The Author – Bart Busschots
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Mar
27
Photo of the Week 163 – Jogging on the Graff
Filed Under Photography on March 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment
One of the things I really miss with all this being sick is spending my lunch times out and about enjoying the grounds of St. Patrick’s College, so I thought that this week I’d share one of my favourite shots of people enjoying those great grounds. As you can see from the photo – it’s “Pedestrian Traffic Only” along this lovely avenue of Linden trees, but that doesn’t mean it’s not busy 🙂
This general part of the college is known as ‘the Graff’ (technically I think the original Graff was one path to the North of this one) because it’s apparently as long as Graffton St. in Dublin city. Not sure how true it was, but when I worked as a tour guide for the Students’ Union during Freshers Week in the past that’s what was written on my script!
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/100 sec
- Focal Length: 38mm
- Focal Ratio: f/8
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Bias: -0.67ev
Nov
11
Photo of the Week 143 – Autumn Boat Train
Filed Under Photography on November 11, 2010 | 1 Comment
With this long-drawn out illness the past few months I’ve literally missed all the Autumn colour this year. So, since I got no new autumnal pictures this year, I thought I’d share of of my favourites from last year.
Here we see an evening train service from Maynooth to the port in Rosslare as it rounds the fairly sharp turn on the approach to the new Matt Goff Bridge just in Leixlip. This shot has been quite heavily tonemapped to bring out the best of the colours, I have a feeling some people may find the processing a little too extreme, but I like it, and since it’s my photo that’s all that matters 😉
For the train spotters among you, this is an Irish Rail Class 29000 railcar set, number 29018 to be precise. If you have good eyesight you can probably read the number on the front of the train which reads 29418, it will read 29118 on the other side, and the middle two carriages will have the numbers 29218 and 29318, hence the whole unit is referred to as 29018. These units come in blocks of 4, but can be joined together to make larger trains of 8 or even 12 carriages. The 29000s are very much the work horses for Irish Rail’s commuter and local services, though you do sometimes see them on longer national routes too. From a passenger comfort point of view, they’re fine for short services, but I’m not along in groaning when I see one pull up to the platform when I’m travelling InterCity.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/200 sec
- Focal Length: 30mm
- Focal Ratio: f/3.5
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Full Manual
- Processing: created by tonemapping a single RAW image with Photomatix Pro, and then tweaking the resulting image with Aperture’s built-in Dodge & Burn plugin
Apr
18
Photo of the Week 112 & 113 – Remembering Autumn
Filed Under Photography on April 18, 2010 | 2 Comments
I’m playing catch-up again this week with another double post – I’m not doing too well the last while to keep these on schedule. Anyhow, as usual for a double post, I’ve chosen two photos that share a theme – last Autumn in this case.
The first shot is taken along one of my favorite sections of the Royal Canal, between Deey and Pike Bridges on the stretch from Leixlip to Maynooth. This is one of the sections where the towpath hasn’t been surfaced, even with gravel, and where the canal is lined with trees. It’s a really lovely stretch of nature for walking or cycling along.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/160 sec
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: f/8
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Bias: +0.3ev.
The second shot was taken on the grounds of St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth as Autumn was just starting.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/200 sec
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: f/11
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Bias: +0.7ev.
Mar
7
Photo of the Week 107 – The Boathouse in Autumn
Filed Under Photography on March 7, 2010 | 3 Comments
My last few Photo of the Week picks have been nature macros, so I thought I’d change things up a bit this week and go for some local history. I just love the boathouse in Carton Estate, it’s such a cool little building in such a great setting. I’ve taken many shots of it, but this is one of my very favorites because of the dramatic backdrop nature kindly provided. For a start the trees in the background are at their autumn best, but as well as that the light was great and there sky was very dramatic.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/125 sec
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: f/11
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Processing: This shot was generated by tonemapping the original RAW file with Photomatix Pro, and then tweaking the results a little using Aperture’s Dodge & Burn plugin.
Jan
24
Photo of the Week 101 – An Autumn Dream
Filed Under Photography on January 24, 2010 | 5 Comments
Since I started playing with the Orton effect around Christmas time I’ve been going back through some of my older shots looking for images that would go well with the effect. Of all the images I played with, this one is my favourite. For some reason the dream-like quality of the Orton Effect compliments the autumnal tones very well. If you’re interested in experimenting with the Orton Effect I posted a tutorial with screen cast a few weeks ago.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/60 sec
- Focal Length: 42mm
- Focal Ratio: f/8
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Bias: -0.7ev
- Processing: The Image was first tweaked a little using Aperture’s Dodge & Burn plugin, and then the Orton Effect was applied.
Jan
10
Photo of the Week 99 – St. Mary’s Square in Autumn
Filed Under Photography on January 10, 2010 | 6 Comments
I’ve gotten quite behind at processing my shots – so this week I finally finished the last of my Autumn shots for 2009. With them all edited and tagged I could choose my very favourite shot of the season, and here it is! I just love this place, the buildings are amazing, and the water garden inside the square is amazing. I’ve taken many shots in here, and very few of them capture the coolness of the place, but I think this one comes close. I’m also a sucker for reflections and vibrant colours, all the more reasons to pick this as my favourite!
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/200 sec
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: f/11
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Bias: -1.0ev
- Processing: Single RAW image first tonemapped with Photomatix Pro, then tweaked with the Dodge & Burn plugin in Apple’s Aperture
Nov
16
Photo of the Week 39 – Autumn Butterfly
Filed Under Photography on November 16, 2008 | 1 Comment
When you think of butterflies you generally think of bright colours and pretty patterns. The Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) certainly doesn’t spring to mind, what with it being small and brown. However, I’ve developed a real soft spot for these little fellas. There is something about the texture of their wings that I really like, and the patterns on their mostly brown wings can be very pleasing. They are also among the smallest of the butterflies we have in Ireland. As their name suggests they tend to hang out in wooded areas where they are very well camouflaged. I got a lot of pictures of these guys that I really like but this one is my very favourite because to me it just captures the spirit of autumn perfectly (even if I do say so myself).
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm
- Exposure: 1/500 sec
- Focal Length: 200mm
- Focal Ratio: F11
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: -1.0
May
10
Photo of the Week 12 – Autumn in Maynooth Castle
Filed Under Photography on May 10, 2008 | 1 Comment
This is a shot I came across by complete accident when having my lunch outside with a friend. I’m not even sure why I had my camera with me but I did. This shot was taken with a zoom lens from the back of The Mill Shopping Centre in Maynooth and looks through the grounds of Maynooth Castle up towards the front gate.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/50 sec
- Focal Length: 55mm
- Focal Ratio: F8
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Auto
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
[tags]Photography, Maynooth, Ireland, Castle, Autumn[/tags]