Tag: Ireland

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Outdoors

Flowing water in the great outdoors!

Welcome to week 167 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!

After another fantastic week of your contributions, I thought that we should take a little of last week’s radiance and take it Outdoors! There’s so much to discover outdoors and it is just on the other side of our front door (or back door, if you leave in that direction). So I hope that all of you go into the Outdoors and bring a little bit of it back in your cameras!

I’ve got a feeling that we’re going to see an incredible array of images on this topic and I’m eager to see your creative contributions!

Here’s a bit of that outdoors from Ireland…

Torc Waterfall

There’s still a ton of images to process from our vacation in Ireland, but the weather has been pretty nice, which finds me outdoors… The Torc Waterfall in Killarney was a great sight and I’ll bring more of Ireland during this weekend!

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

Wishing you a wonderful week of weather in the outdoors!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Trail

Welcome to week 165 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!

You certainly hit the Road with a passion! Not only were your posts creative, but there were a lot of them! This week, as I’m on the road for work, I went through some of images from Ireland and found a nice next step along our journey: Trail! What I like about Trail is that it has a significant number of directions to explore. Clearly, you can follow the trail of a wild animal, or hike along the Appalachian Trail, where, if you’re lagging, you could be trailing… And there could be star-trails, or light-trails (yes, Khürt provided part of the inspiration here)…

I cannot even imagine all the cool directions that you will take this theme into! Can’t wait to see what fun things you do!

Here’s a trail that might lead somewhere mysterious…

The Bamboo Trail

On the way from Killarney to Dublin, we took a southerly route, as I wanted to stop by Dungarvan. Before we got there, we found Lismore Castle, which has a magnificent set of gardens. One part of the garden was this bamboo section, which created this interesting trail.

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

Don’t trail! Be first and don’t lose the trail! Have fun!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Round Up 164

Does it lead to your door?

Welcome to the 164th round up of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!

All of you hit the Road with a passion!! Your posts were delightful and filled with both creative approaches and wonderful photography and poetry and prose. It definitely was a lot of fun to read all of your posts and see some of the wonderful places around the world, where some of you live and others have visited during their travels; your posts underscored how amazing our planet is and all that it has to offer. Thank you for making this a ton of fun!

I hope that you enjoy all these posts just as much as I did!

Here’s a road that I traveled a couple of weeks ago…

Head of the Gap of Dunloe

The view here is from the very top of the road through the Gap of Dunloe. As you can tell from this view, the road winds quite a bit and it is a rather narrow, single-track adventure. Both true, except that you’re seeing the easy part of the road. Most of the road winds between rocks on either side of the road, is slightly narrower and also has horse-drawn carriages that you get to meet at the most inconvenient moments. Traversing this challenge scared my wife more than a bit (she made me promise to go back via a different route) and there were various interesting moments, such as trying back into a small spot to let a carriage through and having about an inch of clearance…

  1. Sarah starts things this week in her post in By Sarah with a great set of roads on the South Island in New Zealand; great shots!
  2. With another great photo in her blog Une Photo, Un Poéme, Nicole takes us on the road to the countryside in Normandy.
  3. Kammie finds us some interesting roads in Nut House Central, including one that is being traveled on four wheels…
  4. A truly unusual feature lies at the end of the road featured in the blog MVobsession: a gingerbread house…
  5. With another really interesting post in Quaint Revival, Shelley takes us down a road of organization, self-improvement and generally interesting reads that make up part of her library.
  6. Jackie takes us on a rather fanciful trip across the road in her post in Junk Boat Travels: those are some nice steps being executed!
  7. The road that is featured in this week’s entry in Chateaux des Fleurs makes me want to follow it into the far distance!
  8. This week’s post on the theme in the Liggett Adventures takes us to Cornwall on the way to St. Michael’s Castle; fantastic location!
  9. In another interesting entry in pensivity101, we’re not on the usual water road, although the road is more than a bit wet!
  10. Ann-Christine presents us with a beautiful landscape in her post in To See a World in a Grain of Sand… and a road that leads to orchid marshes… Those would be great to see!
  11. As always the photo in the post from theonlyD800inthehameau is stunning! That road does invite exploration to see where it might lead…
  12. Ken always provides us with interesting scenes in his posts in Pictures without Film; the night in Amiens provides us with a real sense of ambience!
  13. In her post in Take a Walk and Discover, Michelle is getting ready to hit the road for a wonderful trip!
  14. Na’ama takes us on a whimsical wagon trail in her post in Na’ama Yehuda; the trail is amusing and her poem is great!
  15. Benn’s contribution in the blog Ghost Dog is literally in the middle of the road in Cumberland!
  16. Klara has a great post in her blog Sliku soju ljubim II, where she features the wide open street in Escalante, Utah; it’s a bit wider than the narrow streets in Brussels, Belgium.
  17. In her post in Field Notes from over the Hill, Gwen takes us on the road to Taos, NM; those mountains look amazing!
  18. In this week’s post in Don’t Hold Your Breath we go down an ancient street of the Curetes in Ephesus. The post is filled with great photos and a great description of their visit!
  19. Maria’s post on this week’s theme in Kamerapromenader gives us an amazing view of the road up the Pico de Arieiro on Madeira. To be above the clouds with this view has to feel special!
  20. Brian’s post in Bushboy’s World makes me wonder how often he might get lost; the road is more interesting when that happens!
  21. Jase’s road is very well guarded, as we can see in Proscenium; it’s good of the blues to be hidden…
  22. A fun and enjoyable post in My Camera and I… takes us on a number of great roads, which are made even better with friends!
  23. Eliza has some fantastic roads in her post in Albatz Travel Adventures, some of which need a bit of work 🙂
  24. We get to experience a different set of pedestrians in Heart to Heart, as our feathered friends are crossing!
  25. In Land of Images the road seems to be disappearing… I can only imagine what the other side of the hill is like with the indicated grade…
  26. With another great photo in MyTravelCSP, we get to appreciate the mountains and the way to Valparai!
  27. Debbie has traveled to some truly interesting locales and her post in Travel with Intent for this week’s theme is no exception. The sense of the scenery in Oman is just stunning!
  28. Xenia’s post for this week in Tranature is just wonderful! The feel of the Highlands and the gorse that is everywhere and armed with vicious thorns! It just makes me want to visit Scotland once again!
  29. Sandy takes us on the high road into the mountains in her post in Out of My Write Mind; the view is just stunning!
  30. Cee brings us some spectacular roads in her post in Cee’s Photography; as ever, her photography is amazing!
  31. In another great post in A Day In The Life, we go across some magnificent bridges and follow a very dark road…
  32. In a great post in IdahoBluebird50, we get a great view of Boise during different times; awesome post!
  33. The photo in this week’s post in PhotographyOCD is stunning! We really get to experience the middle of the road!
  34. Woolly has traveled some interesting roads, as we can see in his post in WoollyMuses; some of these roads are very dry, others rather wet and other ones very rigid!
  35. David takes us to some wonderful roads in different seasons in his post in David M’s Photoblog; Winter can be pretty challenging!
  36. A delightful post in HorseAddict takes us on the Royal Road, as we travel in a style that is fit for Kings and Queens!
  37. Hammad gives us an interesting choice in his post in the Blog of Hammad Rais. Which one would you take?
  38. Anita brings us some rather challenging roads in her post in Anita’s Images; those are surely Malta’s most adventurous roads!
  39. In a fantastic post in her blog Stuff and what if…, Olga reminds us that the road ahead is not always what it seems and that a detour may just lead to happiness!
  40. In photo #6914 in OneMillionPhotographs, we follow the mountain road that might just take us home!
  41. With a lovely post in Sharing Thoughts, Indira takes us on some very cool roads in India!
  42. Anjum’s post in the blog The Unsaid Words of Untold Stories takes a great approach to this week’s theme and provides interesting views of roads and their utilization in Pakistan.
  43. Deb has a photo of a road in her post in Twenty-Four that just makes me want to go out there and drive with the top down!
  44. In a great post in iball round the world, we get to see a city that I will visit next month: Prague and the very famous Charles Bridge! It was the road between Eastern and Western Europe for centuries.
  45. A great view of a road in One Letter Up – Diary 2.0 is the road that leads us to the Capital Building…
  46. Ramya brings us a gorgeous photo in her blog And Miles to Go Before I Sleep…, which definitely presents the road less traveled!
  47. Teressa does a wonderful examination of the different possibilities with the theme of Road in Another LQQK; this is one post that really covers all angles and filled with fun!
  48. Khürt put together another amazing set of photos in his blog Island in the Net! It was not his original plan, which I look forward seeing at some point, but it was nevertheless stunning!!
  49. In a cool post in sgeoil we’re looking down the road and get to see nature crossing the road!
  50. Donna brings us into a wonderful place in her post in Wind Kisses, as we take the roads of Yellowstone National Park; awesome post!

Please let all of these great bloggers know your thoughts about their posts!

Processing Ireland – Part 1

Exploring processing techniques

Vacations are wonderful, as they give us time to unwind from our daily stressors, explore new locations, meet people in these places and generally recharge our batteries. Of course, the photographers among us (isn’t that nearly everyone these days?) come back with lots of pictures to remind us of some of the things that we encountered.

One of the things that I like to do in my photographic adventures is to capture exposure bracketed sequences. In the past, I have processed those with HDRsoft’s Photomatix Pro, a program that I have enjoyed for years. As there were a couple of hiccups with the program yesterday, I decided to look and see what else is out there these days, and found Aurora HDR…

Torc Waterfall

This image of Torc Waterfall nearby Killarney is the first one that I processed with Aurora HDR. The process was pretty straightforward, as there are a significant number of pre-loaded collections of settings. I used a ‘Better Sunrise’ setting as a starting point and tweaked contrast and HDR enhancement sliders to get to this point. Clearly, there’s more to explore for me in Aurora HDR, but it’s not a bad first effort.

In my second image, I decided to go for something a bit more aggressive…

A Tree Grows

For this image of a tree that has been growing in the center of Ross Abbey for centuries, I went to the Artistic collection and picked the Muddy Black & White setting as a starting point; I set the opacity to about 80% to let a bit of color bleed through and then went after tweaks in contrast and microstructure to get to this result. I wanted a sense of something older and somewhat mysterious, which now makes me want to go back and spend more than the 15-20 minutes we had at this abbey!

Hope you enjoy!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Ancient

From a distant past…

Welcome to week 163 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!

After a week of wonderful Tower posts, I thought it might be nice to take a step back into time. The theme of this week is inspired by our vacation in Ireland, as in many locations one felt the gentle tug of days gone by, telling of a time that was very different. With that in mind, your challenge is to portray that which connects you to all things Ancient. As usual, there are many ways to approach the Ancient (I’ll even take Ancient Aliens!), so I’m sure that your creative minds will come up with something interesting!

Have some fun with this theme and don’t let the dust of the ancient settle on you!

This is one of the images that inspired this theme…

Looking into the Oratory

This view looks into the Oratory of the Innisfallen Monastery, which sits on Innisfallen Island in Loch Leane. We reached it by small boat, which allowed us time on the island to explore the old abbey and this oratory. The abbey on the island dates to the 7th century with the current visible structures ranging from the 10th to 13th century. This oratory hails from the 12th century.

What struck me about this view is that I could feel the past pulling me back in, which gave me a sense of what it was like to sit in quiet contemplation in this small chapel hundreds of years ago…

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

Do the ancients proud and come up with a novel entry!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Tower

Towering achievements!

Welcome to week 162 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!

Vacation time in Ireland was fantastic, but it’s great to be home again, as we got greeted very warmly by our dogs! As I’m catching up on all the things that didn’t get done during vacation, I will post last week’s round up on Wednesday.

For this week’s theme, the inspiration is two-fold: there was a wonderful example close to our last place where we stayed in Ireland and it provides a great opportunity for catching a vista… This week’s theme of Tower can be taken in various directions, as it can be a verb or a noun… I’m looking forward to seeing your creative minds and hearts explore the Tower that is Towering!!

I hope that you’ll have fun with this week’s theme, and that the Tower is not looming over you!

Here’s the barn that inspired this week’s theme…

The Wonderful Barn

This structure is known as The Wonderful Barn and is located in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland. It was built in 1743 and there are a number of theories about its purpose (cf. Wikipedia); the prevalent theory that was explained to me is its use as a granary, not only to stave off the famines that were common, but specifically for the Guinness breweries. Its height is 22 meters, which makes it a significant climb with a bag of grain on ones back.

When I first saw it, this structure reminded me of the Tower of Babel in the painting by Pieter Bruegel. It has this feeling of something that was lost in translation…

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

Looking forward to all your towering creations!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Vista

Welcome to week 161 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!

As we’re spending quite a bit of our vacation time away from WiFi, I’m running a bit behind on last week’s round up, but will try to finish it by Wednesday. I hope you don’t mind too much. The travels did inspire this week’s theme, as my wife and I encountered a number of stunning Vistas! Your challenge is to share those vistas that inspired you or simply left you breathless!

I’m looking forward to seeing your favorite vistas during this week!

Here’s one of those vistas…

The Kerry Cliffs

This view is off the top of the Kerry Cliffs, which rise as much as 300 meters above the Atlantic Ocean. The views here are simply breathtaking and well worth the hike up to the cliff’s edge…

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

Can’t wait to see your vistas appear!

Friday Holiday Fun!

Exploring Ireland!

Greetings to all you wonderful followers and readers across the globe. As many of you are aware, I’m taking a little holiday with my wife in the lovely country of Ireland. We’re in Killarney at the moment, where we’ll be until Thursday.

We’re splitting our vacation into two segments: the first part here in the southwest in Counties Kerry, Cork and Clare and final 3 days in Dublin.

We’ve been making some day trips from which I include a few photos here…

  • Torc Waterfall
  • Muckross Abbey
  • Muckross Abbey Tree
  • Muckross House Gardens
  • Derrycunihy
  • Derrycunihy
  • Derrycunihy
  • Ladies View

Hope you enjoy!

A Thought for Sunday

Memento mori

After being back from my work trip to Dublin, it’s been  pretty good week of catching up on work and making excellent progress in a number of areas.  So this Sunday will be dedicated to catching up on home things: a bit of organization, picking things up, guitar practice and maybe even a haircut!

It’s good to catch up on things, but also relax a bit, so that I can start the week strong, fully recharged.  Having started working out again since the beginning of the year, I feel more energetic and have started losing some of the weight that i accumulated last year after tearing my hamstring.  Off to a good start!

The Dublin trip provided some opportunity for photography…

Dublin-Malahide-Castle-2018-01-18-10.28.18
Malahide Castle Graveyard

Malahide castle is a wonderful castle, parts of which date back to the 12th century.  I had the opportunity to tour it and learn a bit about its history, which is fascinating.  This graveyard is next to the remaining outer walls of the church that was part of the complex.

Have a wonderful day!

This post was inspired by the Daily Post Prompt of Inkling.

Malahide

At the moment, work takes me to Dublin, Ireland, and more specifically I am in Malahide. This is a beautiful coastal town with great views and changeable weather.

I was told that if I didn’t like the weather that it will be different in a few minutes, which has proved correct. Yesterday, we had rain, wind, snow and sunshine…

This is the coastline by my hotel during a period of sun.

Have a great day!