Black & White Wednesday

Posted on July 29, 2020July 22, 2020 Posted in Black and White Wednesday., Coastal, irish landscape, outdoors, wildlifeTagged Black and white, black and white photography, Black and White Wednesday., brickworks, Castle Espie, clouds, Comber, landscape, landscape photography, lime kiln, Mudflats, Nikon cameras, Nikon D7200, Sigma 17-70 mm, Sigma lens, Strangford lough, Water birds, water fowl, water reflection, Wetlands, WWT4 Comments

This weeks photograph is taken at Castle Espie a WWT reserve here in Northern Ireland. It sit’s on the shore of Strangford lough, which is a sea lough on the east side of the country close to the town of Comber. The reserve was the site of the old Castle Espie brick and pottery factory. This photograph was take from the Lime Kiln Observatory which is built on top of the old lime kiln’s.

Looking over one of the ponds in Castle Espie and the mud flats of Strangford lough.

Castle Espie and WWT link: https://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/castle-espie#

Camera: Nikon D7200 Lens: Sigma 17-70 mm

Photo data: ISO 100: f8 @ 1/250 sec : Lens at 17mm.

Thank you for visiting,

George.

An evening on Slieve Croob.

Posted on June 29, 2019 Posted in Ireland, irish landscape, outdoorsTagged Co.Down, Dromara hills, irish walks, landscape, landscape photography, Mountains, Mourne mountains, Newcastle, Nikon cameras, nikon D750, Northern Ireland, Sigma lens, Slieve Croob, sunset12 Comments

It’s been a few years since i stood on the top of Slieve Croob, so with a warm dry evening I packed the camera and drove to the car park at the foot of the service road. This gives a short walk up a steep tarmac private road to the top just over a mile away. Some things never change has the winds increase and the temperature drops on the climb upward. With the evening still bright I took my first photographs near the top with views across the Dromara hills with the Mourne mountains in the background.

In the photograph above you can see the coastal town of Newcastle in County Down nested at the foot of the Mournes.

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With the evening rolling in you can see the start of an evening mist forming in the valley’s.

After a short climb up pass the communication masts you reach the top of Croob with it’s stone cairn and trig point.

The remains of the Cairn on the right and the trig point on the left being lit with the warn light of a setting sun.

I sat for a while in the lee of the cairn and enjoyed the silence and beauty has the sun set lower in the sky. Starting the walk back down I took a few more shots.

Some more has I and the sun got lower..

In this shot the dark line in the middle of the photo is the source of the River Lagan has it starts it’s journey to meet the sea at Belfast.

My last shot of the evening has I was shooting hand held.

Thank you for joining me on my evening on Slieve Croob.

Black and White Wednesday.

Posted on January 30, 2019 Posted in Black and White Wednesday., outdoorsTagged Black and white, black and white landscape, Black and White Wednesday., blackandwhite, Flooding, irish landscape, landscape, monochrome, monochrome photography, nikon, Nikon cameras, sigma, Sigma lens, trees, water4 Comments

This was taken a couple of years ago along the coast in County Down, Northern Ireland. I was coming back from a photography day out and saw this has I rounded a corner.

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In truth the photo did not do this scene justice.

Thank you for visiting.

Have a good day,

George.

Black and White Wednesday

Posted on January 9, 2019 Posted in Black and White Wednesday., General, outdoorsTagged Black and white, black and white photography, Black and White Wednesday., Castleblayney, County Monaghan, eire, Ireland, Irish weather, landscape, lough Muckno, monochrome, monochrome photography, Nikon cameras, nikon D750, rain, Sigma lens2 Comments

Welcome to my first B&W Wednesday in 2019. So today we are going to use something we get a lot off in Ireland. Yes rain. Taken through the car windscreen during a heavy shower. This was shot at Lough Muckno in Castleblayney County Monaghan.

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Thank you for visiting and have a creative new year.

George

A Short tour of Wales (part 3)

Posted on September 2, 2018September 2, 2018 Posted in motorcycling, Motorcycling travel, WalesTagged Castell Harlech, Castle Harlech, Ffestiniog, Ffestiniog railway, Harlech, landscape, landscape photography, motorcycle touring, motorcycle touring Wales, nikon D750, North Wales, Porthmadog, Portmeirion, Sigma lens, Snowdonia national park, travel photography, Wales6 Comments

So this the last post on my recent tour around North Wales. Today we’re of to Harlech Castle or Castell Harlech in the native Wlesh language. This is Wales most famous castle and also a world heritage site.

First a few links for those that are interested in a little history.

Welcome to Harlech

Men of Harlech A version of this tune was us in the movie “Zulu” (1964)

Lyrics Various version’s of the above song.

Has can be seen it was a warm day but great for biking, so arriving at the car park has usual there is no motorcycle parking provided. So a no parking area was used and it frees up a couple of car parking places. Just has we parked up another couple from Germany pulled in along side us.

Cable locks secure the helmets to the bikes and with my panniers empty I store my riding gear in them making it more comfortable to walk around in the heat. Into the castle entrance which can be seen in the above photo. With our wallets a little lighter it was across the foot bridge into the castle.

Will leave the photos to tell the story.

A sample of the photo’s taken and photo’s of the two friends I was touring with.

After four days in Wales it way time to go our own ways, With me going to the Peak District in England, another going to the south of England and one back home to Ireland. So a final breakfast and with the bike packed it was back on the road alone.

a few photographs has I made my way across Wales and below is my final photo and what part of motorcycling is all about.

The roads.

There is going to be another part of the trip through the Peak District and up into the Yorkshire Dales but that is another post.

Hope you enjoyed the trip in Wales, it’s a beautiful country with unpronounceable place names and the people warm and friendly. That’s my third time staying in Wales and not my last. If you ever get the chance come and see Wales you will not be disappointed.

Thank you for joining me on this short tour and I happy to bring you along.

George.

From snow to coast.

Posted on December 16, 2017 Posted in General, wildlife, winterTagged coast, coastal views, County Down, Isle of Man, Kilclief, Kilclief beach, landscape, landscape photography, nature, Nikon D7200, nikon D750, redshank, sea birds, seascape, seaside, Sigma lens, Strangford lough, waders, wild birds, wildlife, wildlife photography, winter sun6 Comments

This time last week I was digging the snow from the drive, taking photo’s in the snow. A week later and bar the mountains the snow is gone, well for now. Here in Ireland the weather can change in an hour. With a cool breeze and sunshine that gave no heat I headed for the coast. With heavy rain showers and a bitter wind I sat with a coffee and watched the bird life feeding in the mud flats left has the tide receded. With the return of the no heat sunshine I grabbed the camera’s and went for a walk. Below are a few of my shots from the day.

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Relax now this is the only bird shot this week, a couple of Redshank’s feeding around the mud flats.

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Fishing boats and one of the markers at the mouth of Strangford Lough. In the back ground is the Isle of Man, Looking closer because of the use of a telephoto lens.

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Kilclief beach looking the Irish sea towards the Isle of Man on the horizon.

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Then I spotted this, photo below.

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Parked in the wrong spot…. the colour of the toy car caught my eye on the walk back.

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It was the sun hitting the seaweed and lichen on the rocks that drew me to this photo.

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My final one of the day.

Thank you for visiting my blog, feel free to comment. What you like ,dislike etc.

Enjoy your weekend.

George.

A mixed bag.

Posted on December 10, 2017December 10, 2017 Posted in wildlife, winterTagged bird photography, Bird watching, country walking, County Down, Fieldfare, frost, Ireland, landscape, landscape photography, nikon, Nikon D7200, nikon D750, Northern Ireland, Redwing, sigma, Sigma lens, snow landscape, snow scene, Starling, wild birds, wildlife photography, winter, winter sun, Winter weather11 Comments

Went to bed Thursday night and the fields were green, woke Friday and the place is white. First snow of the year and it was evening before I could get time to head out of a walk around the local roads. There’s not a lot of great shots around here with it being just grazing and most of the old buildings pulled down and new homes replacing them. The one weekend it would have been great to be free I’m busy, snow just won’t last more that a few days here. Anyway back to a few photo’s.

Beside these trees there was a lovely old ruin, a home from over around 200 years ago with a little history.

Murder in Carricknaveagh

Scroll down the page in the above link to read the story of this spot.

Not much traffic here.

Above details and textures.

Winter sun.

These next Photos I caught at the last minute and were shot to be silhouettes has I metered off the black bird with spot metering against the bright sky.

This next shot is not something I do often but I enjoyed creating this. It was taken down by one of the many small lough’s we have around here.

And we have some visitors here at the moment, Redwing’s migrate here for the winter along with the Fieldfare both members of the Thrush family.

Above this is the Fieldfare.

The Redwing is the one in the foreground.

The next set of Redwing photo’s see the bird spit out a Hawthorn seed from the berries they were feeding on.

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Did not know till I process these photo’s I had caught this, all the bird shots where taken with a 600mm and chopped in production. One more to go.

In this photo we have three Fieldfare’s and one Starling, So spot the odd one out.

Thank you for visiting and take care.

George.

Beech trees and barely straw.

Posted on September 2, 2017September 2, 2017 Posted in GeneralTagged barely, Barely straw, beech trees, black & white, country side, County Down, Ireland, landscape, landscape photography, monochrome, monochrome photography, nikon, Nikon D7200, trees4 Comments

Was visiting in the country side and running along the lane way to the house is a fine stand of trees. With the weather grand and camera in hand off I went. So here are a couple of shots from my stroll along the wood. ray 1.JPG

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So thank you for visiting and feel to comment. Like or dislike let me know.

Have a good day.

Rainbows

Posted on June 3, 2017 Posted in GeneralTagged County Monaghan, Ireland, irish lough, landscape, lough, nikon, Nikon D7200, rain, rainbows, water5 Comments

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.

Spring morning in the back yard.

Posted on March 25, 2017 Posted in GeneralTagged County Monaghan, frost, HDR photography, hoar frost, Ireland, irish loughs, landscape, landscape photography, lough, marshes, mist on water, Morning mist., nikon, Nikon D7200, reflections, sunrise, trees, water reflection13 Comments

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.

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Thank you for visiting.

George McNeill Photography

Tag: landscape

Black & White Wednesday

An evening on Slieve Croob.

Black and White Wednesday.

Black and White Wednesday

A Short tour of Wales (part 3)

From snow to coast.

A mixed bag.

Beech trees and barely straw.

Rainbows

Spring morning in the back yard.