Category Archives: Irish Landscapes

More Visitor Centre Beauty

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Another shot for you today from the general region around the Visitor Centre.
I truly love these grounds, some of you have probably guessed that already but just in case you are new to this blog, may I mention that I love the grounds around the Visitor Centre.
The area features a collection of some of the finest trees that you will find anywhere in the Phoenix Park and as you probably know, trees are my kind of thing.
I particularly love this beast of a tree, if you approach it from a certain angle it almost looks like some great big monster has taken a chunk out of it. I have tried really hard to capture what I mean in this particular shot. If you look to the right hand side of the tree it looks considerably less populated than the left hand side. I’m beginning to think that whatever took away that side of the tree simply used the bench for extra elevation. Perhaps there is some kind of massive tree trimming instrument and the park warden got a little bit waylaid during a haircut.
The photograph was taken on a particularly sunny October morning with lots of low winter sunshine and a cloudless sky.

Thanks for dropping by.

Taken on a Bronica medium format film camera, filled with Kodak Tri-x 400 120mm film. Printed by my very own hands in a darkroom.

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

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To purchase a signed 10 x 8 inch print of this photo, just click the button below.

You can either pay directly via paypal or with your own credit card. The Prints are €25.00 each and that includes shipping to anywhere in the world. Your print will be made to order and will ship out within 48 hours.
If you would like a bigger or smaller size please don’t hesitate to email me with your requests.

Alternatively you can purchase unsigned prints or postcards of this photo from the Redbubble site from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

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Door Of Ashtown Castle

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I love this door. There is something magical and mystical about it, well there was until I got to see what was behind it and then it just became even more so.
As a great lover of trees I am also a huge fan of all things wooden, my poor son is probably sick of the sight of wooden toys, I’m sure he craves a bit of good old fashioned tatty plastic. As a trained cabinetmaker I have a great respect for all forms of wooden craftsmanship and nothing is better than getting up close and personal with things as beautiful as this old door. A quick rub of the hand along the grain and off I can go on my travels again, it’s just something that needs to be done anytime I pass it by. I’m sure people see me doing it and think I suffer from some kind of compulsive disorder, trust me I don’t, really I don’t.
I have no idea how old the door is, not even sure if it is the original door but it certainly looks the part and that’s really all that matters in my world anyway.
The photo is another in my series of film shots. It was taken on a beautiful old Bronica camera filled with Kodak Tri-x black and white film. The film itself was developed by my good friends in the Camera Exchange in Georges Street. I then made the print with my very own hands in the darkroom in the Gallery Of Photography, a wonderful resource for amateur [poor] photographers like me. The staff in there are amazing and the darkroom facilities are second to none. They also always have wonderful exhibitions on upstairs along with a truly superb bookshop, be careful though, you will end up buying lots of stuff if you’re addicted to photography books like I am.

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

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To purchase a signed 10 x 10 inch print of this photo, just click the button below.

You can either pay directly via paypal or with your own credit card. The Prints are €25.00 each and that includes shipping to anywhere in the world. Your print will be made to order and will ship out within 48 hours.
If you would like a bigger or smaller size please don’t hesitate to email me with your requests.

Alternatively you can purchase unsigned prints or postcards of this photo from the Redbubble site from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

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Ashtown Castle At Last

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It’s been my aim to capture this wonderful little castle for many years now but no matter how many times I try I just can’t seem to get it right.
I think I am finally close to being happy with it, all it needed was the square shape of medium format photography as I think it gives the photograph a lovely old world feel.

The purists will tell me it looks a little like the castle is falling over but you know what, the purists are not always right, in fact they are mostly wrong. I say “Pah” to converging verticals and hello to a picture that you find appealing.

The castle itself kind of reminds me of something out of a Brothers Grimm fairytale, it’s a real castle but very much in miniature. It’s also quite gothic in style [maybe all castles are] complete with tiny window openings and a giant wooden door. There is actually no glass in any of the windows, so that kind of just makes them openings rather than windows, doesn’t it.

Taken on a Bronica medium format film camera, filled with Kodak Tri-x 400 120mm film. Printed by my very own hands in a darkroom.

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

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To purchase a signed 11 x 11 inch print of this photo, just click the button below.

You can either pay directly via paypal or with your own credit card. The Prints are €25.00 each and that includes shipping to anywhere in the world. Your print will be made to order and will ship out within 48 hours.
If you would like a bigger or smaller size please don’t hesitate to email me with your requests.

Alternatively you can purchase unsigned prints or postcards of this photo from the Redbubble site from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

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Bank Of Trees, Visitor Centre.

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As you may have guessed from the last few posts I have spent a couple of days with a brand new camera in and around the region of the visitor centre in the Phoenix Park.
These shots were all taken about 6 weeks ago but they take a little bit longer to get up on the blog as they are all now printed by myself in the darkroom. I normally get one day a week to spend in the darkroom but if the weather permits then I have to abandon that plan and get my arse over to the park again instead. If you live in Ireland you will be more than familiar with our discordant weather patterns, if you don’t live here then take it from me, when you see sunshine during the winter you get out and enjoy it as much as possible. As a photographer I suppose it’s a good time to head in doors and do some studio work, but regular readers of this blog will well know that I am not an indoor studio kind of photographer. Apart from bonsai trees there is pretty much nothing indoors for me to photograph, that’s just the way I am. Trust me, you really don’t want to see hundreds of photographs of my three year old son, and even if you do, you’re still not going to [He’s all mine and I’m not sharing him].

In the time it has taken me to compile this post I had to take a break to spend the afternoon putting up all our Christmas decorations and guess what ?, we now have a Christmas tree in the house. Oh yes, a tree inside the house. Get ready for lots of arty black and white shots of a Christmas tree folks.

Taken on a Zenza Bronica SQ-A 120mm film camera using Ilford Xp2 Super
Printed by my very own hands in a darkroom

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

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To purchase a signed 10 x 9 inch print of this photo, just click the button below.

You can either pay directly via paypal or with your own credit card. The Prints are €25.00 each and that includes shipping to anywhere in the world. Your print will be made to order and will ship out within 48 hours.
If you would like a bigger or smaller size please don’t hesitate to email me with your requests.

Alternatively you can purchase unsigned prints or postcards of this photo from the Redbubble site from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

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Close Up Of Tree Roots

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I’ll keep this post short, why ?

Well I have pretty much already covered this photograph in a previous post, it’s not the exact same photograph but one is a closer zoom and this one………isn’t.

I like both of them so I am letting you see both of them, I’m normally quite good at making my mind up about these things, sometimes you need to be callous and just pick one and dump the other.

This is also one of the first shots to be taken on my newly borrowed Bronica camera and is a fine example of why I love the square format of medium format photography.

Special thanks to Julie for helping me with the word callous. You know those moments when you have a word on the tip of your tongue but it just won’t make its way down to your fingertips. Well, I had one of those moments, so thanks Julie.

Taken on a Zenza Bronica SQ-A 120mm film camera using Ilford Xp2 Super
Printed by my very own hands in a darkroom

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

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To purchase a signed 10 x 10 inch print of this photo, just click the button below.

You can either pay directly via paypal or with your own credit card. The Prints are €25.00 each and that includes shipping to anywhere in the world. Your print will be made to order and will ship out within 48 hours.
If you would like a bigger or smaller size please don’t hesitate to email me with your requests.

Alternatively you can purchase unsigned prints or postcards of this photo from the Redbubble site from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

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A Tree Of Many Trunks

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Something very spooky and slightly haunting about this here shot I think.

I just love the freeform almost mangled shape of the tree in the foreground, most trees seem to specialise in growing upwards but this one just decided to break all the rules. I simply love the fact that instead of the bog standard rule of just one single tree trunk that most trees seem to adhere to, this particular lad decided “No, I not conforming to all your rules”. I have absolutely no idea what type of tree this actually is. I say that with great embarrassment as I trained as a cabinetmaker / furniture maker many years ago and as part of my training in college I would have had to cover tree types and the likes. Having said that I don’t think we would have covered this type of tree, can’t imagine the wood being of much use for anything other than a dolls house and furniture maybe, the trunk wouldn’t provide anything of much thickness. Maybe somebody out there will come along and tell me its some really rare ancient type of oak tree used specially for making fine delicate [and expensive] oak chairs.

If you are interested in going to visit this tree then I will let you in on a little secret. Go to the visitor centre in the Phoenix Park and then head to the small renovated castle [Ashtown Castle]. There is a big open area in front of the castle and if you look way over to your left [with the castle behind you] then you will see a lovely walkway around the perimeter of the visitor centre. This fella is over in the far corner. If you have your kids with you, then take my advice, simply sit down on the bench for a couple of minutes and hey presto you will be surrounded by squirrels, it’s great fun and they are very cheeky.

Taken on a Zenza Bronica SQ-A 120mm film camera using Ilford Xp2 Super
Printed by my very own hands in a darkroom

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

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To purchase a signed 10 x 8 inch print of this photo, just click the button below.

You can either pay directly via paypal or with your own credit card. The Prints are €25.00 each and that includes shipping to anywhere in the world. Your print will be made to order and will ship out within 48 hours.
If you would like a bigger or smaller size please don’t hesitate to email me with your requests.

Alternatively you can purchase unsigned prints or postcards of this photo from the Redbubble site from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

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One Of My Trees Is Missing

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You know you visit certain parts of the Phoenix Park too often when you pass by in a car and notice a tree is missing amongst a cluster of several hundred.

I was passing by this spot a couple of weeks ago and noticed one of the larger trees was no longer there, I didn’t have my camera with me that particular day so I promised I would go back as soon as possible. With my new found love of film photography I have started to revisit lots of familiar spots to try and capture them all over again, this time on 120mm film instead of using my digital camera. I have a digital shot of this exact spot from several years ago but its fun to go back to the same places with a different camera, I suppose by doing this I will never be finished with my Phoenix Park project. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.

I love the texture of the tree bark, it’s something I think film captures really really well. I also find my eye constantly getting drawn to the crazy mass of trees way in the background of the photo, it’s like one of those 3d effect posters that you stare at for ages before a hidden image appears. Trust me though, there is nothing hidden in the trees.

This photo was taken on an old Russian made Kiev 6C medium format camera using Ilford Hp5 120mm film. The print was made by my very own hands in a darkroom and then scanned into a computer thing.

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

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To purchase a signed 10 x 10 inch print of this photo, just click the button below.

You can either pay directly via paypal or with your own credit card. The Prints are €25.00 each and that includes shipping to anywhere in the world. Your print will be made to order and will ship out within 48 hours.
If you would like a bigger or smaller size please don’t hesitate to email me with your requests.

Alternatively you can purchase unsigned prints or postcards of this photo from the Redbubble site from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

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Ashtown Castle In The Visitor Centre

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click on the image for print and postcard options

I recently spent an entire day in the area surrounding the visitor centre in the Phoenix Park. A friend had just lent me a rather beautiful medium format camera and I thought I would test it out in one of my more familiar spots.

Today’s post has absolutely nothing to do with that day or that particular camera, it does however have plenty to do with the castle you can see in the photograph.

I happened to go back to the visitor centre about two days later with my three year old son with the intention of having a bit of skit in the little maze that almost surrounds the castle. Adventurous is not the word, it totally lashed down as soon as I opened the door of the car. How do you explain to a three year old that we have to go home when he is telling me we can just go into the museum, it took me a few minutes and then I copped on that he was talking about the actual visitor centre. So up with our hoods and off we ran [well I ran, he was on my back]. I must say I have always thought the staff in the visitor centre were so pleasant, especially when you are dealing with a screaming / running three year old boy, they never tell you to keep quiet and they really seem to understand that kids need to make a little bit of noise from time to time.

On this particular day I just happened to be browsing through some of their publications on the park and I asked one of the members of staff when would be the best time to come and do a tour of Ashtown Castle [that’s the little castle in the photo]. He informed me that it’s pretty much open all the time but only for groups of three or more, well there was really only one and a half of us so I inquired if there was any particular busy period when it would be worth dropping over. I have always wanted to see inside it and never noticed that it was actually open to the public until this particular day. He said it was pretty much a case of pot luck and before I had time to reach the door he called me back and asked me if I was interested in seeing it, I didn’t want to be smart but that was why I was asking. Next thing he picks up the biggest key I have ever seen and casually asks me if I want to nip over now and have a ramble around. I was actually just about to go home and have lunch but scrapped that plan immediately and said “Hell yes my good friend”, I didn’t actually, I just said yes thank you sir.

This story is beginning to get rather long so lets speed things up a little bit. He brought us over to the castle and we spent at least an hour walking around it as he imparted his highly detailed knowledge on to me. He also had amazing patience with my son, who obviously wasn’t getting a much of a buzz from touring a restored medieval castle as I was. So, thank you Roy, if by any mad chance you are actually reading this and thank you OPW for providing such an amazing service.

I should also apologise to the staff as well, I’ll explain. Where we were entering the castle Roy had this rather odd looking metal instrument along with the giant key, after trying the key a few times he sighed and damned those pesky kids for constantly putting pebbles into the gigantic lock. He then used this odd looking hook apparatus to pick out the small stones and proceeded to unlock the door. Little did he know only ten minutes before hand we had been trying to fit stones into the very same lock, I have no idea if we were successful but I decided not to mention that particular fact, I simply added a nod of my head and agreed that some people just had no control over their kids.

Taken on a Zenza Bronica SQ-A 120mm film camera using Kodak Tri-x 400
Printed by my very own hands in a darkroom

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

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To purchase a signed 11 x 6 inch print of this photo, just click the button below.

You can either pay directly via paypal or with your own credit card. The Prints are €25.00 each and that includes shipping to anywhere in the world. Your print will be made to order and will ship out within 48 hours.
If you would like a bigger or smaller size please don’t hesitate to email me with your requests.

Alternatively you can purchase unsigned prints or postcards of this photo from the Redbubble site from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

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Some Of My Favourite Trees

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Lets get a few facts out of the way before I go any further, I don’t own the Phoenix Park and I am not the only person who uses it………but, you knew there was a but coming didn’t you, I don’t like when things change in the park and cars are allowed to travel down paths that were once strictly only for walkers and bikes.

Ok, so they are doing work on the main road through the park so they had to make some concessions to traffic that needs to use the park but really, did you have to open up one of my favourite walks through the park. I went to take photos of this area near the papal cross with my lovely new medium format film camera and to my horror discovered cars travelling at speed in my direction as I was about to set up a tripod in the middle of the quiet roadway. To be honest when the first car came along and sounded his horn I was about to throw him a couple of my favourite words that I’m no longer allowed to use in front of my three year old son, but then I noticed that there were more behind him and one thing that was lacking from the scene was the lovely white metal barriers at the top of the road. Bleedin vandals, I first thought, can they not leave anything alone. What use could they possibly have for three small metal poles, maybe they planned on using them at the entrance to the driveway on their house to stop people stealing their car.

I make it sound like this scene went on for ages but to be completely honest it lasted no more than about twenty seconds before I made a run for it. I wasn’t going to risk getting my [borrowed] camera damaged and this guy didn’t look like he was genuinely planning on stopping completely.

I like to think I was a gentleman about this incident, but really I’m just a coward with a skinhead.

You can purchase prints or postcards of this photo from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)

Silver Tree Roots, Phoenix Park

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Am I allowed to pick my own favourite photographs on this blog or should that honour be given to others who may possibly be a little bit more objective on this matter. Well, I am going to stick my neck out on this one and tell you that this here shot is one of my favourite shots in the last few months. I think I love it so much because it was taken on my new favourite toy [that being a wonderful Bronica camera, thanks Caroline by the way, in case you are reading this] and my new favourite film [Kodak Tri-x]. I promised I would always keep the geeky photographic tech speak off this blog so I won’t get into the reasons for liking one particular film over another, I can see your eyes glaze over at the slightest mention of tonal ranges, grain size, etc, so that’s the end of that already. I will also avoid explaining the joys of the wonderfully loud clunk of the Bronica camera when you press the shutter button, I think some of the deer several miles away get a bit of a jump each time I take a photo with it.

I love this photo for many reasons but I think the first one is the over-riding silver colour in the tree bark and the roots. To be honest it is something I have noticed that seems to be lacking a wee bit with digital shots. The Canon Eos is perfect for most shots but it seems to only feature black, white and hundreds of shades of gray but for some reason there is no silver in digital images, it’s also very possible I am doing something wrong in the processing stage but that’s all behind me now.

The image was taken on the grounds of the visitor centre in the Phoenix Park, regular visitors to this blog will have noticed at this stage that I like to photograph in this area quite a lot, but if you’ve been there yourself you know I can’t be blamed for loving it.

I was actually in the park this very morning [without camera by the way] and my son and I spent about half an hour watching two young swans practising how to fly. This involved the pair of them basically running across the top of the water whilst flapping their wings frantically. It was a truly wonderful sight to see, I must admit I spent the entire time wishing they wouldn’t succeed as the noise of them running across the water was breathtaking. I’ve never seen them doing this before and I felt very lucky to have stumbled upon them, although after about five minutes my son did keep asking me what I was looking at all the time. “Look Daddy, a stick”, “Look son, a swan trying to take off”, the sticks won in the end so I duly picked myself a good stick and began beating the fallen autumn leaves until they too attempted to take to the air. I must admit I do rather enjoy a good run around in the leaves, something very invigorating about it all.

You can purchase prints or postcards of this photo from as little as €2.50 by clicking this link.

(Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, please feel free to let me know what you think)