Every now and again I get it into my head that I can take pictures. And before the kids came along, I used to be able to get out and actually try and take a few snaps. Mostly all I take pictures of now is spending time with the kids but I imagine I will get back into photography at some stage in the future. In any case, here are a few of the pictures that I have taken so far.
I was never particularly picky about trying to stick to photography as an art form. I shot with a Panasonic DMC-FZ 50 and certainly wasn’t afraid to use photoshop to it’s full abilities. But I did try and cover a few different styles while I was taking pictures. Mostly I’d just be out taking pictures on my own, and I didn’t particularly like pointing my camera at people so the shots are mostly just buildings or countryside kind of shots.
City Shots
I’ve been lucky enough to travel to some impressive cities around the world. And while I don’t think I’ll ever feel as comfortable anywhere as I do sitting in a boozer in Dublin, we certainly don’t have as impressive a skyline as some of the other places I’ve visited. I’m not really a massive fan of the whole Big City feel of the likes of London/New York/Shangai etc… But they can produce an impressive picture.
Shanghai Skyline
Philadelphia Street
I think cities like Dublin and (my wife will probably kill me for saying this but..) Beijing have more character in them than what you get from the large soulless mega skyscrapers that you get in the aforementioned places.
A Dublin Side Alley
Beijing Summer Palace
Artsy Shots
Of course, apart from wandering around cities taking pictures of ridiculously large sky scrapers, I also tried to get the artsy looking shots. These shots tended to lend themselves a little more to the photoshop (I’ve moved to Gimp now) love. You can see from two of the images below that the grayscale was applied after the shot was taken, as was the colour pop. Hell half the fun of taking some of these pictures was following some tutorial about how to do the latest and greatest post processing technique.
Abandoned Boat In Sligo
Random Graffiti By The Canal
Ring Of Kerry
Staged Shots
Staged shots are something I always found interesting. It allows a chance to slow down and approach the task with a degree of planning. Even if you are just following a tutorial from online, it is possible to make the shot your own by incorporating something close to you or trying to stamp a bit of ownership on the procedure you are following. Like everything else, these planned shots are good if you have a good idea of what you want out of them. Unfortunately they can descend into taking pictures of a fucking flower pot in front of a bed sheet for a couple of hours and wondering why the fuck you’re even bothered. But when they work, there is a real sense of achievement out of them. It’s not just the subject matter that you are capturing a bit of beauty from, it’s something that you’ve imparted onto the subject through your setup.
Settling In For The Night
Show My Musical Side
Live Shoot Of Stage Performance
