Holy Sunsets Batman

IT SEEMS last night was one of the beautiful evenings where everyone stops, looks at the sky and thinks wow. I was working out in Blanchardstown from late afternoon and once that was all done I was delighted to get a lift back into town around 9pm when the colours in the sky were just popping magnificently.

And lucky me, I was at the Quays with my camera AND my long lens which I don't normally carry. I only took a couple of shots as the light was rapidly going and I was carrying a lot of bags. But I was happy with what I got, the only thing is I need to find the fine line between what I see on my Mac to what the image looks like on a PC and then on top of that on Flickr. The two orange/red silhouette/statue images were more red on my Mac but still and all I am delighted to have managed to capture Superman, Batman and Yer Man in the middle. (Thanks to both Will and Darragh for spotting our Super Heroes.)



The sunset flooding down the Phoenix Park was something else also.



We are really lucky in Ireland to have the beautiful quality of light that we do. There are so many types of light something we can boast about to warmer climes with their stark bright sunshine. We have twilight or the beautiful light after an evening shower, I could go on and on. But last night was particularly beautiful and almost cancelled out all the rain today :)

Student of the Year

I JUST received this text from the Young Wan:

"gusse who shortlisted in student of the year!? :) x.X.x.X."

Herself and four others were put up for student of the year by the teachers, I'm delighted, I will have to have a word about spelling though ;)

It certainly makes a change from 'can do better' :) Well done honey.

GGgggrrrrrr

YOU may recall last week I took a photograph of a woman driving along the Quays in Dublin eating a bowl of cereal. Morning Ireland were doing a road safety feature all week that I was following; I sent them the image showing how mad and blatantly-bad some drivers behave and it was mentioned on air.

At one stage then over the weekend AnCatDubh from Pix.ie commented here saying they had seen the pic in Friday's Evening Herald. So after some Herald hunting, there it was, no permission asked, not even so much as an email sent to me. Some of you may know that I am pretty easy to contact.

On top of it all I am quoted all over the place and there is not one attribution. I've called them and will be sending them an invoice.

For the record I have no problem selling my photographs just so you know. If it is going to be used in a publication that makes money I probably will charge you. After all, eh presumably, most of the images in, for example, a newspaper have been either bought or used via some agreement so why shouldn't mine.

Grannymar of course can use them whatever she likes. Then again that might be a bad idea, she is a bit wild... ;)

Finally Toe Jam Photo meet pics

WELL I had a ball at the weekend's photomeet, thanks so much to everyone that came along. At various points of the day Caitriona, John, Darren, 73 Man, Davy, Phil, Nathalie, Alexia, Debs, Will, Bob, Claire, and some other pals were there making the whole day great fun. You can check out lots of different pics in the Toe Jam pool.

We started out at the George Bernard Shaw pub Toe Jam carboot sale which was too cool for school with wonderful things to photograph, amazing colours and great backdrops. I think a lot of the people involved all knew each other so a gang of us with cameras turning up was above rather then below the radar. There were a few comments about the amount of cameras/snappers by the Toe Jammers. Some of us had more camera kit than others, you know who you are Davy, which later led to multiple camera-nerdy moments and impromptu portrait-taking with various lighting techniques using home-made and very effective flash equipment. I have to say that the more I take photographs the more I hate having my photograph taken.

Once our group was complete and everyone had their fill of Toe Jam and cakes we walked down to the Temple Bar Saturday market where once again we did a couple of circuits of the market, taking pics, buying beautiful fresh produce before retiring to the beer garden at the top of the Fitzsimmons Hotel.

The Young Wan did well out of the door with a couple of cool t-shirts, a cool bag, not to mention dinner picked up in Temple Bar courtesy of the Gallic Kitchen. I managed to get the pics up on Flickr and Pix.ie over the weekend so to finish it all off I'll post some here.

There was talk as well of the next photomeet and a couple of things were mooted, we mentioned Cork as well as a North Coast run from Belfast up to the Giants Causeway taking in all the amazing sites/sights along the way. Thats one where we would need drivers but it is definitely something we should look at for the summer.

Anyways before I post some of my pics of Saturday I want to thank everyone for firstly turning up, I would have cut a lonely figure pottering around Toe Jam on my own ;) and secondly for making it such a fun-filled and full day.

Oh My

I HAVE a graph up on Graphjam, it isn't on the main page instead it is on a voting page. No great thought went into it, but if you'd like to give it a thumbs up, feel free :) You can vote here mine is 'Oh My', you might have to scroll down to see it.


see more funny political pictures

PS a photo meet post is on the way soon.

A lovely memory

I'M watching Eastenders and Everything but the Girl's 'Missing' is playing and I just remembered a wonderful memory from years ago. The Young Wan asked me one of those inquisitive sweet questions that only a young child can ask. She was about just about three at the time and thinking about it, it is a pretty big question for that age. She was so smart (still is) I never thought anything of her asking me it at the time other than it being deadly cute.

She asked me 'do deserts miss the rain?

Last minute photo meet organisation

FOR all you who are coming to the photomeet tomorrow and think you may be a little late, drop me an email to redmumATgmailDOTcom and I'll send you my mobile number. Looking forward to it.

Mad driving

I SENT my picture of the mad driver having her cereal whilst driving along the Quays to Morning Ireland and they mentioned it this morning (at 4.22mins). They were doing a road safety feature all week and I missed it during my morning running around getting ready. I'll listen to it online when it is up later.

Photo inspiration

I HAVE debated with the idea of doing a photo-a-day project for a long time but for a variety of reasons have never gotten it together. Sometimes this has more to do with actually having the time to post, or be physically able to. Then there are times when I don't take the camera out of my bag once in a number of days. Course when there are weeks like this week I then start thinking how difficult would it be to do? And I don't mean about producing images that I am proud of - that is a whole different ballgame altogether. Some weeks inspiration abounds, other weeks find me throwing the ball and snapping the doggie over and over again. For me that is the main problem..

Every now and again I see something that is totally inspiring. Other's shots of ordinary things, images of people's lives such as these two friends. Stephanie and Mav who live 3191 miles apart and they take a photograph in the evening every day. They have already carried this out every morning resulting in a compelling and wonderful book filled with their images laid out side by side. I worry that I would end up with a year-long bus project, after all it is one of the most constant things I do.

This week has been one week where not only have I been busy taking pics in work but I have also found a few shots for myself too. And thats dangerous because it is weeks like this that I think again 'why don't I do it? I haven't come to a decision yet and maybe I never will, after all posts can be posted ahead...

Anyway here's some pics from Arbour Hill today.



This wee dog tried to steal the afternoon and in his cuteness very nearly did. His owner, Kathleen, told us he is a rescue dog who was kicked so hard it dislocated his hip. His former owners never brought him to a vet to get it fixed and now he runs strangely and sits strangely too.



And two from the way back to work after Arbour Hill.





Don't forget the photomeet this weekend, 1pm at the George Bernard Shaw pub in Portobello for the car boot sale... Looking forward to it, hoping for lots of inspiration and it is open to any and everyone, so come on.

One of my favourite film scenes

THIS is one of my favourite movie scenes, I love the movie and I just adore this scene. Enjoy.



*Big sigh*

Ella

THIS little lady is becoming quite the model and she's not even two yet. I suppose it is hardly surprising as she has had a camera thrust in her wee face since she was literally hours old.

O M G

THIS morning as I was going into work along the Quays, I noticed this mad woman driving while eating a bowl of cereal. Seriously, a bowl of cereal.



Now I know the Quays don't move that fast in the mornings but seriously come on. I mean how does this work?

Does she pour them before she gets into the car and leaves it on the passenger seat until the traffic crawls enough to eat, or does she bring a bowl and fill it up as she goes. Either way thats is a major distraction and a danger to everyone else on the road.

What happens if she spills some on her lap, does she just ignore it and drive on? What happens if all of a sudden traffic begins to move, does she move the bowl then not caring whether or not she gets milk on her seats, does she drive on irregardless? Slow moving traffic is not an excuse.

I was tempted to take her number plate but decided against it. What a selfish driver.

Pigeons fly and papers lie waiting...

Coming along nicely

THINGS are ticking along really well in my little yard; all my seedlings are coming up so quickly and the changes from day to day is pretty amazing. I cannot wait until later in the summer when all my efforts literally come to fruition.

I planted out my sweetpea seedlings with my sugar snap pea seedings, there were 12 sweetpea plants and 48 sugar snap peas so I divided them eventually into two troughs, one of which has a grid to grow up and the other I need to get one for.


(peas to the far left) (sweetpeas)









And so far so good. Some of the sweetpeas particularly the ones without support have become collateral damage but I think they may still sprout. The non-supported planter seems to get a lot more sun than the other and is suffering from it so I might have to move it but at the moment there is no space until the

Hopefully in a couple of weeks all my little sugar snap babies will grow up and around the trellis with lovely sweetpea flowers growing around the peas. It is pretty amazing watching the how the peas' trendils have found the trellis and are now busy winding themselves around it.

The doggie is also enjoying all the smells around the back yard and when I was planting she sat there watching my every move. At one stage I caught rubbing her cheek along the delicate sweetpea shoots like a cat, she is mad.



Nanny was giving out that I had too many green things growing and not enough flowers so I made a hanging basket with all the other flowers I've been nurturing. Again the doggie became attached to the lining and I discovered it all over the place after she had a fight with it, it was rescued and put into a bag. I should have actually moved the bag for the second pic, but then again this series is more about documenting my wee yard's transformation than anything else. I want to look back at pics and think wow. So far it is really working.









As I mentioned earlier there has been some collateral damage, I also discovered it was better to grow the kale seeds directly into little pots where they can grow for longer rather than in seed trays and then into bigger pots. I have a couple of little pots that haven't survived, one or two which are hanging on by a thread, meanwhile others I planted directly into the same size pots weeks later are absolutely thriving and doing better than the others were at twice the time.

Overall though things are doing great but I need to get some shelving up to hold all my tomato plants, I plan to get some steel shelves up against the wall that is currently housing bin bags and put the tomato plants into growbags on the shelves. We'll see how it goes.

Finally my berries... One berry bush is thriving, the other was unfortunately not planted quickly enough and is just refusing to do anything and my strawberries, mmhhh, coming along nicely. So far it is hard to tell which will yield more strawberries, my cut-up welly boot or the hanging basket but both are covered in flowers with little strawberries coming up.


View large

After all that gardening ;) there isn't anything better than a snooze.

GOTCHA

I RECENTLY bought the Young Wan a new ipod and the sound level has not only been driving me nuts and can be heard via her ear-plug plugged ears from the next room, not to mention from outside the house, but must also be doing damage, serious damage to her ears.

It has been one of those times where I know she pacifies me and turns it down before slowly and surely turning it back up again.

Her last ipod had the volume set and I could not remember where or how I did it, but I discovered it this evening. So the maximum volume has been turned down by a third and I locked it with a combination number, one she doesn't know! I am actually laughing to myself that she didn't get there before me. Excellent and thank god for that.

Photomeet anyone ? (Dublin - May 17 or 18th)

EDIT: MAY 12 @3.30PM

We now have a date and time for the photomeet thanks to Caitriona's suggestion of a car boot sale.

When: 1pm, May 17th

Where: George Bernard Shaw pub (see where on google maps), Portobello (we'll meet out the front - no early drinking please ;)

Let me know what you think in the comments. The plan would be to wander around the car boot, we could then wander down the canal before retiring for some pints, and then later pints with Alexia.

--o0o--

Claire, John, Phil, WillKnot, Darragh and I were twittering the other day about another Photomeet. Are you interested? The date we agreed on is in two weeks time, May 17th or 18th. As for where and what so far we have a blank page and are open to suggestions.

As with the last time, this is open to anybody who wants to come along, learn a little, have some fun and meet with other snappers. We may even do the 'how many pics have we taken in total' game again...

So come on let me know if you are interested and if you have any burning photography desires that we may satiate that weekend (ie any ideas on what we could do). Leave any thoughts in the comments. You can also check out images from the last photomeet we did during the Irish Blog Awards weekend.

Yer man strikes again

ONCE AGAIN yer man strikes and once again very timely indeed. Bye bye Bertie.

Jesus Christ

I saw this on the news yesterday and just thought 'HOLY GOD'. Apparently this ritual helps the children grow up strong and healthy and apparently no child has been injured while being dropped off a tall building onto a white sheet. I imagine at the least they will be a little clingy afterwards ;) Mad.