Boards.ie Photowalk

I've always been a bit of a lurker on Boards.ie, an Irish message board site covering pretty much every topic under the sun, but never really interacted with it that much. I decided it was time to get more involved with the photography board, and noticed that they were organising a photowalk based around the area I live.

There were about 7 or 8 people in all, ranging from folks with point and shoot pocket cameras to the more serious intercontinental-lens-wielding semi-pro's. The walk took us from Ballsbridge down along the river Dodder, past the new Aviva Stadium and towards the Grand Canal Dock area. I definitely took the most amount of photos from any one event but, as always, there are only a few keepers or ones that I actually felt were good. I also experimented a bit with the Manual Focus settings on my camera which was surprisingly easy to use.

Josh Ritter @ Google

Next up in the Musicians@Google series was Idaho's own Josh Ritter. Josh's set was probably the most polished to date, or maybe it's that I was a little bit more familiar with his songs and style. Either way, it was very good indeed.

Having had some practise already with the other musicians@ gigs, I thought this one went quite well. I'm also a bit more familiar with the camera settings and was able to get everything setup as I wanted for the light, etc. I also had my first play around with contrast settings in GIMP for the B&W shot, hopefully it made it look better!

A Brief Hiatus

And we're back!

I actually haven't even been away, but I have been taking some pics of family events recently, weddings, communions, etc. and decided that I'd prefer not to post pictures of family members or guests on here as some folks may not want their mugs plastered over a blog for all (anyone?) to see!

Steve

Gorillapod

As I mentioned in some previous posts, blurring in low-light situations is pretty annoying and has ruined a lot of photos that would have otherwise made some pretty good shots. With this in mind, I set about finding a small tripod and after a recommendation by a colleague at Google, bought myself a Gorillapod.

It's a pretty cool device which has the benefits of a tripod, but you can also bend the legs in pretty much any way you like to allow you to steady the camera on surfaces which are less than level.

Some (hopefully) blur-free night shots will follow soon!

Grand Canal Dock & Theatre

The Grand Canal Dock area is a pretty good-looking place at the moment - most of the building work is finished, the commercial units are occupied and a few weeks ago, the Grand Canal Theatre finally opened. As I passed by a few weeks ago, I noticed some feathered friends making the transition to city living and grabbed a few pics, so while I was there I said I might as well get a few of the theatre, too.

However, since the shots I took at The Brown Bread Mix Tape, I've realised that in a low-light setting, holding the camera in my hands just doesn't cut it - the amount of time the shutter must be open to get a proper shot means that blurred images are unavoidable. Memo to self, purchase a small tripod for low-light situations!

St. Patrick's Day Lunch @ Google

Google had a St Patrick's Day themed lunch on the 16th March, complete with Irish Dancers and some traditional music. As I've taken to having my camera with me for just such an occasion, here's a few shots!

Big Day Out @ Merrion Square - St. Patricks Day Festival

Catching up on some uploading this week - The St. Patrick's Day Festival Big Day Out at Merrion Square in Dublin happens over a week, a few days either side of the actual day itself. It's a family affair, as the song goes, and it's a great few days of street performance, music, food and entertainment, with the entire square closed to traffic and one side housing a fun-fair complete with ferris wheel, etc.

I went for a stroll on the Sunday, and was hoping to get some candid shots of people going about their business and enjoying the day. However, I still haven't managed the art of taking a picture of someone or capturing a moment without the people actually noticing you taking a photograph of them!

Either way, I grabbed a few shots of the performers, and a random shot of a kids balloon which I realised a few days later wasn't a million miles away from a shot in the actual TV ad for my camera, the Lumix G1 - guess I'm on the right track!