Photographers – Think Differently..
This photograph was taken on one off my early morning walks in the Dromara hills. Shot using a Nikon D7200 with a Tamron SP 70 – 200mm len. Raw file edited in Lightroom and finished in Nik Silver Efex Pro.
Looking across the Dromara hills to the Mourne mountains in the background.
Thank you for visiting.
George..
My how life has changed for most of us, restrictions, work closures and social distancing to name a few. So for the last six weeks I’ve been at home, fuel prices are down the weather is great but I can’t go anywhere. Travel restrictions are in force so traveling to the coast is not going to happen. I have been walking in my local area and get out for sunrise most morning. I walk in a local wood for a few hours and explore trails that take me away from the beaten path. I don’t carry my camera every morning but will use my mobile/cell to photograph sunrise’s and landscapes in the woods. I post to Instagram most days, link at the bottom of the page. So any photos on this blog are taken with my Nikon DSLR. The following where taken over a period of time.
This shot is across County Down with the Mourne mountains in the back ground.
The remains of a small hill farm for days long gone.
Been trying to find out more about this Cross on a distance hill. (most of this photos are shot with a telephoto lens which creates a compressed perspective). I have been told it was a site of a Mass rock. Link: Mass rock
Will be finding out more about this cross and I have to find if there is public access to it.
A cool frosty morning in this shot with frost lying on the fields in the foreground and the hills on the other side of Belfast in the background. A view around 25 miles away. The next shot is to the west and is of Scrabo Tower above the town of Newtownards in County Down. Again this would be around 25 mile away. Link: Scrabo
Given the warm weather we have been having and the cold nights we get the valley’s full with mist early morning and late evening.
Where I grew up in Ireland these mists were known has ghost mists due to the distortion effect on objects around you. If you saw somebody walk into the mist you would understand why….
Going to finish the landscape side with another old hill farm shot, this you can just see through a gap in the trees.
Next a few of the wild life I have managed to photograph on my walks.
A one legged Mistle Thrush. Link : Mistle Thrush
Dunnock: Dunnock
Chaffinch: Link Chaffinch
A young buck and doe deer.
These photographs are of Roe deer. I was lucky to get these shots has the first sight or smell of humans and they disappear . I still had my camera in hand has I make my out of the woods, just rounding a bend I spotted them feeding. I slowly pushed into the foliage beside me and stood still. Having a 150 – 600mm lens on the camera helped me get these shots.
I have a list of the birds and animals still to photograph, so my early morning walks will continue while work is suspended.
Thank you for joining me on my walk.
Stay safe and well.
George.
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.
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.
Hello, this week we are off to the Mourne Mountains, well Dundrum bay to photograph the mountains. With the moving cloud cover and the brighter highlights it gives a nice distinction to the landscape.
Thank you for viewing.
George.
Went for a short drive along the coast and the light was not great. Looking up at the Mourne mountains I decide to drive into the hills just North West from them and wait for sun set. Stopping at the view point called the Windy Gap, it wasn’t living up to its name last night. Just a light breeze which got cold has the sun set.
This first show’s the Drumlin’s (small rounded hills) with the Mourne’s in the background. Drumlin’s make up a lot of the country side in County Down.
This and the one below was take with at 200mm on a Tamron 70-200mm zoom lens just has the sun was starting to set.
The sun was setting behind me and the colour was in the clouds behind me. So I walked up a short lane way and took the next few shots.
It was at this point I packed up, I got the heater on in the car and sat and watched the last ray’s drop and pull the night down.
Thank you for visiting, please feel free to comment.
George.
Still cold here with a wind that would cut through you. But it was dry and the sun was out. So took a half hour drive over to the coast on the County Down. With the tide and wind sculpting the sand around the rocks I got these before a rain shower blew in.
After this was shot the rain started and I watched the first day of the year get overtaken by the dark.
Thank you for visiting,
George
The above photograph was taken from my car of a Grey Heron that was meal hunting till I disturbed him. I took a couple of shots and left him in peace. It was a funny old day, I spend five days of the holidays in my bed due to illness dying with Man Flu. So not having seen my daughter or grandson over Christmas I was going to see them but they were out. So I went a few mile down the road to Dundrum inner bay. With the tide out so was the wildlife, can you see a pattern here. Yea no one home…..
Bar this little chap here, not rare to see but not too common around here. A Greenshank. Another person I meet was called Leslie who stopped for a chat before going off to try for a shot a few mile around the coast of the sun setting.
He left me his web address so I could have look at his work, Leslie is a Photographer shooting landscapes, weddings and more. Has you will see his landscape shots are around the Mourne mountain area and well worth a look. Stunning is what I called them.
A link to his web site. Mourne Mountain Photography
Please do check out Leslie’s work. So after we parted I’m back where I started with the Grey Heron. A text to my mobile/cell informed me my daughter was home. So needing a coffee and with my grandad head on, it was off to play with whatever Santa had left my grandson for Christmas. Which I can report kept us amused till his bed time.
So another year almost gone, I want to thank you all for your support, comments and likes. May you get your dreams and wishes in 2018, leave those fears here in 2017. All the best my friends.
George McNeill.
So the first skiff of snow covered the ground when I woke up this morning. Sitting looking out at it with a hot cup of coffee in my hand it was where will I go to today. With the sun breaking through I headed for Dundrum inner bay. A quick look at the tide tables lot me know the tide would be out. With the mud flats clear you never know what will be about. This morning was going to be about landscape shots and some close ups. I love walking the shore and looking for any interesting subjects, the feel of the sea breeze on my face. I reality it was a biting wind that chilled you and the sun that looked great lying low in the sky but gave no warmth.
Dundrum bay with the Mourne mountains in the background.
The stone embankment on the left is the remains of an old railway line which is now a short walking trail running along the shore of the bay. A place I have walked many times over the years.
One of the stone and brick bridges that the railway run over.
Spotted this shell on a rock and loved the contrast in the white against the green on the rock. the shell was about the size of my thumb nail. I shot this with a Sigma 105 mm macro lens.
I sat down on the stone embankment to just watch the bay with the sound of the birds on the flats and a buzzard calling somewhere behind me. I spotted not one but three White Egrets feeding in the river that run across the flats when the tide is out.
This were still a fair distant away and has I watched one flew off. While looking else where I discovered another one had gone. Scanning the area I soon spotted it, there around 50 feet away feeding. Right in front of me, these birds will usually flee not come closer to humans. So very slowly I put a mono pod on my camera and was rewarded with some of my best Little Egret shots to date.
Leaving the flats and climbing up onto the trail I got this shot.
A Trush feeding on the trail which is grass cover most of the way.
From here I drove into the Dromara Hills which lay north of the Mourne mountains. I was hoping to get a few more bird shots but it was not to be. Where it was cold on the shore it was freezing here in the hills. the winds stronger and a storm front making its way in. I took a few images from a view point called the Windy Gap which believe me was living up to its name today. These are all looking into the Mourne mountains. Most taken at 150 mm using the car door has a tripod.
this last one taken on a 24 mm lens.
So thank you again for joining me here in the north of Ireland. Take care.
George.
A breezy and over cast day but a warm wind kept any chill at bay. This first photo is at the start of Strangford Lough at a place called Kilclief. I am here trying out new filters.
The small light marker is one of two at the mouth of the lough. Played around with setting here to see what I could product. This shot was converted to B&W and processed with’s Silver Efex Pro.Then it was a few more miles around the coast to St. John’s lighthouse. Here the wind was full on has it came around the headland.
Again a long exposure smoothed the water and clouds, again finished in Silver Efex Pro.
Then on the way home following the coast I spotted wind surfers out on the water, no filters on here. Using a 70 – 300mm lens on the Nikon D7200 I got this next shot hand held.
Across the bay you can see part of the Mourne mountains with Newcastle town at the base. Sunlight was throwing shafts of light through the clouds onto the water just off shore and the wind surfers zipping across the water in the strong winds. There its time for me to leave the coast and head inland home.
Thank you for visiting.
View of Down
This shot was taken in the townland called Carricknaveagh in County down , Northern Ireland. The hill in the distance is called Slieve Croob and on the right you can see the faint outline of Slieve Donard , Northern Irelands highest point. I would be around 20mile/33km from Donard which overlooks the seaside town of Newcastle. If you have ever heard the song “Where the mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea” Well its along this lovely coast.
George McNeill Photography 
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