At The Edges

Where I grew up, there are many beaches and cliffs and landscapes to just chill and relax. It is on the west coast and sometimes it feels as though you are standing at the edges of the world looking out into the great distance. There is an awesome sense of freedom and contentment when experiencing this. Perhaps I will go visit these places when I am back in Ireland next week for a short break from Berlin.

p.s I finally got an iMac which means new photos taken relatively recently and more frequent posting.

Jenga!

Here are a couple of pics I took around Christmas time last year. The holidays were spent playing Jenga and Boggle with my brothers and sister whilst stuffed full of turkey, alcohol and chocolates. Good times indeed.

Car Window

These were taken last January as I waited in a car for my mother to return from some shopping. I was extremely bored. I think I was upside down at one point trying to get a good angle for a photo. It was a small car. I am a small guy. It was possible.

Warschauer Straße

This was taken when I lived near Warschauer Straße one summers evening last year. I loved walking along this area with its open space and view of the cities tallest buildings towards the west. Sometimes the sun would shine on top of peoples heads as they made their way from the s-bahn platform creating a beautiful scene.

Flowers

It was never my intention to post regular overused photographs such as sunsets, landscapes and flowers but seeing as I am still without a computer and unable to process anything I have taken the past few months, I give you... Flowers!

Sibling Portraiture

I just want to post some family portraits. The first two are of my sister, and the last of my three brothers. They were all taken quite a while ago. The pics of my sister are three years old now and the other about two years old, taken as we prepared a BBQ at our home in Sligo during the summer.

Berlin Festival 2010

Last weekend I went to the Berlin Festival which was held in Tempelhof, a former airport in the middle of the city. The main act I wanted to see was Chilly Gonzales (top two pics). He was great as usual and the third time I have seen him play live in the last four months. LCD Soundsystem were also excellent as was Adam Green who even brought Macaulay Culkin on stage to sing a duet together. Other acts included Peaches who was quite good and had an amazing laser show, Lali Puna who despite some technical problems and a short set managed to please, Herman Dune who were great from the few songs that I saw of them, and Fever Ray who were quite disappointing really.

Studio Work

When I was studying photography last year in Dublin I never really got into it very much. It was always at the last minute that I would finish an assignment and even for studio work I was reluctant to do anything that was necessary to finish my projects. I'm not sure why exactly. Perhaps in the future I will return to college but for now I just prefer to work alone and do what I want.

This picture is typical of what I mean. It was my only time ever in the studio and I didn't even finish up with one decent picture of what we set up. Instead I was and am most happy with a pic of a college mate blowing a bubble into the "scene".

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah!!!!!!!..... Blah!

Just another old picture of mine that was taken close to three years ago I think. I'm struggling to search through my collection to keep this blog updated without uploading lesser quality i.e "Shit" images. I still have no iMac or a computer that won't fall on it's arse when I try to do some post production on it so I must still wait and keep everything on memory cards. I have been taking my camera out more recently and have come away with a few decent shots but usually I am left frustrated, knowing that the images are not nearly as good as I want them to be. The odd time I feel that I am getting my "photographic mojo" back but quickly it disappears again which is quite annoying.

Ah well. I do have a few ideas and plan to finish a project that has been left abandoned these last few months. Until I get a computer I will continue to post these older pics...

Silence

This was one of the shots taken during my first ever night using a tripod. Since then I very rarely use a tripod as I find it very slow and somewhat boring. But I do quite like this one. There is a sense of calm and solitude I think because of the contrasting darkness outside and the bright fluorescent lights inside.

Creepy Artwork

I found this art space on Unter den Linden last year. I thought it was quite strange to see a sculpture of a creepy looking girl who almost looks as if she is hiding behind the corner from somebody.

Family

Just thought I would upload a couple of pics of my family as I haven't posted many on this blog. Both of these were taken the weekend before I moved to Berlin for the first time last year. All of my brothers and my sister came back to Sligo to have a small bbq which is seldom these days. Good times were had.

Hanging Out To Dry

Here is an old photograph that I took about two and a half years ago. It is at the side entrance to my family home back in Sligo. I (surprisingly) still quite like it as there's lots of atmosphere and contrast between the dark shadows and bright lights.

Shadows

These were taken one spring morning while living in Dublin. The light was perfect. The sun shone directly onto the trees outside my bedroom window planting shadows onto the net curtains.

Vapour Trails

I captured these trails in early '09 while living in Dublin. I love looking up and watching a plane flying through the sky creating this wonderful mark for a temporary time.

Need Water...... Now!

It's absolutely scorching here in Berlin at the moment with temperatures reaching about 38 degrees daily. My Irish skin could never cope in these conditions so perhaps it is a good thing that I usually spend the hottest parts of the day indoors at work. Everyday I long for an intravenous drip flowing constantly from a huge water tanker to my arm. Perhaps this would quench my thirst once and for all. Or perhaps a dip in one of Berlin's many lakes. I am finally learning to swim so hopefully it'll still be summer by the time I'm ready to "swim" in public.

I was searching through my photos for a water filled pic and found this. I want to post it because as a nice little coincidence, I shot it exactly one year ago today.


And more water...

Black & Whites

All of these photos are about a year old already. I decided to post them because surprisingly, I still quite like them for whatever reasons. Usually I dismiss most of my pics as rubbish after a couple of months, thinking how or why did I ever want to show them to people. Perhaps the reason I don't feel the same way about these is because I haven't improved as a photographer, which is quite possible as I rarely take new photos these days.

Hopefully this will change soon...

Similarities

Just browsing through some of the photos I have taken in the past year. I found these three and thought they were quite similar because the focus is on small, scattered and somewhat abstract objects in the foreground in each of them.

This Week I Have Been Mostly Eating...

Okay. I'm back living in Berlin now, working lots and trying to find the time to take some photos. I still have no computer (currently dreaming of Mac's) so I can't do anything with the few hundred pics I have stored on my memory cards. It's really frustrating and is a problem that I want to be remedied very soon.

So far In Berlin I have gone for a number of bike rides in the Southern part of the city enjoying the start of the Summer and taking a few snaps along the way. I plan to purchase a Polaroid camera pretty soon too which hopefully could be scanned and uploaded easily online. Other than that I will continue taking pics and wait until I can buy a new computer.

I've also been pricing different frames that could be used for my already printed Mannequin series. As of now I have nine prints, two or three of which I intend to discard and replace with new shots when I get the time. When I'm happy with all that then I will try to exhibit. Already I have spoken to one studio about this. After I am settled here in Berlin I will also buy more photography books and immerse myself more and more into imagery, think of different ways to develop my style and start some new projects.

Recently I bought a couple of books about Hungarian photographer Andre Kertesz. His composition and the way he documents people and how they interact with their surroundings has already influenced me whilst also frustrating me greatly as I know I will never be as good as him.

Stuck In Limbo Land

Still have no computer. Job offer in Berlin. Pack all my bags. Travel to Dublin. Get up at 6am for flight. Check in Luggage. Wait. Wait. Something about a volcano. Wait. Delay. Wait. Flight cancelled. Frustration. Lots of swearing. Must be in Berlin at the weekend to start work. Rebook flights for Monday morning meaning I'll be late for first day. Wait. Watch news reports. Wait. Volcano still erupting. European airports close. Ryanair cancels flights til 13:00hr Monday meaning second flight cancelled. Wait. Wait. Still in Dublin. Considering whether to go back to Sligo and face a second "goodbye". Thinking that's a bad idea. Still waiting. Waiting. Always waiting. Never going. Just waiting.

Quick update

For the last few weeks I have had some trouble with my laptop which means that I cannot do anything with my photographs as all of the software I use is on that machine. I have taken quite a few photographs though; venturing to a number of Sligo's beaches, visiting a house on a mountain, walking by the coast along the Atlantic ocean, witnessing some beautiful bright red sunsets and tranquil lake side settings aswell as being chased by an angry ram down an old country road. As soon as I get my laptop working again, or can afford a new one, I will have new photogaphs uploaded. Until then, I guess we will just have to wait.

On another note, unfortunately I have had to cancel my exhibition that I had planned as I am waitng on a call from Berlin any one of these days now to fly over for a job interview. The dates were too close together and I couldn't really guarantee whether I would still be in the country when the exhibition came around. I was told that I probably have the job, so hopefully, with every single one of my fingers permanently crossed, I shall be moving back to Berlin in the next few weeks and thus rescue me from this seemingly never ending boredom that surrounds me at present.

Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo

Sometimes I forget how beautiful Sligo can be. There are so many open landscapes to explore and on the right day when the light is good it really can amaze.

For Pooch

My sister has been the person that I have photographed the most. I didn't know much at all when I got my first camera; barely understanding the relationship between shutter and aperture, so she should be commended for her patience while I forced her to be my learning subject. Recently she complained that there was not one photograph of her on the blog. She started to become jealous of all the mannequins that I photographed the past few months, calling them "porcelain faced bitches".

So, Pooch. This post is for you. I hope your happy now.

Visiting Berlin

I spent the last week in Berlin visiting friends, attending a couple of job interviews and sitting beside Liam Neeson for about an hour in a pub (he likes Tayto more than Walkers), so I didn't have as much time as I liked to take photographs. The weather was also cold, the city full of snow and the footpaths icy.

I came pretty close to breaking my camera too. I had just taken it out of my backpack to take a photograph and hung it around my neck as I walked ahead when I suddenly slipped with both my legs disappearing from underneath me. As I was in mid air I had a choice; Save my camera or my back?.... save my camera or my back?.... save my camera or my back? Naturally I held onto my camera tight with both hands and let my back take the force of the impact. I feel lucky because had the camera still been in my backpack, I'm sure something would've broke. Hopefully now I just have to wait a couple of weeks at the most for my back, neck and shoulders to fully heal and then I'll return to my super fit self again.

Quiet But Productive

I haven't posted much lately for a couple of reasons. Apart from landscapes, I can't see much else to photograph here in Sligo. When I do want to explore the countryside I lack the transport to get anywhere and when I do have the transport, its usually at the wrong time of day when the light is bad. I have a bicycle (which needs to be mended) so I should get a few pics eventually. Also I will be visiting Berlin again next week for a few days. I hear that it's nice and frosty there. Plenty of snow, frozen lakes, interesting places, I'm sure I will be back with some images to share.

The other reason that I haven't been posting much as of late is because I have my own exhibition to get ready. It will consist of nine images of the mannequin series that I posted earlier in this blog. All of the prints are done (nice and big at 12 x 18 inch) and now I need to decide how best to mount and hang them onto the wall. It will be my first exhibition so I'm a bit nervous at how it will turn out, but of course I know that it's a great opportunity for me to gain some experience and perhaps make a name for myself. Hopefully from there I can expand on other projects I've been planning and have more and more exhibitions in the future with lots of wealth and fame to follow. Or it could turn out to be the only exhibition I ever do. Who knows? Not me...

Exciting times? Oh indeed!

The exhibition will be held in Sligo in the Artmart studios. Opening night will be Saturday 13th March with the show running the whole of the following week. More information will be posted closer to the date.

Journey Through The Evening

I went for a drive the other day with some of my family to nowhere in particular. We ventured as far as Donegal and drove along the outskirts of Sligo. Nothing really caught my eye that would've made me cry "stop the car!" so I was happy enough to just sit in the back seat and wait for a couple of moments that appealed to me...

Publication

This image of mine was chosen as the front and back cover illustration for the poetry anthology of the 2009/10 NUI Galway MA in Writing class, 'Measured Words'.

Frozen Stiff

Most of the country is still covered in snow making it difficult for me to go anywhere and take some photographs so I have to be imaginative enough to take some new ones around my house instead. I'm lucky that where I live is so open. I'm surrounded by fields! It's nice to have the opportunity to photograph white landscapes instead of the usual green. Change is good I suppose no matter how damn cold it gets! I'm sure the novelty of it all will wear off pretty soon though. Pretty soon indeed.....

After trekking through the fields earlier today I saw something blue popping out from the snow in my back garden. I pulled it a little and discovered this jacket frozen stiff just like the towels that were on the clothes line the night before that I banged my head against. It was not so painful as unexpected and confusing.