Shane McDonald Photography Blog

Woodstown Beach, Co. Waterford – Sunset : 19/Project52

shanemcd — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:37:48 +0000

Eventually got the camera out and with some nice weather over the weekend I saw this during a walk on Woodstown beach as the sun was setting. I liked the reflection of the sun on the wet sand. The tide had made the sand quite reflective and I just liked the overall effect. Not the best shot in the world but a relaxing view more than anything.

I used the Canon 18-55 kit lens for a change with a polarising filter which I was playing around with over the weekend. The resultant shot is shown below.

Photo Location : Woodstown Beach, Co. Waterford, Ireland

iPhone Photo Challenge for Project52 week 20
This week I am taking 1 iPhone photo per day which will be tweeted on @shanesphoto (if you are not following me on twitter, get following and I will follow you back). I will create a digest next week of all 7 images.

Pet Photography : 18/Project52

shanemcd — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:09:54 +0000

This week I tried my hand at Pet Photography with a new puppy, Pippa, a willing and participant miniature yorkie was a great subject and reacted very well whenever the motor in the auto-focus was whirring. The light was fairly low and as soon as the AF was triggered puppy’s head would pop up and look into or towards the camera. The result below was one of many great shots, so I couldn’t resist putting up this picture as this weeks Project52 shot of the week … even if it was last weeks shot (since it was taken on Sunday).

I had my 50mm Canon prime lens (not the L series version … I wish!) but I had no flashgun, so I had to rely on ambient light, ISO around 400 and multiple triggered shots so in the 1 second I could perhaps get 1 good shot. The result wasn’t bad but by playing around with Aperture3 (which I downloaded only yesterday) I was able to enhance the shot even further.

Hopefully next week I can try some of the more adventurous shots I’ve been planning.

I find I’m certainly not getting out as much with the camera and I’m sure this is as a direct result of the S**t weather we are having recently. Hopefully thing swill improve as I have shots I want to try but the meteo is not cooperating.

Donkey having a Scratch – 17/Project52

shanemcd — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:00:02 +0000

I decided to have some fun with this weeks Project 52 photo (by the time I’m uploading it, it’s actually the one for last week). Having visited the donkey sanctuary in Cork, I had a few ass photos ; This particular donkey decided to lie down and was enjoying a scratch on the ground. As you can see from the expression on the donkeys face its seems to be a satisfying experience.

The past few photos of the week (Project52) subjects have been serious and I thought with the miserable weather a bit of fun might be in order. Hopefully this dreadful December-like weather might pass and we can have some good opportunities for decent shooting.

Photo Location : Donkey Sanctuary, Liscarroll, Co. Cork, Ireland

I’m also wondering if there will be any volume of search or web traffic for ass photos – purely from an SEO perspective.

As the Tide Rushes In – Kilfarrasy, Co. Waterford – 16/Project52

shanemcd — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:27:00 +0000

I have been trying to get out to the beach late in the evening for a long time and eventually last night I did, however I didn’t have my full compliment of filters so I made the job a bit tougher than normal. I had been scouting Hook Head, Kilfarrasy and Annestown Beach as possible locations for a sunset long exposure shoot.

I was also hoping to capture the space station as it passed overhead (supposed to be 20:46pm but I never saw it). The resultant shot is what I got, not what I was hoping for but the shot below is not bad for a first attempt.

This weekend I hope to take some shots in and around Co. Cork, near Mallow. Other areas I have scouted for future photography sessions include a night shoot of Wexford town and some city shots of Waterford perhaps revisiting the black and white shots I did last year and creating similar shots.

Photo Location : Kilfarrasy Beach, Co. Waterford, Ireland

Waterford Photo on 3e Weather Forecast

shanemcd — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:34:25 +0000

One of my photos, “Sunrise over Waterford City” will be shown on the 3e weather forecast on Friday 20th April at 6:28pm. The photo which I took from the bridge in Waterford is shown below. It is part of the LoveWaterford week on the 3e Weather forecast.

A big thanks to everyone who, via my Facebook page, helped to secure the photos spot on the 3e forecast.
Thank You!!

Last of the Spring Flowers : 15/Project 52

shanemcd — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:38:41 +0000

All this week I had made multiple attempts at taking a nice shot of a field of rapeseed against quite a vivid skyline, but every time I tried something in the shot just wasn’t working. In the end I decided to try something on a smaller scale, that was the last of the spring flowers. I liked the contrast of the purple against the green and the light behaved itself during a week when the weather was not the best, neither one thing or the other. The final shot of the spring flowers is below.

This coming week the weather isn’t much better with rain between now and Friday so maybe I might try a bad weather shoot or something similar for next week.

Kinsale, Co. Cork – 14/Project 52

shanemcd — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:29:23 +0000

As it happened I ended up back in Cork for the second week running, having been in Cobh last week, this week I was near Cork Airport. So I decided to scout around for some locations, and thanks to a tip off from Twitter via my @shanesphoto account, I headed to Kinsale and later to Old Head of Kinsale (one of which is up on Flickr). I was 100% positive that I had been to Kinsale when I was younger but it didn’t bring back any memories, so the location was all new. Kinsale is a lovely town, very busy, even on a Sunday … but then again Sunday might be its’ busiest day considering how many tourists there were. Having parked the car on the waterfront, I walked the town looking for something interesting – it wasn’t overly sunny so the light wasn’t great. After 30 minutes walking I ended up back at the car, so I set up the tripod and fired off a few shots of the waters edge and some of the surroundings. Thankfully some blue was beginning to show through the clouds which made the scene quite pleasant.

I would have loved to press on towards the West Coast and up into Gougane Barra before heading back to Waterford but the weather started to close in and I said I would save that trip for another day.

Photo Location : Kinsale, Co. Cork

Cobh, Co. Cork : 13/Project 52

shanemcd — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 11:47:42 +0000

With the 100 Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic approaching in April 2012, I decided to post this photo which I took this week during an all too brief visit to Cobh, Co. Cork … (I may also put some more photos of Cobh online either on the blog or on Flickr in the coming weeks.)

The one thing about Cobh (apart from all the Titanic memorabilia) which I noticed, is that it is a very nice town, with a lot to do – certainly a place I will go back to soon. I was here as a child and from what I recall it still retains a lot of what I remember of the place. Lots of colourful shop fronts, nice places to walk and a stunning and iconic cathedral on the hill.

The day after my visit I did some researching online and I found out something I was not aware of – I had noticed a decrepit looking pier, bits of wood rotting and something which did not look safe… it turns out that this is the 19th century wooden pier in Cobh, formerly Queenstown, where the 123 passengers boarded tenders taking them to the Titanic. It turns out that this pier (called Heartbreak or White Star Line pier) is in a perilous state and some experts are warning that unless funding is provided the pier is likely to collapse. The old White Star Line office has been newly renovated and converted into a Titanic visitor attraction, uncertainty remains over the future of the wooden pier which needs €350,000 to renovate it. Amazing to think that this pier with all that history was left to fall into such disrepair. I’m looking forward to heading back to Cobh; for a longer visit next time!

Photo Location : Cobh, Co. Cork

Compare My Meerkat – 12/Project 52

shanemcd — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:18:13 +0000

Are you looking for cheap car inshooooraance? If so, don’t ask this little furry guy as he has no idea what 3rd party fire and theft is.

This is one of the Meerkat’s in Fota Wildlife Park near Cobh, in Co. Cork. The new compound for the Meerkats is just inside the gates so you can’t miss it and you get a good view of them as they perch on the look out.

I was delighted at how sharp I was able to get the final shot of the Meerkat, as I was shooting through the highly reflective and highly irritating (from a photography perspective) perspex glass.
I actually placed the lens almost touching the glass at 90 degrees in order to minimize any reflections or glare. I also set the camera to about F/5.6 in order to get a quick shutter speed and some depth into the shot (as there were many distractions in the background).

The only other thing I had to worry about was the spelling of Meerkat or Meercat … Google Insights for Search illustrated that there were more searches for Meerkat then Meercat so I decided to go with that!!
The Meerkat still hasn’t sorted by car insurance but I don’t think this guy is Alenxader !

Grey Heron at Cahir, Co. Tipperary : 11/Project 52

shanemcd — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:05:16 +0000

I came across this grey heron totally by accident in Cahir, Co. Tipperary ; it was standing in the weir just opposite Cahir Castle. Over a period of about 5 minutes this heron did not move, apart from tipping the flowing water with its’ right foot. I used the Canon 75-300 and upped the ISO to 400 so that I could get a nice crisp shot with the flowing water from the weir rushing by. The shot below is the zoomed version and there is a wider angle shot further down this page.

I was hoping that the heron might spot some fishy lunch and go diving; I had the camera set on rapid shot mode just in case and I was shooting at about 1/250. The wider angle shot of the heron is shown below.

The concentration and stillness demonstrated by this heron was amazing and I could have watched it for ages…

Nibbling Squirrel – 10/Project 52

shanemcd — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:30:26 +0000

This photo for last weeks Project 52 entry, a bit late posting it but better late than never. This weeks photo is yet another squirrel (a different one note) but this time its nibbling on some leaves and it was quite an interesting shoot. I saw the squirrel from a distance, its back to me, so I setup the camera, ISO 400 and a decent fast shutter speed as I was on the 75-300mm lens once again, so wanted to avoid shake / blur.

I very slowly moved under the branch, all the time moving slowly, avoiding twigs (which would crack and give the game away). I got this shot before the squirrel saw me, and scarpered further up the tree.

Although the final shot looks close, the squirrel was in face about 10metres up the tree on an overhanging branch.

It’s amazing what you actually see when you move slowly in a wildlife area, during this shoot there were many wild birds landing very close to me – move slowly, keep alert and be ready for anything.

It really is a pity about the weather recently, but hopefully I can get out and about with the camera again this week. Time to get inventive me thinks !!

Travel Photography : Some Photos from New Zealand

shanemcd — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:50:50 +0000

I have been going through some of my photos from New Zealand and doing a bit of cleaning up and Photoshop tweaking and I have uploaded some shots from New Zealand plus one from Singapore which I always liked but did a bit of fixing up of the image. I have placed some details about each image below the photos and I hope to put some more online via my Flickr account (see right of page for the Flickr Stream), and I hope to put up another few posts like this one with further New Zealand shots in the coming weeks.

The road leaving Arthur’s Pass heading towards civilization once again on the way back to Christchurch.
The sky is as-is, no work was done on making the sky look this way, apart from some adjusting of contrast and highlights etc

Arthurs Pass Viaduct Bridge : This Road is on the entry into Arthur’s Pass, an area with great viewing points and
a bird called a Kea which eats the rubber on your car. They have been known to strip & eat all the rubber from the windscreens of visitors cars,
who have gone for a walk and on arrival back at the car the windscreen has fallen into the car.

The Devils Punchbowl Waterfall, Arthurs Pass : A huge waterfall which is recommended in nearly all guide books,
but the 40 minute walk is probably not recommended if you want to avoid sore legs and swearing !

Welcome to Hokitika, a small town on the West coast of New Zealand.

Hokitika Sunset and Bonfire : After sunset on the beach at Hokitika many visitors lit fires and enjoyed a cold beverage !
The sunset was an amazing sight to see and I really should have had some grad ND filters to assist with capturing the sunset.

Reflective Lakes, Lake Matheson at Sunset in Fox Glacier : As the sun goes down at Fox Glacier / Lake Matheson
the mountains go a nice shade of red and the reflections in the lake are amazing.

and finally … Singapore ; a shot I uploaded a while ago but I have cleaned it up a bit and its a revamped version of the previous image uploaded to the blog.

Singapore by Night, a revamped version of the photo I recently posted to the blog.
This photo was taken from the 22nd floor of the Fairmont Hotel in Singapore, cable release and mirror lock-up disabled … and no tripod.
I used the level balcony and had a loose grip of the camera strap, just in case. (I have heard cameras sometimes don’t function very well after a 22 story fall)

New Zealand Photo Locations

The map below shows where these photos were taken in New Zealand.

Moonshot – 9/Project 52

shanemcd — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:31:41 +0000

Once again this past week the weather didn’t cooperate with my plans. ISS was in our skies last week and Monday and Tuesday it was too cloudy, Wednesday I didn’t have access to my camera, and Thursday – Sunday was not good for taking photos, with wind and rain. The best I did was a brief window on Sunday evening to get a shot of the almost full moon. I like it better when the moon is ‘almost’ full as you can see more of the craters rims etc.

Believe it or not, but this shot of the moon was taken around 6pm when there was still plenty of light in the sky, but you can then afford to drop down the shutter speed to about 1/800 to get a crisper shot (vital on the evening I took this as it was very windy and even with a good solid tripod you will induce shake into the shot on a long exposure)

Crows in the Tree Tops at Sunset – 8/Project 52

shanemcd — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:15:42 +0000

Last Week I was out and about at or near sunset and I spotted a large number of crows in the trees. When I took the photo they were moving so fast, that even at 1/100 the birds were still showing up as moving blurred images. I like this shot because of the color in the sky (totally natural – no photoshop apart from a slight boost on Fill Light and Exposure +0.5).

I didn’t really get a chance to go out with the camera much last week but I’m glad I got this shot, if only for the color and unusual shapes.

I’m hoping to get some shots of the International Space Station as it travels over Ireland this week, for next weeks Project 52 shot.

Grey Squirrel with a Red Head – 7/Project 52

shanemcd — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:25:55 +0000

In the grounds of Kilkenny Castle there are many areas where you can catch a glimpse of some amazing wildlife, from ducks, geese, swans, and many other types of small woodland birds to squirrels and even on a rare occasion badgers (according to the signs in the grounds of the Castle). On Friday I was luck enough to get a shot of a small grey squirrel, which I spotted in a tree. Luckily I had my 75-300mm lens on, so getting a shot of this little guy was made a lot easier. I increased the ISO to 400 and dropped down a stop as I would have been taking it at 1/60 according to the metering on the camera, so eventually I got it above 1/125 – quickly enough so that I didn’t miss the opportunity – and this is what I got. Its a small grey squirrel with a red head (which I didn’t spot until I was adjusting the exposure on the final RAW file).

The problem about shooting wildlife is that they rarely stay in the right spot long enough for you to get a nice shot, so if you do get an opportunity to get a good wildlife photo you just have to take it, and don’t wait and see if they get nearer or look at the camera again etc.

Train Hangs from Red Iron Bridge, Waterford – 6/Project52

shanemcd — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:52:53 +0000

Today I took the camera down to Red Iron Bridge and as I did I was amazed to see a train move slowly down towards the gap in the Red Iron Bridge, I was sure it would stop well before the gap but it kept on coming, until ….

Well, that would be an amazing news story and something to go into the photo-journalism portfolio, if indeed it were true ; but this alas is simply a slow photo week, I didn’t get to take the camera out and about much so I decided to do some playing around on Photoshop and used a photo of the Red Iron Bridge which I had taken during the week.

I used 3 layers and the original photo to put it together in Photoshop Elements 9, it was a very quick 30 minute job but a but of fun at the same time and no one got hurt !

Hopefully next weeks’ Project 52 photo will be a normal / real photo.

Enjoy !

Some Project 52 Themes for 2012…

shanemcd — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:22:40 +0000

I decided to set some photography themes for the Project 52 which I am doing this year on shanemcdonald.me.

I have not set dates against these as I want to be able to use them when ever I find a suitable subject or opportunity.
There are 26 photography themes which allows me to use one ever second week or so (bearing in mind that we are almost 6 weeks into the year already). I will then link up the themes below to the corresponding post later in the year. It might be interesting to see how many I actually get to take … hopefully all of them !

Themes for my 2012 Project 52

Black & White
Colors
Downtown
Food
Light
Lighting Experimentation
Macro
Morning
Music
Nature
Night
Texture or Patterns
Perspective
Red
Reflection
Self Portrait
Shadows
Summer
Sunset
The Kitchen
Trees
Underneath
Up
Water
Wind
Work

Landscape Photography Competition with £1,000 in prizes

shanemcd — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:11:33 +0000

For all those who take landscape photography, you may be interested in this excellent Landscape Photography Contest which is being run by Lavenderworld.co.uk
1st prize is £500 (roughly €600) of photographic equipment with £300 for 2nd and £200 for 3rd place.
The theme is Landscapes and entries are 1 digital photograph in colour or monochrome.

To enter this photo contest visit

http://www.lavenderworld.co.uk/blog/2012/01/31/the-lavenderworld-landscape-photography-competition

About Lavender World
Lavender is known for its medicinal properties as well as its beauty. Yorkshire Lavender was founded 13 years ago, and not only has this young company been tracing the history of the lavender plant, and but also experimenting with it many uses with a vast array of lavender based products.At Lavenderworld the aim is to provide a wide range of high quality and innovative products continuing our Lavender theme.

Visit http://www.lavenderworld.co.uk/.

Waterford City in the Early Morning – 5/Project 52

shanemcd — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:45:41 +0000

This weeks Project 52 photo was quite easy, as it just happened that I had the camera & tripod with me (fairly common these days) and that I was near the bridge in Waterford as the sun was coming up. The sun was nestling behind the clouds which gave a nice ray / beam of light over the city. I ended up with a few different versions of this photo. The one below is the photo which I think represented the actual view of Waterford as I took the photo. The bridge in Waterford was the ideal vantage point to take this shot – positioning myself on the centre-point and using a nice Tamron wide-angle lens I was able to capture both sides of Waterford and the nice sunrise over the city.

I have being driving over the bridge every morning for the past year and each day I promised myself that I would take a shot in the early morning from the bridge, so another one ticked off the list. I have some Waterford shots lined up for future Project52 posts, so stay tuned !

Photo Location

Crescent Moon over the River Suir – 4/Project 52

shanemcd — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:34:57 +0000

This week I decided to take advantage of the recent crescent moon in our skies since Monday. Using the 75-300 Canon lens, tripod & cable release I got a few good photos of the waxing crescent moon (at about 19%) and did some work with it from there.

The photo above was taken in Carrick On Suir, Co. Tipperary, a 56 second exposure converted to black and white (actually monochrome with a little tint). I then implemented the moon on top of a gradient layer in PhotoShop and created the reflection with a ripple effect and motion blur to copy the movement of the river.

Hook Head, Co. Wexford, Sun Beams – 3/Project 52

shanemcd — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:55:02 +0000

A few days ago I took a photo at Hook Head which I liked. I hadn’t planned on using it for this weeks Project 52 photo, but having gone out tonight to take some night shots, I found that the clear skies had clouded over !! The weather for photography at the moment is dire (neither one thing or the other) … and its not great for the next few days, so this photo taken at Hook Head is as good as I am going to get.

Hook Head is a great place to go, stunning vistas, crashing waves (amazing in the winter gales), lighthouse at night for those dusk shots when the rotating light is active. It’s certainly a place I will be coming to more often, perhaps later in the evening next time!

This weeks Project 52 shot is the SunBeams at Hook Head, Co. Wexford – Enjoy !

Sunrise over River Nore – 2/Project52

shanemcd — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:56:03 +0000

Second week of my Project52 was a bit more difficult with the weather not cooperating. Dull overcast days are tricky to shoot as the colours are not as vibrant as when the sun is peeking through the clouds.

The photo below was taken about 20 minutes after sunrise last Tuesday morning, as the sun rose over the River Nore and broke through the clouds. The clouds were nice and I decided to take 5 different exposures in order to get as many textures as possible. The result for this weeks delayed Project 52 shot is below.

I had hoped to do an evening shot of Waterford city as the lights were just after being turned on and there was still some light in the sky, but I might park that idea until later in the year.

I’m thinking next week I night do another seascape, an evening shot or perhaps a still life …I’ll wait and see how things pan out this week!

Cliff Walk Ardmore, Co. Waterford – 1/Project52

shanemcd — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:40:13 +0000

The first entry on my 2012 Project 52 is a shot which was taken this weekend in Ardmore, Co. Waterford from the Cliff Walk. Set off at the Cliff House Hotel and the journey takes about 60-90 minutes depending on your pace, and you end up back at the round tower in Ardmore.

This shot was taken mid-morning, luckily the sun was behind clouds so I was able to recover the detail from the sky.

Its a great walk and this time last year I posted a great shot of the Samson Crane which lies at the foot of these cliffs since 1987.

Buy a Print of this Photo

2011 – My Photography Year in Review

shanemcd — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:59:23 +0000

With 2011 drawing to a close I have being trying to set aside some time to review some shots which I have being meaning to edit & improve in post-production etc. That plan didn’t work out but I’m going to try and take some time in Jan 2012 to do this. I also plan on starting the Project52 – which is one quality photo per week uploaded to the blog (the Project365 seems like overkill and I tried it once before and failed to keep it going).

Photography Highlights of 2011

As a photographer, the highlight of the past 12 months has been the visit to New Zealand’s South Island, travelling from Christchurch, south to Dunedin and across to Milford Sound, finally going back to Christchurch via Hokitika and Arthurs Pass. It was an amazing adventure and a photographers dream. You can see some of these shots on Flickr and on this site. I recall having to buy more SD cards in each town I was taking so many photos and all in RAW.

Top Pages on the Blog

Below, I have listed the top 10 pages on my blog in descending order of pageviews. (source WordPress Stats)

How to blur backgrounds using the aperture
How to change Depth of Field and make blurred backgrounds
iPhone as a Camera – 7 Days of iPhone Photos
My Photo Gallery
St. Patricks Well, Co. Tipperary – Photo of the Week
Singapore by Night – Photo of the Week
Tall Ships Race Waterford, Photo Updates from Waterford
About my Photography
Fantasy Waterfall Scene – Photo of the Week
International Space Station Pictured over new Waterford Bridge

It’s not surprising to see that the most popular topics were Tips and “How to” pages. If you are interested in increasing your photography website traffic, including some tips and advice is a great way to get your name and website known as well as helping to monetize any advertisements you may have on your site.

Anyway, thanks for visiting this very brief review of 2011 – Happy New Year and Happy Shooting for 2012.

iPhone as a Camera – 7 Days of iPhone Photos

shanemcd — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:20:59 +0000

I decided to try push the iPhone 4S and its new camera to see what types of photo results I would or could get from the New iPhone Camera. The iPhone Camera on the 4S is miles ahead of the iPhone 3GS which I had upgraded from. Clearer images and much more dynamic range.

I took 7 photos on the iPhone. All editing had to be done on camera, no external post processing (on pc or mac). Use of iPhone apps was allowed.

Some of the results were very impressive when you consider they were captured on a mobile phone.
I have outlined the 7 images below.

CoCo – Cat CloseUp

No stranger to this blog, CoCo the Cat was a perfect subject. I just wanted to see how well the iPhone Camera did close up, and I was impressed by the sharpness on the fur and clarity of the eyes.

DOF Guitar in B/W

Testing the Depth of Field of the iPhone camera this gives a good example of the aperture in place on the iPhone. Photoshop iPhone app used to create the Black & White image. This is probably my favourite photo from the 7 taken.

Instagram Early Morning Shot

I took this around 9am, sun just hidden in the trees as it would have burnt out the image had I had the sun in direct shot. I used Instagram to then create this nice retro effect.

Early Morning Birds

I took this around 8:30, light was 90deg to the left of shot, I liked the colour, very little done to this image apart from a little sharpening.

Red Dusk with Moon

This shot was an evening shot (moon to the left of the tree) , I used the Tint function in the iPhone PhotoShop App to add to an already red sky. The shot was taken in early evening and as a result came out a bit noisy.

Colour and Landscape

I was interested in how the iPhone would capture colour and detail in good light in this landscape photo, which came out very well.

Royal Flush

I tried taking some shots of poker chips falling from a height and then tried it with playing cards, the shutter speed on the iPhone is just not quick enough to capture that sort of photo. However I did use the playing cards and poker chips and did a setup shot – I used a tilt-shift app which resulted in the photo below. I think the app might have reduced the sharpness in the resultant image.

Conclusion

There is a marked improvement in the iPhone 4S camera and I will be certainly using the iPhone camera more than I used it previously on the 3Gs. When you consider these photos were taken by a mobile phone and that 3 or 4 years ago a 1 MegaPixel camera was the norm on a mobile phone. Images on the new 8 MegaPixel iPhone 4S are sharper, the light is much better, and colour saturation is much better.
Hope you enjoy some of the shots above!

iPhone Photography – 7 Day iPhone Photo Challenge

shanemcd — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:19:58 +0000

I recently upgraded to the iPhone 4S from the iPhone 3GS. The most obvious improvement for me, as somebody who has an interest in photography, was the improved camera and screen. The iPhone 4S camera has 8 megapixels which is 60% more pixels than the camera on iPhone 4 and I’m sure more than the 3GS.

Apple claim that it is “the best camera ever on a mobile phone” and that it “might be the only camera you’ll ever need”.

The photo below is one which I took on the new iPhone 4S, in the rain, on a cloudy day about 30 mins before sunset.

The new iPhone 4S has a larger f/2.4 aperture , therefore it lets in more light, and therefore your photos look brighter and better. As well as this, there is an advanced hybrid infrared filter to keep out harmful IR light, for more accurate and uniform colors.

Therefore with these iPhone claims in mind I am going to do a similar project to the 365 project some people engage in. I am going to take 7 photos, one per day, only using the iPhone and what ever photography apps are on the iPhone. No post processing on Mac or PC will be done and all post-processing must take please on the iPhone.

I will post the 7 photos after the 7 days – so check back soon for the results.

Photo of the Week – Fog in Kilkenny

shanemcd — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:08:34 +0000

November is always a good time for getting photos with early morning mist and fog. This can create some lovely effects when the sun is rising as the light breaks through the fog and starts adding color to the landscape.

I went out and about this week, early in the morning to capture some shots of the morning fog lingering. I managed to get a nice location with some sheep and some interesting trees. The trees in the distance give a nice layer as they are slightly shrouded in the fog at a distance. The purple sky and warm light compliment each other nicely. There is not really a subject to the photo but I used the large tree on the left and placed it slightly off centre so that there was some interest in the photo.

Playing with Fire – Photo of the Week

shanemcd — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:55:25 +0000

Recently we had a Carrick Camera Club shoot on Annestown Beach, and one of the shots involved lighting steel wool and doing some fast revolutions of the item while at the same time having the camera setup on long exposure.

I was using Bulb, averaging 50 to 80 seconds and one of the results is shown below. Its a nice effect and more of these can be seen on my Flick channel.

Playing with Fire on Annestown Beach

If you are doing this yourself, please be careful as there are plenty of bits of hot metal which can fly around. Don’t forget to use a tripod, turn off Mirror Lockup, use a cable release and bring a flask of tea as it gets fairly cold on a beach during this time of year. Enjoy!

Photo Theme – Blue

shanemcd — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 09:44:35 +0000

A recent club competition was a photo theme “BLUE’ – therefore any photo which could fall under the style or theme of blue. I had a selection problem on my hands as I had 2 main contenders.

Photo selection is critical when submitting your work to a portfolio or photography competition. Sometimes your personal feelings of a photo can overweigh the ‘better’ photo. Therefore you may have 2 or 3 photos which you can’t decide between – the wrong choice might be your favourite one, the right choice is the better photo. (I think on this occasion I let my preference overrule the right choice.)

The two photos for the Blue Theme which I had to decide between, are shown below – please feel free to select your favourite, let me know what you think and leave a comment.

New Zealand Boardwalk - Blue Theme - Photo 1

New Zealand Beach Boulders - Blue Theme - Photo 2

Pictures of London – Fantastic Photo Location

shanemcd — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:17:06 +0000

London is a great place for any photographer with fantastic architecture, a river which enhances anything on the river bank, many weekly events to capture on film and the occasional unusual element or artistic installation.

I have put a few photos from a recent trip to London with some of the shots I liked.

Urban Fox at Waterloo Bridge, London

Moon Setting behind Westminster House

Westminster House from 300ft (on the London Eye)

London Street View from the Top of St. Paul’s Cathedral

Missed Opportunities … for next time!

Some locations in London which I didn’t get a chance to shoot include Piccadilly Circus by Night, Long Exposure of the London Eye at night, shot of Buckingham palace from the center of the Mall … but most of all, next time I am going to London I will bring a tripod!!