Ireland!

[James Newman]

My wife Jennie and I just returned from a wonderful, albeit much too short, trip to the Republic of Ireland. It was an absolutely wonderful voyage and we already want to go back. I had never been farther than Toronto so this was a great journey for me. The people were wonderful, warm, and friendly, and boy do they like having a good time. So many pubs and so little time.

I've only started going through the photos but thought I would show one to you good folks now. This was from our third day when we were on the Western side where we went to see the Cliffs of Moher and then on to Galway Bay for some delicious fresh oysters, seafood chowder, and of course a pint of Guinness.

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[James Newman]

Here is another view with some HDR thrown in.

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[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Here is another view with some HDR thrown in.

Hi James,

Impressive scenery. All that's missing is the sound, and the feeling of the wind ...

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Bart

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi James,

Impressive scenery. All that's missing is the sound, and the feeling of the wind ...

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Bart

+1

Re. the second one, why did you treat it to HDR processing if I may ask? The dynamic range of the scene doesn't seem to be high enough to warrant exposure bracketing. Or was it perhaps a better mid tone contrast or clarity you were after? Just curious.

 

[James Newman]

Thanks Bart. It was completely wonderfully windy and cool. Better than the 100's we left back in Arizona.
Cem - I don't know why I used the HDR other than just a test to see if I could get something I liked. I am really weak in post processing skills and was not happy with anything I could get out of a single RAW image. Perhaps this would be a good challenge for others to use one of my RAW files and show me what you can do with it. That might prove very interesting. Thanks for looking. I will try some more this weekend.
James

 

[Jarmo Juntunen]

Hi James, that's a majestic (and even a little scary) scenery you've got there. Thanks for posting.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks Bart. It was completely wonderfully windy and cool. Better than the 100's we left back in Arizona.
Cem - I don't know why I used the HDR other than just a test to see if I could get something I liked. I am really weak in post processing skills and was not happy with anything I could get out of a single RAW image. Perhaps this would be a good challenge for others to use one of my RAW files and show me what you can do with it. That might prove very interesting. Thanks for looking. I will try some more this weekend.
James

That's a great idea. Very generous of you! Pick several images and send the RAW to share. And we'll process them, one at a time.

Asher

 

[James Newman]

Road to the Burren

After the Cliffs of Moher we headed for the Burren. What an other worldly place that is. This was the road we took on the way there. This was actually one of the wider roads we found that day.

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[Asher Kelman]

After the Cliffs of Moher we headed for the Burren. What an other worldly place that is. This was the road we took on the way there. This was actually one of the wider roads we found that day.

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James,

But think how economical it must be to follow the terrain and not bulldoze a strait highway!

Asher

 

[James Newman]

I loved driving the roads Asher. It took a little getting used to but once I did it was great. We never knew what to expect and around each corner came another great surprise. One place that I absolutely had to go to was Moran’s Oyster Cottage Seafood Restaurant Galway, The Weir, Kilcolgan, Co. Galway. I had seen it once on a travel video and just had to visit. It's a thatch roofed cottage over 250 years old that serves good seafood and good drink. Right across the street is the bay where their oysters come from. As we drove up, and got out of the car to go in, I noticed this old gentleman out gathering oysters while the tide was out. I liked the scene so I took the photo. I had their seafood chowder from a 7 generations old recipe along with some fresh grilled oysters with garlic crumbs, and washed it all down with yet another pint of the black stuff. I want to go back right now.

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[Asher Kelman]

I loved driving the roads Asher. It took a little getting used to but once I did it was great. We never knew what to expect and around each corner came another great surprise. One place that I absolutely had to go to was Moran’s Oyster Cottage Seafood Restaurant Galway, The Weir, Kilcolgan, Co. Galway. I had seen it once on a travel video and just had to visit. It's a thatch roofed cottage over 250 years old that serves good seafood and good drink. Right across the street is the bay where their oysters come from. As we drove up, and got out of the car to go in, I noticed this old gentleman out gathering oysters while the tide was out. I liked the scene so I took the photo. I had their seafood chowder from a 7 generations old recipe along with some fresh grilled oysters with garlic crumbs, and washed it all down with yet another pint of the black stuff. I want to go back right now.

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I'm concerned. How old was the man you called old?

Asher

 

[James Newman]

Good point. He was a not so young looking man.

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[Doug Kerr]

Hi, James,

My wife Jennie and I just returned from a wonderful, albeit much too short, trip to the Republic of Ireland. It was an absolutely wonderful voyage and we already want to go back. I had never been farther than Toronto so this was a great journey for me. The people were wonderful, warm, and friendly, and boy do they like having a good time. So many pubs and so little time.

I've only started going through the photos but thought I would show one to you good folks now. This was from our third day when we were on the Western side where we went to see the Cliffs of Moher and then on to Galway Bay for some delicious fresh oysters, seafood chowder, and of course a pint of Guinness.

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Beautiful.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, James,

Here is another view with some HDR thrown in.

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Very clever work. Almost looks like a photograph.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Hi, James,



Very clever work. Almost looks like a photograph.

Hi Doug,

I think James meant that he applied tonemapping, by using an HDR tool. I also think that Topaz Clarity could improve the shot a lot.

Cheers,
Bart

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Bart,

I think James meant that he applied tonemapping, by using an HDR tool.

I know.

The result almost looks like a photograph.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

+1

Re. the second one, why did you treat it to HDR processing if I may ask? The dynamic range of the scene doesn't seem to be high enough to warrant exposure bracketing. Or was it perhaps a better mid tone contrast or clarity you were after? Just curious.

Take me wrong all you want James, ...but I'll say the same for the first one too... The shots are great, even more than that... they have drama, they have dimensionality, ...you can even hear the wind whisper to your ear... BUT ONLY IF PROCESSED RIGHT! ...there is no room here for HDR or other processing crap... is there?
....Look at that huge wave coming towards the beach in the first one for instance... With HDR it looks like a "feather seller" trying to play the man... Try without it! ...the wave should be like it's coming "to eat everything in its path"...
....And this sky, I know this sky very well James... it now lacks all the power that is unique at the south of the (big) Island... still the shots can be su-pe-rb... if processed right!

P.S... Why the ...whatever, you got (or your wife) "the margaritas" in focus in the first one? ...Can't you see that if it was "front bokeh" the viewer's eye would just travel into ...infinity? ...there is nothing wrong with the framing! ...it's the (wrong) focusing and the (wrong) DOF that has ruined a magnificent shot! ...I mean processing can be corrected, ...but this can't!

 

[Paul Abbott]

This place has a fantastic coast line and really deserves to be photographed in much much better light. The light in these shots is overcast and drab and does no justice to the scene I feel.
In regard to the HDR processing, I tend to see the use of HDR treatment as a knee jerk-reaction to the ill quality of light in a scene. It strikes me that the photographer knows what is at loss and tries to make up for it in using this treatment...
Otherwise, why would you use HDR on a perfectly lit scene...? Just my two 'punt'.

 

[James Newman]

Well gee, I guess the next time I fly to Ireland and go to the Cliffs of Moher I will go on a day when the light is better.

 

[Chris Calohan II]

Seven minute edit...

Lots of potential here.

Ireland: James Newman​

And it's probably a little too saturated but that happens with 72 dpi 800 long side images. I hope you do post some of the RAW files.

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

Seven minute edit...

Lots of potential here.

Ireland: James Newman​

And it's probably a little too saturated but that happens with 72 dpi 800 long side images. I hope you do post some of the RAW files.

Here is a cropped version (another 30 secs of "tratment") at 3:4 ratio on Chris's edition... I really feel that James framing is much better, but I honestly find the wild flowers in the foreground too destructing... Sorry about the artefacts on the sky too... (as Chris said, there is not much one can do on a 72dpi jpeg... but this is IMO the "weight" that the sky should have...



If the original shot had the wild flowers blurred in "front bokeh", that weight in the sky and Chris's opinion on the "wave"... I would call that a superb landscape.... Surely the cropped image now looks crippled, but I did this to show how the eye can be attracted to the "depth" of the image and add "dimensionality" and "drama" to it...

 

[Robert Watcher]

Ireland - - - my roots - - - I've always wanted to travel there. Maybe some day. You make the idea even more enticing with your photographs.

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[Theodoros Fotometria]

This is a version of the original with extensive use of "blur tool" (poorly done "on the fly") for the foreground... Still my opinion is, that a picture is created during capturing... In other words, I would prefer the foreground blured during capture...

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Since we are into editing, I thought I should try this out with two of my favorites: SNS HDR Pro and NIK ColorEfex (Tonal Contrast/Pro Contrast). Both work done in a few minutes. Earlier, when I have asked James what he was trying to accomplish with HDR, this is what I meant. That is, one can achieve better tone mapping without having to generate a HDR image.

Original image by James:

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SNS HDR Pro version (artistic license applied wrt to the slight changes in colors and saturation):

NIK ColorEfex version (just contrast and mid-tone adjustments):

 

[Chris Calohan II]

I like the flowers as I think they provide an lead into the scene. I agree the sky should have been more dramatic so I popped that about here and there and on the flowers, I refocused the eye to just the bright pasts to follow their curvature into the curvature of the shoreline.

Ireland: James Newman​

 

[James Newman]

Here is one more from a horizontal perspective. I really wish I could go back and shoot it all again, on a better lit day, with stronger skies, and also to blur out the flowers in the foreground, but alas I cannot. I am stuck with what I came away with. Hopefully someday we will get to go back again. We are already planning our next adventure and having a great time just researching and trying to decide where to go next.
I am taking in all of the great advice and different ways of trying to process it and appreciate the input. The very first image is still one of my favorite and it looks more like the way I remember it looking at the time I took the shot. It is Ireland and it was a usual, grey, blustery, drizzly day on the Atlantic coast. No matter how much we wish it looked a certain way, it really looked more like my initial version. It was hazy from where we were standing all the way to the other points. I did not use any sort of filter. Maybe I should have. Now the second image I posted was the one I used Photomatix Pro on, trying to bring something out that, as was stated numerous times, I failed to bring out in the initial shot. I agree that that second one does look almost like a photograph. I am not too pleased with that attempt but did not want to delete it from this interesting thread. Anyway, here is another view of those beautiful cliffs. They were breathtaking to look over and I knew the minute I saw them, just as with the Grand Canyon, that there was no way I was going to come close to doing them justice with my camera. It was great fun trying though.

I will send a couple of RAW files to Asher and he can put them where any of you that want to can give a better go at editing them. I welcome all free lessons that I can get.
James

Cliffs of Moher

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[James Newman]

Robert Watcher - I highly recommend going. I thoroughly enjoyed every last minute of our trip. The sights, sounds, and especially the people. The food, now that was something in itself. Dennis Leary, the comedian/actor, described it well when he said that Irish food was more of a punishment than a treat. At least there was always some good pub food in every direction that you looked and the traditional Irish breakfast, without the blood sausage, sustained me throughout. I would go when I had at least two weeks and preferably three to spend there. One week is not nearly enough time.
James

 

[James Newman]

GoPro in the Dublin streets

This was a very talented trio that we came across in Dublin on our very last evening before having to go back home. They are The Trouble Notes based out of NYC but playing a lot of places in Europe. I shot it with my GoPro Hero3. Lighting and sound are not great but it does convey a little of the Irish atmosphere that we had the honor of sampling while we were there. It is a little better if you select the 1080p setting. James

http://youtu.be/CyGZVnu34a8

 

[Chris Calohan II]

That's one helluva fiddle player.

 

[James Newman]

The Burren

One last image from Ireland. I promise. After the cliffs we drove a little farther to an area known as The Burren. It is one of the craziest landscapes I have ever seen. Had we only had more time I would have loved spending more time in this part of the island.

From wikipedia - The Burren (Irish: Boireann, meaning "great rock", Boirinn, the dative form, is the modern form used by the Ordnance Survey) is a karst-landscape region or alvar in northwest County Clare, in Ireland. It is one of the largest karst landscapes in Europe. The region measures approximately 250 square kilometres and is enclosed roughly within the circle made by the villages Ballyvaughan, Kinvara, Tubber, Corofin, Kilfenora and Lisdoonvarna. It is bounded by the Atlantic and Galway Bay on the west and north, respectively.

The Burren

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