to some tourists guide, I heard him say that the design is mainly affected by the Gothic style which was introduced by the Normans. I think Cong's abbey might be of the same century or so.

The chapel main hall was a place for a panorama. It is the first panorama I shoot so far here in Ireland. I mean a complete spherical panorama because there were little panoramas I took here and there. I was afraid a bit because the tourists never leave the place and, such tools might alert some of them thinking it is something fatal or so! Well, what I can say. Being an Arab is not good all the time! Anyway, I did my work amid the movement of the tourists and the hard movement of the VR-head, and to add to my misery, some haze started to fall on me and my VR-head, but gracefully, not the lens or the camera!

 The map of the chapel printed on porcelain pieces and fixed into a table on the ground.

Taken with my 15mm fisheye lens.

As for the panorama, I think there were some shakes but however, the main concern now is about the people who went on crossing all over the place while I shoot. In fact, I'm thinking of turning this point as a style. In other words, the people or the ghosting effect of moving people should not be removed to add some action to a silent panorama. I should say as well it was a HDR panorama.

The wind got stronger by the time I started to shoot this panorama, and my hair was another story here. Should've brought a hair gel instead of a hair mousse! Anyway, at this point I went outside for a final stage shooting at the graveyard of the chapel, where tourists remained in the place as well and the hard wind froze my face off. I took some images of some monuments or should I say, mausoleums. Also in the horizon, I could see the fields and strange ruins that virtually, had no roads leading to them or anything.

The fields from the chapel's graveyard and the ruins appear on the left side of the image 

(click for larger view).

Finishing all of that and planning at the back of my head for another visit to this castle, and hopefully with less tourists, I headed back on my way to the town center to get me some food for the rest of the day. Well, I spent some minutes wandering here and there until I've finally found it. They call it "Food Market" here and I thought it sells only vegetables and fruit, but it is in fact a small market with stuff other than food. On the way back home my stuation even became more miserable when the plastic bag tore off and some stuff fell down! Boy, ain't I glad to get back home now?!!! My feet are still aching, and for this I think I will have a restful day tomorrow maybe taking pictures around this beautiful house.

Cong, Co. Mayo.

Today, after breakfast, I traveled along within a taxi to another county: Mayo. I headed (with the taxi of course) in a long journey that almost took one hour of driving to a village called Cong, on the north of the Loch Coirib. This long way was supposedly to be shortened (with lesser expenses) by a ferry, but since the ferry stops at the end of the September with the end of tourism season, I had to take the hard way. Not only that, but a ferry would take you into the lake to an island in the Corrib, named Inchagoill, where a grave stone of St. Patrick nephew is supposedly to be there with a church that dates back to the 5th century, and also a 12th century's Romanesque church. However, today I went to Cong, and tomorrow, if the weather was nice I shall be heading to Inchagoill by boat.

There are three main sites to see in Cong, but I saw only two of them since I didn't really care much about the third! They are: 1. Ashford Castle which has been turned into a luxurious hotel, 2. St. Feichin Monastery which dates back to the 6th century, 3. A museum, which was the house where a movie was shot, named "The Quiet Man."

1. In Ashford castle, tourism was much still alive and people were going in and out, either for picnics or to play golf in the wide green fields around the castle. I took many shots around the place and I had a long walk in the forest behind the hotel (the castle). We were thinking that the monastery is somewhere around the castle but we got it wrong. Anyway, I really loved the trees there, and some of them were giants and obviously hundreds if not at least one thousand years old. On the way out of the place, we asked a valet about the monastery, and he guided us to it. It is in the village itself and not near the hotel.

2. We got back to the village and found the monastery. Frankly, I don't know if it is St. Feichin monastery, but it was Cong Abbey, or "Ministreach Chonga." It was a national monument as the signs in the place denoted and from the design and the hard rocks it was obvious that it was a medieval building. The graves were every where and I was trying hard not to stop on them. The dead deserve their respect. The graves were marked by a grave stones sometimes but lot of times they were marked by a Celtic crosses. The abbey had a second floor which was exposed like a roof, and I tried to take a panoramic shot up there. The building was magnificent, and after the castle of Aughnanure, this is the second time I see a real medieval building with religious significance. The castle itself was not completely medieval as it was obvious that it had been renovated to be in shape of the hotel that it is seen today. The abbey was unique with its ruins. Upon my way out, I snapped the gate of the abbey as well;

3. On the way back from Cong, I had a nap in the taxi, as the long drive to Cong actually made my stomach a bit disturbed. On the way though, I couldn't help to stop my camera from snapping but this I had to make fast shots with no HDR intention (3 shots with different exposures and blah blah blah). There were many spectacular views for Connemara hills and the Corrib lake with the road being up and down all the way, but I had few shots that were good enough, specially with the problem with the light source and the speed of the shutter;

Tomorrow, Hopefully, I'll be heading to Inchagoill, and only 4 days left to get back to Dublin, and on the 5th day then, I shall fly away back home!