In a (New) World of My Own

Meh? Galway City’s coach terminal, located at the Fairgreen. This is good, but it could stand to be so much better. In hindsight I wish I had done more to capture the periphery of the building so that I wouldn’t have to crop so closely.

Day #3: Forthill Cemetery. Taken at Forthill Cemetery, Galway City, on January 3, 2010.

Immediately before I left for the United States of America in mid-2007, I paid a visit to Merlin Park Castle/Doughiska Castle, which is currently located on the forested grounds of Merlin Park hospital on the outskirts of Galway City, and with the weather behind me today, I again paid another visit to the magnificent tower house:

From a sodden, wet photowalk on Wednesday last up to Terryland. That old new bridge over the River Corrib.

Bad – better – best? You tell me. Shot on the grounds of NUIG earlier this afternoon.

My infrared binge continues, but a trip up the Dyke Road is beginning to show me that even I have my own limits…

If I do the same thing somewhere new, is it something new? Street photography is something that normally holds little interest to me for three reasons:

1. The famous landmarks of the world have already been photographed to death by thousands and thousands of people. I feel I have nothing to add.
2. My personal tastes run to more open vistas. I wander up and down streets but find little in them to personally put my finger on the button as I prefer bleak, open vistas that look like scenes from your last nightmare.
3. There are men and women who specialize in this area and turn out the level of breathtaking work that simply puts my own efforts to shame.

But this afternoon I set up to break from the norm and try to capture a different view of Shop Street in the heart of Galway City. I got looks. I had a chat with a Garda who was endlessly bemused by thirty second exposures. I had catcalls and requests. And for being someone who is so shy, I had no problems sitting out in front of hundreds of strangers and taking photos with my tripod.

I captured my image and I’m broadly happy with the results: Galway as a ghost town.

I paid Salthill and Blackrock their threatened visit this morning (lunchtime), and in the face of strong winds and high seas I proceeded to face off the wilds on the Atlantic winter weather in order to capture these scenes. Bless me.

Other than my stab at the ”Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, this represents my first serious infrared output in the last couple of years. Mike and Kieran of Boards.ie (and Kieran especially – cheers for the ride!) who both crawled out of bed way too early on a Sunday for a morning of photography at Renville forest park just outside of Oranmore. Yes. There. That tree…

…fabulous frakking Las Vegas

I spent a few hours over the course of two days hanging around at this famous sign photographing it from different angles and in different ways. From the sides, from the front, from the rear and in normal and infrared light. I came home with about twenty usefully pretty images, of which I’ve so far put two online.

I do like the sign. It has history, unlike most of the buildings of Las Vegas, and it is the best analogy for the city that I can think of: The sign is tacky, has a bunch of ugly crap stuck on to its rear that everyone ignores, and just off to one side is a giant (giant) banner advertisement for a local porn company.

Here’s to another 50 years of it gracing the Strip.