Photo of the Week 108, 109 & 110 – The Big Freeze

Due to a few busy weekends in a row I’ve gotten very behind again, so I have a triple post this weekend to get caught up. As usual when I do a multi-week Photo of the Week, I’ve picked a theme that relates the photos to each other. In this case, they were all taken during the abnormally long and harsh cold spell at the start of January this year (you can see all my best shots in a Set on my Flickr stream).

The first shot I’ve chosen is of the College Cemetery in St. Patrick’s College Maynooth (SPCM). This cemetery is almost like a secret garden, hidden away behind some lovely old trees near the back of the grounds. It’s always a wonderfully peaceful place, especially in the snow. Fr. Nicolas Callan is buried here. He was a great scientists who worked in SPCM and is most famous for having invented the induction coil.

on Flickr – Full-Size

Camera: Nikon D40

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

Exposure: 1/60 sec

Focal Length: 18mm

Focal Ratio: f/8

ISO: 200

Camera Mode: Aperture Priority

Exposure Bias: +0.7ev.

The second shot I’ve chosen was taken on a ground of Carton Estate just outside Maynooth village. I’d been cycling along the Royal Canal where the sun was beaming down and it was just a truly beautiful clear day. Then, the moment I left the canal and entered into Carton estate it was like I’d beamed to another world. There was this thin later of dense mist hovering just above the ground. Above that layer it was still a beautiful day, though clouds were starting to roll in. The layer of mist gave the whole place an ethereal feel. I’d honestly never seen anything like it. To be honest none of my shots did the scene justice, but I still really like this one.

on Flickr – Full-Size

Camera: Nikon D40

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

Exposure: 1/60 sec

Focal Length: 19mm

Focal Ratio: f/8

ISO: 200

Camera Mode: Aperture Priority

Exposure Bias: +1.0ev

Processing: This shot was generated by first applying the Topaz Adjust 4 filter to effectively tonemap the image, and then tweaking the result a little in Photoshop Elements 8 to selectively brighten just the snow.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I’ve also chosen one of my train shots as one of my favorites. This shot was taken as the day was ending and the sun was getting very low in the sky. It shows an Irish Rail InterCity services making it’s way from Dublin to Sligo as it approaches Jackson’s Bridge just beyond Maynooth. From Jackson’s bridge you get a view of both the railway and the Royal Canal which runs next to the track for most of the way between Dublin and Mullingar.

on Flickr – Full-Size

Camera: Nikon D40

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

Exposure: 1/320 sec

Focal Length: 18mm

Focal Ratio: f/3.5

ISO: 200

Camera Mode: Full Manual

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.