Two months of waiting for the perfect foggy weather paid off on December 24 when I captured these shots of an amazingly cold Galway morning on the Headford Road. In processing the images, I amm torn between two different styles: A harder and colder interpretation or a warmer and far softer view of the foggy forest.
Pond, it’s a pond, oh, it’s a pondddddd. A frozen pond. Ice. Solid H20. What more can you or I say? Taken just after local sunset in Menlo village, Co. Galway.
Squelch squelch squelch squelch squelch.
Squelch squelch.
*click*
Squelch.
Therein was my evening as I visited the Friar’s Cut; the cut canal area where Lough Corrib flows into the River Corrib. The entire area is a gorgeous bogland/river delta thriving with animal and bird life; I saw several foxes and badgers in addition to a gorgeous gray crane. Also, the view from the delta are second to none in times when any kind of ‘big’ weather comes off the lake. In my instance, I caught a spectacular snow storm rolling in towards Galway City.
More to follow.
Kicked off by the 16 Favourites 2009 thread on boards.ie, I put together my favourite sixteen images of the last year. Un-surprisingly my family weighed in heavily in the running. Here’s to 2009, guys.
These are the final images (for now) of the derelict service station on Galway City’s Headford Road. You can view the first three parts at the links below:
Bury their paws in the stone
They’re tearing up holes in the house
To wait till those wolves make nice
I’m keeping them coming, one by one…
The derelict Esso service station on Galway’s Headford Road.
This, for me, became a surprisingly powerful photo. In the midst of Galway there is a building which serves many people in many roles: It is a repository for contemporary artifacts, a dormitory, an art installation, shelter, a meeting ground, a dumping ground, an eyesore, a magnetic attraction, and enthralling and repulsive. And it’s just an abandoned service station at the end of my road.
As I sat on the broken glass bottles in the forecourt and stared at the graffiti’d walls, the idea grew on me that this was the sum result of all of our striving, relationships, human ingenuity, schemings and going-ons: Abandonment and ruin, until somebody comes along with a new idea and paves over this inadvertent monument to us all.
Today demanded contrast. Minight-dark blacks. Sun-bright, blown-out highlights that will leave your eyes watering. To hell with December cheer!
This isn’t my usual thing, but I’ve come across a photo that I like all my processed versions of. Great. Grr. I went for a brief photowalk on the Headford Road, in the small forest behind the retail park and caught: Contrast. Feck-the-season-lets-blow-out-the-highlights contrast. Wonderful contrast. I’ll leave you with this single scene for now:
