# Forty shades of green... at least.



## MikeScone (Jul 18, 2011)

I was in Ireland during the last week of May and first week in June, and took about 1700 pictures. You can find the best of them (and pictures from my two earlier trips) on my Ireland website. Since this is the Camera Corner, I'd like to show a few of the pictures which I find the most interesting photographically. 

For the record, my camera this trip was a Nikon D7000 DSLR, and most of the pictures were taken with an 18-200mm zoom. One of the reasons I bought the D7000 was that it has two memory card slots, and backs up each picture as it's taken. This proved very valuable, as I had a memory card fail a few days into the trip. Because of the backup, I didn't lose a shot. 

Now, on to the pictures. 

I like to look for patterns, textures and colors in pictures. Sometimes, the pattern or color _is _the picture. This was taken at the Giant's Causeway in County Antrim - the columns of basalt are reduced to almost black-and-white abstract shapes by cropping out all of the tourists and other details:






Sand patterns on Inishmaan, Aran Islands:





Abandoned house on Inishbofin, County Galway:





Sometimes the colors in a landscape just jump out at you. This is Bundoran, County Donegal: 





Leabgarrow Harbour on the island of Arranmore:





Some time ago I posted a thread on depth of field - using a wide aperture (low numbered f/stop) to blur backgrounds, or a small aperture (higher numbered f/stop) for maximum zone of sharpness. Here's an example of each - 

A combination of f/9 and a very wide-angle lens (12mm), gives great depth of field, from the flowers in the foreground to Dunluce Castle (County Antrim) in the background.





The other side, a wide aperture and long lens (300mm at f/5.6), make this Wheatear on Achill Island stand out from the background:





By choosing a smaller aperture (or lower ISO, if your camera permits that) you can use a slow shutter speed to deliberately blur motion. I particularly like the soft appearance of flowing water when taken with a shutter speed of 1/10th or less. This picture of the River Crana in Buncrana on the Inishowen Peninsula was taken at 1/10 second at ISO 100. 





Glenariff Falls in the Antrim Glens, 1/8sec at f/4 in a drizzling rain...





When you're taking pictures of animals, an important rule is always to have the eyes in focus, and try to have the animal looking at you. I find that most animals will perk up and look at you if you click you tongue or imitate their natural sound -I've had extended discussions of "baaas" with sheep... This little guy at Downhill House in Londonderry looks like a kid's stuffie:





I like using leading lines - by leading the viewer's eyes into the picture, they make it more interesting. This picture from Inishbofin Island, County Galway, makes me want to go back and follow that road again:





The Rule of Thirds says to place the subject at an intersection of one-third lines - think of putting a tic-tac-toe board over the picture, and putting the subject where the lines cross. 

A sure-footed sheep on the Slieve League cliffs in Donegal: 





One picture, not for photography, but on a rabbit theme - I stayed for the night in Bangor, County Down, and the B&B owner recommend The Rabbit Rooms for dinner - how could I resist?






That's enough - you can see the rest on the website. But before I finish, we've got to have a picture of an Irish bunny to end on...


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## GorbyJobRabbits (Aug 3, 2011)

very pretty pics. and lots of very useful info


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## Bunnylova4eva (Aug 19, 2011)

love the rabbit sign one..


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## Nancy McClelland (Aug 20, 2011)

Great pics and some great subject matter. We were gonna go last year, but, Nancy got a MRSA infection after surgery so our summer was two more surgeries and three months hanging IV antibiotics. Would have rather gone to the UK.


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