Part 2
With the dawn shoot finished, back for breakfast and then return to see if there was anything else to capture, light was obviously going to be very different so B&W images is what I envisaged taking for the rest of the day. Walked around Derryclare lough again to get a few more angles and compositions before I moved on.
Moved from Derryclare back along along Killary Harbour to Aasleagh Falls. Very busy location for tourists and again heavily photographed already. In the image below I wanted to use a longish exposure to try and show movement in the water, the issue however was that the flowers in the foreground were also moving in the wind so ended up blending 2 separate exposures, one short to keep the flowers in the foreground sharp and a second to deal with the flowing water.
Aasleagh falls, blend of 2 images , water captured at F11 at 30 seconds with a 10 stop filter
While setting up for the image from beside the fallsI spotted some salmon leaping up the waterfall, would love to have captured it better but this was one of the few I got, it’s not an easy task and really tested your reaction speed.
25sec Exposure (with 10 stop) at F11
Salmon Leap
I returned back to Doo lough to see if I could capture anything else with a bit more time. Light obviously very different on this occasion and probably less interesting but if nothing else it would serve a scouting trip for any future visits. The winding shore line really caught my eye the night before and ended up with this image of it, I meant it to be this dark to give it an abstract feel and it ended up being one of my favourites from the trip.
Stopped on the side of the road on the way back for a nice looking harbour, after some minor scuffles with some local vegetation I starting a long exposure (Image not worth sharing, included a boat which had too much movement during the exposure) I heard some rustling at my feet in the water, only to see an otter going about his business, I don’t think he saw me. He went into a drain pipe fairly close by so I quicky tried to get over to get an image, hoping he would come back , he did but all too quickly to allow me to set up correctly for it, the result was an image that was far from sharp as I didn’t have my shutter speed adjusted quickly enough while at the same time taking off a 10 stop filter, another missed opportunity like the sheep from the night before but enjoyed seeing these guys in the wild.
I wanted to squeeze in one more location on my way home. The location was lough Na Fooey and it’s a beautiful drive to the location and there were probably quiet a few opportunities along the road in good light with isolated trees and cottages in a beautiful valley. Lough na Fooney is an exceptionally peaceful place, and even with a few camper vans and fishermen there, I felt a real tranquillity in the area. The obvious subjects were the fishing boats on the shore and with rain on its way, most of these were fairly rough and with little time to compose with any originality. Two things I missed here which I would like to revisit, and if anyone was any local knowledge I’d appreciate it, there was a very interesting tree on the shore here , with sharp bend in the trunk (Michael Kenna esk!!) that I would love to have made an image of . The second feature that I saw (or heard) on the way was what sounded like a huge waterfall, couldn’t see it from the road but it sounded impressive.
In summary this was one of the most enjoyable 24 hours of photography I have had since picking up the camera, it was the first time I had done a dedicated trip and could focus on nothing else. I was relatively happy with the images and I was certainly more productive than usual.
There were two main learning points for me on this trip, have compositions fully taught out and scouted before you arrive at an area for something like a dawn or sunset shoot if possible, rushing around when the light is good can be frustrating and you probably won’t get the quality you want. The second thing was the use of my wide angle lense. I had a Sigma 10mm-20mm and I had rarely found good use for it, I learned during this trip how best to use it by getting foreground elements right up close to the camera and I ended up using it quite a bit.
I hit some of the main photographic highlights and the picture post card stuff around Killary harbour, if I go again, I will focus on getting off the beaten track a bit and try and get more original images and more unique locations, while it is in some ways satisfying to have those iconic images I always find it more rewarding to have something more unique.
You can read Part 1 of this blog here and the next installment will be on a recent day trip to Wicklow which yielded a few nice images and a few bucket list items ticked off.
