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Westward Ho! – Travelling light

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When your folks decide to visit you, you don’t really have a say in what happens when they are with you…

Three days in the west of Ireland, so I was – obviously – expecting rain, lots of it and I didn’t want to expose a lot of photographic equipment to the elements. That’s why I decided to travel as light as possible, but I didn’t want to sacrifice too much quality either.

Enter Fujifilm…

To be honest, I got tired of lugging around over 3 Kg of camera+lenses and I will probably sell most of my heavy stuff soon. For this trip I went fully mirrorless: Fujifilm X-Pro1 + 18mm f/2 and the magnificent Fujifilm x100T…

Clonmacnoise
Shannon river
Clonmacnoise
On the road: Athlone
Peace
If this isn’t Ireland, I don’t know what is…

I admit I was a bit anxious at first, being used to the IQ of my Canon 5DMkII, but after seeing the results, I don’t think I’ll ever consider my D-SLR for another trip…

Some of the results follow: Ceide fields, Downpatrick head, Sligo and strandhill. I think I might be selling my canon gear soon 🙂

Old church
Near Sligo airport
Low flight
Prohibition
Surfing
Playing golf in Sligo
Downpatrick head
Ceide Fields
Risky
Surf

 

And I have to admit the ocean was beautiful to admire:

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Vastness of the ocean

A castle and a pint of Smithwick’s

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Autumn has officially started: sunny and cold (cold for me, at least).

A great day to travel and to go see new places. This week: Kilkenny. Ok, it’s not really a new pllace for me: but it’s been so long!

No trip to Kilkenny can ignore the castle:

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Kilkenny castle

Built between 1195 and 1213, the castle is an iconic view of the town of Kilkenny. It was recently renovated and it’s a very popular attraction for tourists.

It’s a very well kept and organized attraction and it’s possible to have a self-guided tour of the castle and grounds:

Kilkenny castle: Picture Gallery
Picture gallery
Moorish stairway – Kilkenny castle
A view from the castle
Tapestry room
Piano
Dining room

As marvelous as it is, Kilkenny castle is far from being the only thing to see in town:

St. Canice’s cathedral
The rosary mysteries – Dominican Black Abbey: I’m told this is the only such window in the world (I haven’t checked, though)
Kilkenny design centre
A quiet pond

Those visiting the town may also see the beautiful cathedrals and churches as well as the old medieval town.

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River Nore

Another thing that cannot be missed in Kilkenny is, obviously, Smithwick’s brewery 🙂

Smithwick’s gate
A tasty afternoon

The oldest beer in Ireland!

A fine ale you should taste every day until the world’s end!

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The world is coming to an end, all right…

A day at the park: of horses and men

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Okay, okay… I know: it’s been a while…

This summer has been quite uneventful (at least for me): no real holidays, all the time spent working and so on…

Today I finalyy got some photography done 🙂

Photowalk in Phoenix Park! Ok, I know: been there, done that; but still…

Big bunch of guys, fighters, horses and games 🙂

 

Polo
Stop!!!
Off the ground
Watching the game
Pregnant kick
Hit
Cartwheel
Capoeira
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Referee

Not many keepers, but lots of fun 🙂

Photo trip to the Saltee islands

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We left Dublin early on Saturday to get to the Saltee islands:

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Saltee islands

The weather wasn’t great: fog and clouds and we weren’t particularly optimistic for the day.

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Kilmore Quay, not a great morning as far as weather goes…

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Land ho!

The clouds covered the sky almost all morning, until we got onto the islands.

Once we arrive though, the sun decided to show up and we had a beautiful (mostly) sunny day.

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A beautiful sunny day

I admit I was afraid I couldn’t do much to get the birds and that they’d be too far away for my lenses… It turns out we could get within a few metres from them, we could almost touch them!

And there were so many…

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So many birds… at least the story was different from the movie…

Good day, a few good photos 🙂

Nests… To give you an idea of how close we were, I shot this with a 35mm equivalent…
Blue skies
Youth
So. Many. Birds.
The group
Watching the nests
Gannet
That eye… We almost walked into this guy’s nest… ^_^;
The walk
Field of dreams
On the high rock
Watching the sea
The sentinel
So cute…
A little rest befor going back
Ready to go back
Goodbye birdies!
On the way back
Back on the mainland, harbour

Still, there is something I don’t understand:

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Why do puffins look so sad? 😦

Spring

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Ok, ok, I know… It’s been a while since last time…

And now, apparently, Spring has finally come! Temperature is up, the sun is shining in the sky and the jacket hasn’t left the house in a few days…

Anyway, new week, new photowalk.

The group met in the city centre and left to shoot places that were used in the making of movies. Or, at least that was the initial intention… We kinda got distracted walking in Trinity College and ended up just taking advantage of the beautiful day…

Sky
Keep off the lawns!!!
Homework
In the sun
Stripes
Lunch
Coincidence

We spent almost two hours just walking the grounds in Trinity, and then we decided to move towards the City Council building on the quays.

To spice things up, we decided to go through Temple Bar…

Lines
Car
Happiness 🙂
A quick break
Sloooow
Social media
Mmmmh… ice cream….
*Click*
Pub

Last act was, of course, pints accompanied by a friendly chat…

Pints

Pints in the sun

Dingle Peninsula

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Parents visiting from Italy and a long weekend travelling through Ireland: that’s a good combination 🙂 .

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Near Slea Head… Those colours :O

We were even lucky enough to get decent weather, I don’t think the trip would have been very fun otherwise.

 

From the Blasket centre
The long and winding road
The sentinel
If this doesn’t scream “Ireland”, I don’t know what does…
Slea Head beach
Inch beach
Watching the Ring of Kerry

The views were incredible… pictures can’t capture that… :/

Easter rising centenary

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This year marks the centenary of the Easter Rising, during which Irish Republican took up arms against the British army.

The celebration included a parade featuring Irish soldiers from many different forces.

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We tried to catch a few glimpes of the parade (which wasn’t easy due to the crowd) and here’s part of the result…

At the Garden of Remembrance
Is that the best backpack to wear today?
Those must be a pain to keep clean…
Hey!

It was a very nice (and cold) day…

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I lost count of the number of sesaons we had this weekend, but look at the (double) rainbow!!! If you can’t see the second, it’s on the right… ending on the smokestacks…

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Irish Army seal of approval