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Monday 15 December 2014

Horses for courses.

I put together a collection of my horse photos for this blog post. I'm a bit nervous of horses so I've never ridden one but they are beautiful creatures and as long as there is a fence between me and them that's fine.

As a child I remember my mother's love for watching Horse racing on television. She wasn't interested in gambling but always had a few shillings on the Grand National. Her favourite horse of all time was Arkle. She was obsessed with him and used to get so excited watching him racing.
I googled Arkle tonight to find out when exactly he was at the height of his career and was astonished to see that it was the mid 60's when I was a young child.

I introduced you to my mother in an earlier post 'A Cross to Bear' http://mfkidneyphotography.blogspot.ie/2014/08/a-cross-to-bear.html  and again in  'A Haunting we will go' http://mfkidneyphotography.blogspot.ie/2014/10/a-haunting-we-will-go.html

I clearly remember mam jumping up and down off the couch and screaming at the television - "Come on Arkle".  She made such a racket that  a neighbour from down the road and around the corner called to the house to see if Mrs Buckley was alright.

Arkle was trained in Co Meath, Ireland by Tom Dreaper and ridden by Pat Taffe. Some races he won by as much as 20 lengths. He won the Irish Grand National in 1964 by 1 length carrying 2 and 1/2 stone heavier than his rivals. I think this could have been the race that brought the neighbour to the door. I would have been 5 but I remember it like it was yesterday.

Camera settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@10mm,exp1/125sec, f10, ISO 200

 Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 18-135mm@135mm, exp 1/1250sec, f5.6, ISO 200

 Camera Settings - Camera Canon 500D, Lens Canon 55-250mm@134mm, exp 1/500sec, f8, ISO 100

Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 18-135mm@18mm, exp 1/1000sec, f8, ISO 100

 Camera settings - Camera Canon 500D, Lens Canon 55-250mm@109mm, exp 1/64sec, f11, ISO 100

 Camera settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Tamron10-24mm@12mm, exp 1/125sec, f7.1. ISO 100

Camera settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@12mm, exp 1/125sec, f7.1, ISO 100

Friday 28 November 2014

Don't let the sun go down on me

Don't let the sun go down on me, Lyrics by Elton John and Bernie Taupin

Don't let the sun go down on me
Although I search myself, it's always someone else I see
I'd just allow a fragment of your life to wander free
But losing everything is like the sun going down on me

I was at a funeral yesterday of a woman from my childhood neighbourhood. She had suffered Alzheimer's disease for several years and listening to her family reminissing on the fond memories they had of a  wonderful, devoted mother and grandmother made me think of the words of the song above. Alzheimer's must be like a door closing in your mind, shutting out the people you love and cherish or as the song says, 'losing everything is like the sun going down on me'.

This series of photographs is on Sunsets. Two of my daughter's are setting up their own homes next year and have asked me for canvases of some of the sunsets below. Both of them love cows, no reflection on me I hope.  For more cows in the sunset check out my post - http://mfkidneyphotography.blogspot.ie/2014/08/mad-cows.html

I have been told that some of my photographs look like oil paintings. It's amazing what can happen in post production. The good thing is that I won't be arriving at my children's houses with my latest effort at a painting and saying, wouldn't this be only beautiful above your fireplace.

I always remember one of my daughters in her Leaving cert year telling me that she felt like so many doors were closing on her. Leaving school and her friends and the familiar safety of her childhood. So many have opened for her since Thank God. She's getting married in March and opening the door into a new life full of my canvases, only joking Frankie!

I'm dedicating these photos to my neighbour Mary Brady, Late of Closes Road, Fairhill  and her wonderful loving family.
These photographs were taken in Mullinasole, Co Donegal, Ring, Co. Waterford and Cobh Co Cork.

 Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 18-135@39mm, exp 1/250sec, f14, ISO  100

Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 18-135mm@36mm, exp 1/80sec, f18, ISO100

Camera Settings, Camera Canon70D, Lens Canon 18-135mm@18mm, exp 1/160sec, f18, ISO100

 Camera settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 18-135mm@18mm, exp 1/13sec, f18, ISO 100

 Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens 18-135mm@22mm, exp 1/30sec, f8, ISO 100

Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@24mm, exp 1/125sec, f22, ISO100

Camera Settings, Camera canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@13mm, exp 1/125sec, f22, ISO 100

 Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@24mm, exp 1/125, f16, ISO100

Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm 24mm, exp 1/125sec, f20, ISO100








Thursday 20 November 2014

Lismore, a day in the life of the travelling Kidneys

Myself and himself don't often do touristy trips. We have a holiday home in Ring Co. Waterford and we are lucky to be living in Cobh, one of the most beautiful scenic towns in Ireland so where would you be going?

With a hobby like photography one needs fresh material so one got himself to accompany her to Lismore,  Co. Waterford for a trip this summer. Off we went in the truck with Bonnie, our Collie. She comes everywhere with us. We're like a pair of Eco-Warriors with our hound. All we are short is a bit of rope around her neck instead of a lead. If you want to meet Bonnie here's the link to my blog post about her  http://mfkidneyphotography.blogspot.ie/2014/09/bonnie-gift-that-keeps-on-giving.html

We viewed the magnificent Castle and visited the graveyard (as you do) and wandered the streets looking for a book shop(for himself). It is a beautiful historic town to be fair. We were looking for a suitable spot to have lunch,  a place where we could park our dog and sit outside but there was no such place.
We stood outside The Rustic Cafe looking in the window and I thought I'd be cheeky and go in and ask if they had seating  out the back where I could take my dog.
There were 2 ladies working away behind the counter and one of them  turned to me mischievously and said, "that's an awful thing to call your husband".

They were a lovely pair, a right double act. They were delighted with Bonnie. We sat outside in the yard with our dog and had a lovely feed of homemade soup and brown bread. There was eating and drinking in it. Bonnie got a dish of water and a few scraps from the kitchen.
It's very important to make sure himself isn't hungry when i'm in photographer mode. He needs all his strength for carrying my camera gear.

 Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 18-135mm@18mm, Exp 1/1250sec, f3.5, ISO 100
Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 18-135mm@18mm, exp 1/125 sec, f4.5, ISO100

 Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens 18-135mm@18mm, exp 1/100sec, f4, ISO100

Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@10mm, exp 1/250sec, f22, ISO100

 Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@12mm, exp 1/400sec, f4, ISO 100

Camera Settings, Canon 70D, Lens 18-135mm@38mm, exp 1/125sec, f13, ISO100

Monday 10 November 2014

Cobh, The Holy Ground



                                                                The Holy Ground


 Fare thee well, my lovely Dinah, a thousand times adieu.
We’re goin’ away from the Holy Ground and the girls we all love true.
We will sail the salt seas over and we'll return for shore,
To see again the girls we love and the Holy Ground once more.
Fine girl you are!
You're the girl I do adore,
And still I live in hopes to see the Holy Ground once more.
Fine girl you are!

And now the storm is raging and we are far from shore;
And the good old ship is tossin’ about and the rigging is all tore.
And the secrets of my mind, my love, you're the girl I do adore,
And still I live in hopes to see the Holy Ground once more.
Fine girl you are!
You're the girl I do adore,
And still I live in hopes to see the Holy Ground once more.
Fine girl you are!

And now the storm is over and we are safe and well
We will go into a public house and we’ll sit and drink like hell!
We will drink strong ale and porter and we'll make the rafters roar,
And when our money is all spent, we'll go to sea once more.
Fine girl you are!
You're the girl I do adore,
And still I live in hopes to see the Holy Ground once more.
Fine girl you are! 

The Holy Ground is a part of Cobh traditionally inhabited by fishermen. This song was a sea shanty sung by the sailors while performing various tasks onboard.

I decided to do this blog on Cobh, especially for all of our friends, family and children who have emigrated and eagerly search Google for photographs and news of the town. 

I married a Cobh man and came to live in Cobh 33 years ago. We are lucky enough to have a view of the harbour from our house and I never get sick of looking out the window. It's the first thing i see when i open the curtains in the morning and the lights of the ships at rest and the oil refinery are the last things I see before i close the curtains at night. How lucky am I?

 It's a far cry from the North side of Cork city where I was reared. I remember as a child looking out my bedroom window with my brother and sister and taking turns with my father's ancient telescope. At the very end of the terrace, across all the back gardens there was a triangle of a gap between 2 roofs. If you held the telescope very steady you could see the distant fields and the cattle grazing there. I bet you thought we were spying on the neighbours!, Never.

                                                                   The Camber
Camera Settings, Camera Canon 500D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@24mm, exp 1/320sec, f9, ISO 100

Sea Princess visiting Cobh
Camera Settings, Camera Canon 500D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@24mm, exp 1/250sec, f11, ISO 100

The Granuaile
Camera Settings, Camera Canon 500D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@14mm, exp 1sec, f10, ISO 100

The Camber
Camera Settings, Camera Canon 500D, Lens Canon 18-55mm@18mm, exp, 1/250sec, f10, ISO 100

Independence of the Sea
Camera Settings, Camera Canon 500D, Lens Canon 18-55mm@41mm, exp 1/125sec, f8, ISO 200

Glenmore, Cobh
Camera Settings, Camera Canon 500D, Lens Canon 50mm, exp, 1/1600sec, f6.3, ISO 400

 The Promenade
Camera Settings, Camera, Canon 500D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@13mm, exp 1/250sec, f11, ISO 100

Tall Ships

Camera Settings, Camera Canon 500D, lens Canon 55-250mm@55mm, exp, 1/1328sec, f5.6, ISO 100
The Holy Ground
Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@16mm, Exp, 1/500sec, f11, ISO 200 






Thursday 30 October 2014

A haunting continued ....

I'm following on from my last blog post A haunting we will go..... and  keeping with the haunting theme.
I told you about the house my family lived in in Sunday's Well in Cork. I was only 2 when we left the house so I don't have any memory of it. The story i told you was told to me by my parents. Several of my cousins lived in the house at different stages and they all have memories of the place being haunted.
 I was chatting with one cousin yesterday who lived in the house with her parents, my father before he was married and my grandmother . ( her mother was my father's sister) . The story she heard was that the man who was found hanging in the house was Polish and he was found behind the bathroom door not under the stairwell. As a child she didn't know this but remembers always being afraid in the bathroom. She said there was always a chilling breeze flowing through the room. My father heard her crying in the Bathroom one day and knowing she was afraid used to stand watch outside the room to mind her.
She also spoke of a room where the light used to come on by itself.
My grandmother sold the house after my mother took ill on Christmas eve, 1960. Mam was 8 months pregnant with my sister at the time.
 My father, an electrician was in the Bar next door repairing the Christmas lights and no doubt having a pint and a drop. Mam was hanging up Christmas decorations when she collapsed with a brain haemorrhage and was found by my father unconscious on the floor.
My grandmother was convinced that my mother saw something in the room that night. My mother recovered eventually, she was in a coma for a long time in the North Infirmary Hospital in Cork's Northside.
 My sister was born while mam was in a coma. She arrived quite unexpectedly. A priest was doing his rounds and heard the baby crying in the bed. She was called Catherine, Louise after 2 of the nursing  nuns. She was then placed in the drawer of a chest of drawers in the room as they weren't equipped for babies as the hospital was not a maternity hospital.
 Can you imagine the excitement.
 Mam never recovered her memory so wasn't able to tell us if anything happened in the house that night to cause her illness.
It was the straw that broke the camel's back for my grandmother, she felt the house had brought nothing but bad luck to the family and she sold it.
The house changed hands several times afterwards. Eventually it was knocked and some fine apartments have been built there recently. I'd love to know if the residents are having any strange unexplained experiences there.

The following photographs were taken in a graveyard in Cobh recently. I took them especially for Halloween. I wasn't alone, I had an accomplice. Most women bring their daughters to shopping centres, fashion shows, cinema etc I bring mine to graveyards. What makes me laugh is how normal it is to them. One night,  I asked my youngest daughter Marie to accompany me to Ballymore graveyard in the pitch dark, apart from the full moon. Ya she said, no bother. The only stipulation was that we bring the dog.










Camera settings. Camera - Canon 70D, lens Canon 18-135mm. All these images were taken with the same lens at focal lengths between 18 and 41mm. exposures between 22 and 50 seconds. f16, ISO 100. The camera was on a tripod, using a remote release. My daughter used a torch to light up the statue from different angles.
There was a lot of tripping over gravestones and giggles had in the process.



Sunday 26 October 2014

A haunting we will go.....


I loved this poem as a child, I could visualise the scene  and every time I photograph a ruin it comes to mind. I find old houses and ruins enchanting.

The Listeners

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,   
   Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses   
   Of the forest’s ferny floor:
And a bird flew up out of the turret,   
   Above the Traveller’s head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;   
   ‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;   
   No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,   
   Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners   
   That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight   
   To that voice from the world of men:..................

    When my parents married in the mid 1950's they moved in with my Grandmother, my father's widowed mother. She lived in a rambling old house on Wises Hill in Sunday's Well in Cork City.
    There had been a tragic death in the house some years before my grandparents bought the place. A young RIC man(Royal Irish Constabulary, who policed Ireland 1814-1922 before An Garda Síochána took over the Irish Free State)was found hanging under the stairwell. My mother said he was the son of a Butcher.
    Mam told us about several occasions when she was alone in the house and she 'd hear footsteps coming to the closed sitting room door. She would be expecting my father to walk in but nobody would be there. Or she would hear footsteps coming down the stairs and the door of the room would open but again nobody would enter the room.
    I was a home birth which wasn't unusual in Ireland then.  Women didn't give the graphic accounts of their childbirths in those days. My mother said the doctor brought me in his bag. Apparently I destroyed his notes. Serves him right for carrying a bloodied baby in his bag. It could have been worse, my brother was found under a head of cabbage, but I digress.
    Mam told us she never felt alone in the house. She said she was never afraid when she was on her own but always sensed a presence. 
    Older family members  had similar experiences and also remember lights switching on by themselves.
   Any member of our family old enough to remember is convinced that the house was haunted. 
   As I was born in the house I feel a bit of a connection with him. I feel that we must have met somewhere in the in-between before i entered the Real World. Who knows!

   My photographs on this theme were taken in 3 locations, some in Cobh, Co. Cork and some in Galway and 1 in Ring Co Waterford. 

Glenmore Cobh
 Camera Settings, Camera-Canon 70D, Lens Canon 70-300mm@80mm, exp 1/80sec, f11, ISO 160
Renville, Galway
Camera Settings, Camera- Canon 70D, Lens Canon 18-135mm@67mm, exp 1/200sec, f10, ISO100 

 Belgrove House, Walterstown, Cobh
Camera Settings, Camera- Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@11mm, exp 1/400, f22, ISO 100
 Mageen's House, Ring Co. Waterford
Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@16mm, exp 0.8sec, f16, ISO 100, tripod
 Mageen's House, Ring, Co. Waterford
Camera Settings, Camera - Canon 70D, lens Canon 18-135mm@18mm, exp 1/100sec, f7.1, ISO 160
Valley Road, Cobh
Camera Settings, Camera-Canon 70D, Lens Canon 18-135mm@18mm, exp 1/60sec, f11, ISO 100
 Fota Cottages, workers houses, Fota Road, Cobh, Co. Cork
Camera Settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens 18-135mm@18mm, exp 1/50sec, f20, ISO200
 Camera Settings, Camera - Canon 70D, Lens Canon 18-135mm@18mm, exp 1/80sec, f11, ISO 200


Sunday 19 October 2014

A sort of ghostly story.

Halloween is approaching and it's a great excuse to be found in 1 of my favourite places, graveyards.

My parents had great ghost stories and really believed that they were true. My mother talked about a girl she knew who while dancing with a very handsome man looked down and noticed that instead of shoes he had hoofs. He was probably just a very bad dancer.

I love giving my friends the willies by telling them ghostly tales and even though they pretend to not want to hear them I know they really do. I'm not easily spooked myself, I have quite a logical mind behind it all. I know there has to be a reason for everything though i lost all sense of reason one night about a year ago.

Much to my youngest daughter's horror I agreed to look after the ashes of a dead relative for a few months. I thought nothing of it but she was really freaked at the thought of us ash sitting. I put the ashes in the attic for safe keeping and to hide them, out of her sight and mind. I was very respectful and placed them at the far end of the house above my own bedroom, I even said a wee prayer before I left them there.

Almost straight away I noticed a difference in the night noises in the house. On a windy night in particular the normal creaks and groans from the attic timbers seemed to be louder and more enhanced than they used to be. I knew i was imagining things, my mind was playing tricks on me. Then one dark winter's night, myself and my youngest daughter were alone in the house. Himself was working the night shift and the other two daughters were away for the night.
 I was heading for bed around midnight and went to lock the front door. As I turned the key an alarming  noise coming from the other end of the house sent chills down my spine and i could feel my blood running cold in my body. I could hear myself saying "what the f#@k was that" and at the same time my daughter was saying something similar. Then it happened again, it was for all the world like someone was moving a heavy wardrobe across a wooden floor. 
At this stage the two of us were clung together shivering with fear in the hall. We thought it was coming from the attic, then it happened again and i thought it was coming from the small box room at the end of the house. You should have seen the two of us clinging to each other and slowly walking down the hall to investigate. I knew there had to be a logical reason and thank God there was. I opened the door of the room just in time to see the venetian blind on the window being played like a musical instrument by the northerly wind through the open window. You would be amazed by how loud it seemed in the empty room. We handed back the ashes soon after and thankfully the house returned to normal. 

In keeping with the story and the time of  year my photographs are graveyard themed.

 Camera settings, Camera - Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@24mm, exp 1/200sec, f7.1, ISO 100 +remote and tripod

 Camera Settings, Camera - Canon 70 D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@24mm, exp 1/800sec, f16, ISO100 +remote and tripod

 Camera Settings, Camera- Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@10mm, exp 1/10sec, f13, ISO 100 +tripod

 Camera settings, Camera 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@15mm, exp 1/320sec, f9, ISO 100

 Camera settings, Camera Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@10mm, exp 1/320sec, f22, ISO 100

 Camera Settings, Camera - Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@11mm, exp 1/800sec, f4, ISO 100 converted to Black/White
 Camera Settings, Camera - Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@11mm, exp 1/6sec, f22, ISO 100


Camera settings, Camera - Canon 70D, Lens Canon 18-135mm@28mm, exp1/60sec, f22, ISO 100