Similarities [Sky Watch Friday]

The two images below come from two vastly different locales, but they bear a striking resemblance in their architecture. The image immediately below is a detail of the Albi Cathedral in the southwest of France. Originally named the Cathedral of St. Cecilia, its construction was begun in 1287 and completed some 200 years later. Now considered to be the largest brick structure in the world, it was had been intended to be a fortress. This view of this side of the church certainly leaves no doubt about that. However, the interior is totally surprising -- it is full of color and decoration, quite the opposite of the stern and forbidding exterior.

 

The next image is that of the Grain Tower located in Schoen Place, right along the Erie Canal near Rochester. Residents of the area pronounce it ‘Shown’ Place; that bugs me since it deserves the German pronunciation [which I cannot spell phonetically in English; you either know it or you don’t]. While this is not a brick building, its size and shape always makes me think of Albi. The structure is actually grey, but the setting sun [and a little help in Photoshop] gave it some color. Oh, I forgot to note that I shot this with my cell phone camera.

Ireland's Changing Skies #2 [Sky Watch Friday]

As 'advertised', I am posting more shots from the emerald isle wherein the sky ranges to brilliant blue with white puffy clouds to just bright grey. In short, we saw everything during our tour; so, there was no way to get bored.

 

This is St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. It was shot on perhaps the nicest day we experienced. 

There were  many lovely vistas along the Ring of Kerry route. 

I'm embarrassed to say that I do not remember the town in which I shot this from a short foot-bridge. Then again, that is not an important detail ---

This shot was taken just outside the Belleek Ceramic Factory [the lupins in the Arrays below were just at my back].

Ireland Arrays #2

Well, why wait -- here are the remaining 'array' images I mentioned below. These differ in that there is no diagonal feature present.

Ah yes -- we enjoyed a refreshing glass of Guinness at their distillery in Dublin. Did you know that the harp [not the Shamrock] depicted on the glass is Ireland's official symbol? Did you know that to properly serve a glass of Guinness it takes several minutes of pouring [in two stages]; and one must wait an additional several minutes to allow the air to rise?

These are kilns at the Belleek Crystal Factory,

Granted this array is in slight disorder, I have an excuse to show these lovely lupins, which are present in abundance in Ireland.

Ireland Arrays #1

Looking through our Ireland vacation photos, a new theme has emerged; viz. arrays [others might use another term to describe a scene with repeating elements]. In any event, that is something that always catches my eye, especially if shooting it also creates some diagonal line. Here are some examples. Next week I'll post a few that lack the diagonal.

This was shot in The Merry Ploughboy Pub in Donegal.

I wish there would have been a few more tour buses in the line. Those oversize side view mirrors remind me of the antennae of some insect.

Now this is not necessarily an image that one would associate with Ireland. But, as it turned out, as we were driving past a golf club, our tour guide/driver turned in to show us where he likes to golf. This shot made the little detour worthwhile for me.

After the many pit stops along the way, I finally found one that 'spoke' to me -- yep, 'beauty' in the strangest of places.

Ireland's Changing Skies #1 [Sky Watch Friday]

In the 10 days we toured Ireland, we experienced a wide variety of changes in the sky, which contributed to constant shifts in lighting and atmosphere. We learned that sun, blue skies and white clouds are not always what you want to see. The images below illustrate that point.

The above image was shot through our tour bus window.

 

I am always inspired to shoot landscape scenes where different regions of lighting are involved. It takes both patience and some luck to get what you want -- in the above case, luck was more of a factor.

This shot was another of my through-the-bus-window series. Yes, it eventually rained, but our spirits remained high.

My last example of how a rainy/foggy day adds to the mood of an image.

 

Ireland Country Roads

The images below would fit nicely in the coming Sunday Stills; viz, roads. But, no archive photos were permitted, even if they are only a few weeks old (?). Be that as it may, the topic piqued my interest as I looked through the shots from our trip to Ireland earlier this month. 

 The above was shot through the bus window -- it just happened to be our turn to sit in the front row, so I had my camera ready to shoot . Well, I lost no time in getting this canopy of branches/leaves over the road. It was a lucky catch.

This was taken during one of our numerous photo-ops along the way; but, the target was in a different direction. I looked around and felt that this view was actually the more interesting one.

What I like about this shot is that it gives you some idea of the narrow roads [one of the few straight stretches you'll encounter in Ireland --LOL--]. Imagine that these roads are shared between autos and big buses/trucks. This particular shot was taken along the Ring of Kerry -- the rugged landscape, stoned walls and a portion of the Atlantic all contribute to a unique atmosphere.

Ireland Panoramas [Sky Watch Friday]

We had a wonderful vacation in Ireland traveling with CIE Tours. Part of the pleasure of such a visit is the interaction with fellow tour members. However, the beauty and history of Ireland suffice to entertain and interest everyone. The top panorama of the Dublin skyline was shot from the 7th floor of the Guinness Brewery; it is a merge of 7 separate images. The white hemispherical objects in the right-center foreground cover huge beer storage containers [140,000 liters each]. The middle and bottom panoramas were shot at Kenmare Bay [along the Ring of Kerry]. The bottom one was made by merging images shot in vertical format [one usually sees panos made by merging horizontal format images, as in the two upper images]. In subsequent weeks, I will add some other shots taken on the trip.

Southern France highlights [Skywatch Friday]

We are still feeding off the two summer trips around France in the early 90’s. It’s hard to imagine today shooting with film and having to wait weeks to get slides back before seeing how they came out -- not to mention having to be more selective and economical in the number of shots taken. Digital has turned that upside down. Anyway, here are a few images scanned from those old slides. The aqueduct, Pont du Gard, was in southern France [near Uzes], as was the sunflower field.