Graffiti On a Wall in Dublin, Ireland by Shane Sutton

A Day Out In Kilruddery

Sculpture by Catherine Greene

Niall in Greyscale

Maria Buckley's Portrait

This photo was taken at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham, Dublin.

Portraiture and the Joy of Communication

Photography, rather than writing, took over for the past year. I have finally become more relaxed about taking portraits of strangers on the street and am struggling to offer to take photos of people I actually know. The pleasure of making an image that the person in question will enjoy is what spurs me on most. I like when people look themselves and are not strained so the skills of communication needed must be thought through. Many people do not actually enjoy having their photo taken. How to encourage them is my new job in hand.

A Friendly Encounter on a Saturday Afternoon in Town

Portraits on the Street

Back in Action

These men were very pleased to allow me to upload a photo of their Honda Goldwing motorbike to the Internet. The sun is shining in Dublin, Ireland, this week and street photographers are to be seen at every turn. Yesterday I had my photo taken by an Italian visitor. It made a nice change from peering at the world through a lens.

Portraiture Again

I have decided to just label my street photos of people as "Portraiture".
This somehow takes the sting out of wondering about all the legislation now ruling the taking of photos in public places. Another blast of information has been posted in the Photography Forum in Boards.ie, decrying the death of candid urban photography.

I think I'll just make a simple Rogue's Gallery of the most pleasant moments shared while travelling.
No point in getting in a wax...

Photo Editors

There is so much to learn.

For some time I have been getting good use from Harry's Filters in Irfanview. The burn tool can be very strong, so it is worth looking into the Darken feature, using BW Limiter Pro. It enhances textures in bark and stone.

The dramatic toning in this Sunflower was made with the Canon software that came with my Digital Rebel. Learning to use levels and to gently tweak the colour lines in a photo can help pastiche makers a lot.

Greyscale

Greyscale photos can be flat and lack sparkle.

Post processing is the secret to improving dull images and Irfanview is quick and easy to
use.

Rather than hit the greyscale button, better effects can be achieved by first using the "Color Corrections" function.
Choose settings that make the photo more vivid and using the contrast and gamma functions help to find a more balanced
effect.

Then hit the "Auto adjust colours" button followed by "convert to greyscale"

Here is and example of Before and After...

Film EOS

A great advance has just been made in using film as well as digital technologies.
I bought a Canon that did seem nicely made and which the friendly sales person assured me
had been a well regarded EOS slr in its day.

Several days of research and three rolls of film later I'm really pleased with the fineness of the
effect the Canon RT camera ensures. For anybody interested in the history of cameras there are plenty of sites that explain
how the use of a fixed pellicle mirror means a shutter speed that was astonishing in 1989, the date it was launched.

It is very like the EOS 630, which became much more popular, but although I don't shoot sports events, and probably won't
get the best use out of my new gem, the fixed mirror means that flower macros should be very clear and sharp as there is no
mirror slap to cause the slightest ripple.

This has been a steep learning curve as, at last I took bracketing by the horns and set the camera to take
three photos in a row, forgot how to undo it and so found myself with the machine having taken over for a while.

However, it got sorted out and photos of architectural details in particular are very pleasing.

There's a link in the title bar to the photos uploaded so far.

Christmas Fare

Dublin is ablaze with Christmas colour at the moment.

In the title bar is a link to some of my Chrismas photos on Flickr, going back several years.

And, it goes without saying, there is the food...

Bright Colours

So many of my photos from this Summer are dull, due to lack of bright sunlight, that I took to making pastiche "fine art" photos, flattening the tones even more and using contrast to the best effect.

These are not photos that will be of commercial interest ever, I expect, but the exercise of learning to play with gamma and contrast in Irfanview has brought several benefits. Most of all, it helps to learn about using negative space in a photo.

However, I still prefer the gaudy flowers and insects captured during a bright May when I first bought a zoom lens with built-in macro function.

Here's to more colour from now on...

Botanical

Dubliners are fortunate to have a very beautiful and well stocked botanic gardens. There is great pleasure in seeing plants grown to the highest standard and to walk in a fine arboretum where the trees are loved and well tended.

The flat light that makes everything seem so sombre at the moment is actually helpful when it comes to flower photography. Whites, in particular, do not get bleached out in macro photos.

Shots of flower borders and wider landscapes are less successful, however, as there is less sparkle on a dull day.

Sunshine?

Well, it's in short supply in Dublin these days.

Wonderful clouds, dramatic and eerie colours in the sky abound, but the fine sunlight that encourages insects to fly from flower to flower is simply not here.

September may be brighter... or so it's to be hoped.

Stepping Out in Style

Street photography is my least favourite activity.

As a result, I have practiced more than usual, shooting casually as I walk along, capturing streetscapes usually, and not trying
to make too many individual portraits. Photographing people from behind gives an insight into current fashions, without having
to seem like a hunter.

There is such a body of work and analysis about the voyeuristic nature of street photography that I was put off
for a long time by what I read. Thinking that shopping centres would offer a more comfortable experience, I started
with them some years ago. The reality of the new gated city was quickly pointed out by security guards in some malls.
They are private spaces, not public like the street itself, and each place makes its own rules. The Powerscourt Centre in Dublin city centre
welcome photographers and there are some lovely architectural details there for anybody who likes Georgian Dublin.

Several years reading have made me quite choosy about where I travel. France and Quebec are non starters, due to the
draconian laws in operation there. Italy seems, so far to be very welcoming and since Italians are friendly in general photography
seems to be a good way to make new acquaintainces.
Some people on the street in England can look a bit grim when caught within my photos, so they don't tend to make
agreeable images for uploading on the Internet. An exception is the delightful face painter in York who was really pleased when asked to post specially.
I shall never become a true street photographer as the candid aspect of the
true practitioner, where the subjects are in situations where they are outside their comfort zones make me feel uneasy, never mind
how the people in question might feel about being exposed to public scrutiny. Couples walking hand in hand, while charming,
are never uploaded, as they relationship might not last... or worse, they may be in an illicit relationship. It is not my
business to cause trouble.

In some Eastern countries, I make sure never to upload photos of people who are speaking in public. Since I don't know
what they are saying and since they may be there without official permission, this is probably a safe measure.

Up to last week I happily uploaded the occasional shop window display, thinking that owners might be flattered.
However I had a strange experience while just snapping a particularly pretty display when a sales assistant rushed out
to ask what I was doing. The tone and general sense of suspicion, not really cured by my puzzled explanation that I was
just photographing shop windows, now ensures that, not only will that shop be avoided like the plague, I shall not feel
confident about uploading these sorts of photos in future. I could be breaching some trade copyright or other that I have not
heard about. This is linked to an experience of being at a fashion show years ago where photographs were not allowed.
This did not stop a lively visitor snapping everything on the catwalk, probably to rush with the prints to some warehouse where
the designs would be copied.

In years to come, people will think that we live today in some sort of ghastly Pied Piper's nightmare, childless and
without any sense of joy in the friendlieness that photography is meant to bring.
Sometimes children get stuck in my line of view, but uploading photos to the internet is now such a touchy subject that
I have now come to pick up on the frightful paranoia that surrounds their iconography. I have been soundly criticised by some
for giving in to the current practice, as the freedom of expression that professional photographers value so much is being
eroded just as much by my lack of courage as it is by new laws. However, a long lecture by one matron on an Italian street
makes me remember that life is short and that I can't spend hours placating the fears of the seriously frightened parents who
now people our public spaces. I don't tend to photograph them much either, as they look so gloomy.

Street riots are out of the question. I did not get my hair cut for a year in order to be able to buy a good 50mm lens.
Professionals can get their cameras replaced on insurance and one excellent news hack I met explained that it was no tragedy
as covering street disorder may actually lead to a useful camera upgrade.

Australia remains the most pleasant country for street photography in my experience and I can't wait to get there again.
The atmosphere is less neurotic than Europe and the buildings are very much to my personal taste. People don't take much
notice of cameras in general and the Brunswick Music Festival is well worthwhile for anybody who wants to get in on
Melbourne life.



A prize for good humour has to go for the three friends I met while walking in County Wicklow a few months ago.

They even offered to pose again, so that I might get a better shot. I thought that the spontaneous sense of fun they had
displayed when they first saw the camera could not be bettered and their's is one of my favourites, proving that all the effort
and discomfort was worth it in the end.


However, its back to flowers, statues, architecture and trees.
I can well understand why the very diffident Monsieur Atget used get up at dawn in order to photograph a world
devoid of people, which is why his work has a mysterious timelessness. Frocks and carriages are set firmly in a verifiable time.
People in future centuries may find us a dull bunch but all this ensures, please Heavens, that nobody will ever want me to take photos for money on the street.

The effort could prove fatal.

Stoned

Dublin is thronged with visitors at this time of year.

One of the treasures here is the Chester Beatty Library and there is plenty of interest to photograph on the way in.

This stone head is by Edward Smyth (1749-1812) who worked with his son.

Searches for the history of the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle will yield hours of reading on the subject.

The Garden Photographer

Television programmes always favour bright colours, flower macros and many, many bees when they send their photographers out.

This has set me thinking about the fact that I love, above all, photographing statues and hand crafted details in any garden I visit.

The Giusti Gardens in Verona posed a challenge.
For some reason, I found it took several hours to get my mind settled to finding angles that were not edgy and disturbing. The sculptures in this fine, formal garden are somehow not aligned in a way that easily calms the eye. I found myself jumping from one spot to another in an effort to take in views that did not make the statues look ill at ease.

Finally, it came right...