August Photography

Hi everyone, it's been awhile since my last blog post. I've been off this summer, before I return to college on Monday. I'm continuing my Multimedia & Web Development year 2 course, in Cavan Institute, here in Ireland.

I've been so busy taking many photos throughout the summer months, with so much to show you all. The summer has really flew by, to quick really, but I'm glad to get back to my studies soon, and looking forward to new ideas and challenges. 

I'm going to show you what I got up to this month. And then in another blog post coming soon, I will talk more about what I have been doing during the summer. At the start of August, myself and my fellow photographer friend Roisin Mc Phillips met up in Virginia, in County Cavan, here in Ireland. It's 15 minutes from my hometown in Bailieborough. It's full of beautiful forests, lakes, and so much more.

The below photo, I took in Deerpark Forest in Virginia. I love this spot in the forest. With enough shade from the trees above to allow for a long enough exposure. The water appears still and calm, and really adds a sense of peace to the overall image 

The forest itself sits on the shores of Lough Ramor lake. Lough Ramor (Irish: Loch Ramhar) is a large natural lake of 741 hectares, and is a  a haven for many species of wildlife both resident and migratory. The forest itself offers some easy walks, and some really nice lakeside views along the way.

I absolutely love Deerpark forest, the walk round by the water is so tranquil. There are a lot of very old boat houses and other old buildings there , I would advise bring a camera to capture this beautiful place. Parts which I like to visit, are slightly off the beaten track into the forest. I can have the place all to myself some days. I wonder how many shades of green can be found here?

And the odd bit of colour thrown in for good measure, is always nice. I love to bring this red cloak nearly everywhere with my camera. I've probaly used it to death at this stage. But it adds a really nice pop of colour, and maybe some mystery to any scene it's used it. Although I do get some really odd looks from passers by, when I have it on. 

Here in the below photo, you can see the before on top, and my finished edited photo on the bottom. Editing or post processing as it's also called is my favorite part of the day. I could easily spend 3-4 hours at my laptop, playing around with different edits and effects. I mainly like to use Adobe Lightroom for 80% of my editing. It's a great quick workflow to have, for any aspect of the image. From exposure, highlights & shadows, saturation, and much much more. The great thing is, that any edit is non destructive, and can easily take a step back, or simply start over from fresh.

I do use photoshop also, but mainly for things like resizing images, noise reduction, and also sharpening. The below image is whats called vertical blurring. It was achieved in photoshop. I will upload another blog post soon going through a step by step on how its done. It adds a beautiful and at times quite eerie effect. Some vertical objects in the images work best, like trees or buildings. But what you do is up to you. 

Cavan is abundant with so much natural beauty, with its many lanpscapes, lakes, forests and castle ruins, just to name a few. Right on our doorstep, and it should be appreciated more than we do sometimes. I hope I can do these places justice, with the photos I take here. It's a real passion of mine. When I first started photography over 3 years ago, I never thought it would become such a big part of my life. 

I think we need to slow down sometimes, and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast. You also miss the sense of where you are going and why I believe.

Later in the week of August, I visited an old abandoned house, by the roadside. It's really just a shell of a house, but what remains, is still as beautiful in my eyes. To some it's ordinary and mundane. But to me it's a story of times gone by. A picture tells a thousand stories, and these are no exception. 

The abandoned house shuddered on the hill, wishing the morning light would come all the sooner to warm its weary walls

 It's been awhile since a footstep had echoed within these walls

Fragments of plaster lie damp over a long untrodden floor.

The houses only occupants weaved their webs between the spindles of the stair banisters and from the ceiling to the wall, old cobwebs billowed in the draft

I hope you all enjoyed reading, just a small section, of what I've been doing lately. I promise to keep it updated more often. 

Thanks very much.