I run another blog Eye of Seoirse which I am going to start using a little more.Will still be doing what I do here, I fact I hope to start posting on a more regular bases. So thank you all who follow and like/comment on my blogs. I enjoy reading your blogs, seeing your photographs and artwork.
Thank you all.
George
Had an appointment in the town of Newry so with the weather spoiling us today with great sunshine and heat, I headed there early. Walked some of the canal down through to the Albert basin.
First up is a sculpture caller the Newry Docker. Link here for more info .A sort distance along the basin some boats are moored up.
Here’s a couple that caught my eye, they stood out with their masts echoing the church steeples in the background. Would have been a great day to be sailing has there was a gentle breeze.
This is looking along the Buttercrane Quay, you can see the underwater vegetation here has the early morning sun filters through from the trees. Close to this spot a Grey Heron was feeding along the other bank. Nice to see these birds close up. Must be used to people has they normally fly off.
While this shot shows the Buttercrane Centre reflected in the canal. link
Then it was time to meet some friends at Grounded Espresso Bar on the corner of Merchants Quay and Monaghan Street. Good coffee and time with friends rounded off a great morning in Newry.
Thank You for visiting.
Took this one evening just has one rainbow faded another formed.
Enjoy your weekend and thank you for visiting.
Eye of Seoirse verse, short stories and other rants.
Started doing the first photo points on the IPR this year. There’s a link here which shows the map and rally points. You can do them in any order and have a few months to complete them. My first was number 8 on the map.
Moylough Castle or Church
Then traveling south it was number 7 next, Ballinahowen Tree Sculptures
There are a few of these tree sculptures here so will do a post about these soon.
Still heading south to the next one number 13 on the map it was another tree sculpture in Banagher. It is called The Musician (J McEvoy) link
Heres a link with Johnny McEvoy singing The Ballad of Jack Reilly.
Then it was over to the town of Tullamore to see a friend and enjoy a coffee. Back on the road home in the evening sun with just short of two hundred miles covered, the buzz of riding is still there even after forty years of motorcycling.
Thank you for visiting
There’s a different look on the lough, with the winter water fowl and duck’s away the summer residents have made a show. Back are the Great Crested Grebe, Mallard’s and the Mute Swan’s. Mute Swans pair up for life and seldom divorce. Courtship takes place in late winter with synchronised head dipping and necks and breasts pressed together. With their S shaped necks a heart shape forms during this ritual.
I shot this photograph last year and converted it to black and white. It shows the heart shape they form doing the above ritual.
Thank you for visiting
Woke this morning to the rising sun hitting the bedroom window, one look and I and my old pal where quick to get outside. I was setting up the tripod just has the last of the mist was kissing the lough surface. I took these with a 70- 300 telephoto lens, bracketing some of them and editing them in HDR Efex Pro. With the mist and a hoar frost coating the foliage it was a beautiful morning to be out. My old pal enjoyed following whatever scents and trails he was came across. Exploring the world by his nose like dogs do.
Thank you for visiting.
We get a good range of birds visiting the feeders in the garden, this afternoon I grabbed a few shots from a window in the house. Also been making and putting nesting boxes around the area, with plans to make and install a camera in one for next year. So a couple of photographs off our visitors.
Great Tit swinging in the breeze.
Blue Tit
Chaffinch (male)
Chaffinch (female)
Rook a member of the crow family.
Thank you for visiting.
Sunday evening and it looked like it was going to be a lovely sunset, so took a drive over to Lake Muckno in Country Monaghan. Any clouds in the evening sky must have went else where has the sunset, the sky went flat. So shot a few Black and white photos. With interesting trees and the last on the sun has it dropped into the hills. With the camera on the tripod I got this shot.
I love the beauty in these twisted limbs as if they were drawn in a quick sketch. A short walk saw me looking over a short stretch of water at what I think is the water skiing club.
Has I drove home over higher ground I saw the last of a beautiful sunset in the direction of my home.
Thank you for visiting.
We stand on a hill top, watching the passing of time.
The world of change goes spinning pass
Vast forest of our ancestors, culled long ago,
Land naked for man to grow his food,
Or cleared to build his caves.
Soon no place left, for him to rest his soul,
Or clean the air, that’s life for him.
Upon this little hilltop,
There’s now just two of us.
Our leaves there are no more.
Thank you.
Below is a quote from John O’ Donohue. I was given a book many years back by this man and his writing awoke a spirit within me.
“Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits.”
― John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
Been very busy this last few months so the camera has not seen a lot for use. So any breaks in working, I have my nose stuck in a book even if it’s only a lunch break. I love reading anything from the daily paper to whatever catches my eye. I bought a photographic magazine which there was a letter asking is photography art. I believe it is, I decide on a number of settings which affects the look of the in camera shot before pressing the shutter. There there is the post shot processing, which is unlimited in the looks you can achieve or the message you hope to convey. I got a book yesterday called ‘ Why it does not have to be in focus’ Modern Photography Explained by Jackie Higgins. Published by Thames & Hudson ISBN 978-0-500-29095-8 . My base for buying this book came about from reading that letter. Jackie Higgins explains the artistry behind 100 key works of modern photography. Into chapter 2 and it makes an interesting read into the art of modern photography and the expression expressed within the image.
My photographs here don’t claim to be works of modern photography, but are they what I saw in front of my camera.
Trying to figure if the trees were holding this upright.
The frost was real.
Thank you for visiting
George McNeill Photography 
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