Category Archives: Photography
Clouds Over Dublin
I often spend time photographing the changes in the clouds near sunset or sunrise. The low sun picks them out nicely and on a windy day they can change amazingly fast, creating interesting patterns and shapes. Since I live on a hill, the back of my house offers quite a nice view over the roof tops and sunsets can offer a real “silver lining” to most days (see what I did there?).
In these dynamics I try to plot the changes in shape of the clouds against one another using various digital blending techniques. At some points the clouds appear like liquid.. while at others the changes in the clouds shape are very clear.. This is just one example of many dynamics I created from this session, the vertical lines mark out the edges of some of the images.
Dun Laoghaire Marina
I took a stroll down to Dun Laoghaire with my camera in hand as I had done many times before, and some of the fruits of my labour were seen on here a few weeks back. Well I finally got around to forming a dynamic of the images I took that day. The Marina in Dun Laoghaire has gradually become one of the most impressive in Ireland over the years. One of the improvements has been the construction of two or three new breakwaters within the main harbour walls to allow for the safe mooring of all the private boats. These breakwaters are slightly less visited than the main piers, and can offer a welcome break from the crowds while at the same time giving you a new perspective on the harbour as a whole. A mesmerising vertical pattern is created as you peer through the forest of masts that sit in the marina. Each one creating a unique rhythm as its lines slap against the wood and metal, forming into a uncoordinated ripple of sound that bounces off the water. On this day the sun was shining relentlessly against the coming Autumn and while there was a brisk wind off the sea the sun kept the hands warm (only in Summer!).
The light bounced off the rippling water as it lapped against the inside of the breakwater. This created an endlessly fluctuating pattern for my camera to catch for a few minutes. In my head now it is these two things that strike me most about that visit to the marina. The sound of the water and the masts.. working in tandem with the reflections off the waters surface, rolling beneath the sea breeze.
Once again the sheer aesthetic confusion created by both the endless masts and the seas dancing patterns lends itself to a more confusing yet stimulating Dynamic.. like that of the Blackrock Baths.
Blackrock Baths
I was down taking some shots of the Baths in Blackrock. I was struck with how it was so run down yet still charming. So charming in fact that the waterfront around it was full of people eating their lunch and watching the waves brush the coast. The area around the entrance to the baths is now covered with a thick layer of sand and shells. The door is found down a small gap between the Bath wall and the dart station. Graffiti lines the walls, so much so that it has become a mess of colour rather than displaying any words or shapes in particular. The steel doors have long since been sealed and even they have succumbed to a new colourful paint job. The Diving tower stands strong at the foot of the baths looking over Dublin bay. Seagulls hang out on the top most railings, while the metal appears to slowly but surely fall apart as its paint is stripped by the seaside weather. The baths, even in such a dilapidated state are fondly seen as the defining feature of Blackrock on the Dublin coastline, its resilient diving platform, soiled from head to toe in bird shit, stands proudly on the seafront watching the tide go in and out while the rest of the world gets a face-lift.
Perhaps it was inevitable that this Dynamic would come across so disorderly and confusing, especially in comparison to the relative cleanliness and modernity of the Becket Bridge.
Beckett Bridge
I have been working on a few of these recently. The Beckett Bridge is fast becoming the center piece to the Dublin Docklands development. The suspension lines create multiple angles as they intersect in the sky, and there is a sense of perfect harmonious balance as the weight pulls against the great spine that reaches towards the north.