Photo of the Week 132 & 133 – The Royal Canal

There’s been a lot of double posts of late, and this week is no exception. Last week I happily entertaining Allison & Steve from the Nosillacast on the Irish leg of their European tour, so I didn’t get a chance to post. As always with double posts, I’ve chosen two related photos, in this case both of the Royal Canal. The vast majority of my insect and flower shots, as well as many of my train shots, are taken along a 10 mile stretch of this canal from Leixlip to Maynooth to Kilcock. Despite sharing lots of shots taken along the canal, I hardly ever share any shots of the canal, so I thought I’d correct that oversight this week.

The first shot I’ve chosen is taken from Chamber’s Bridge just east of the 15th lock looking east towards Dublin. In the foreground you can see the jetty where boats can tie up while waiting to pass the lock which is directly behind us. The boat tied up at the jetty is a very special boat used by Waterways Ireland to keep the canal clear of too much plant growth. You can also see a guy fishing from the boat, and an evening express train to Sligo passing by on an embankment above the canal.

on Flickr – Full-Size

Camera: Nikon D40

Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)

Exposure: 1/800 sec

Focal Length: 18mm

Focal Ratio: f/8

ISO: 400

Camera Mode: Full Manual

Processing: This image was tweaked a little using the Topaz Adjust 4 plugin in Photoshop Elements 8.

The second shot was taken on the other side of the 15th lock, also looking east. Although the canal has been fully restored around the Dublin area, it’s still a work in progress further west, which means there isn’t much tourism on the canal yet. One of the few places you do see signs of tourism is here at the mooring place just west of the 15th lock. Lets hope views like this become more common all along the Royal Canal.

on Flickr – Full-Size

Camera: Nikon D40

Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)

Exposure: 1/500 sec

Focal Length: 55mm

Focal Ratio: f/11

ISO: 400

Camera Mode: Aperture Priority

Exposure Bias: -0.3ev

Processing: Generated by tonemapping a single RAW image with Photomatix Pro, and then tweaking the result with the Topaz Adjust 4 plugin in Photoshop Elements 8