May 2008

Urban environments are place I usually and perhaps stupidly don’t photograph too often. The thoughts of traffic, dodgy characters and concrete everywhere is usually enough to send me running to the hills.
Recently with the support of a friend I got over this phobia and found myself at the foot of a tripod on the banks of the River Liffey in Dublin City centre. The focus of my attention was some night shots of bridges and statues along the quays in Dublin.
The Sean Ó Casey bridge was first up on the hit-list of places to photograph. With darkness creeping in, the bridge illuminated against an ink blue sky looked stunning. It’s a bridge I may add that is not exactly tripod friendly nor for the faint hearted. The moment someone sets foot on the bridge – off it goes flexing to rhythm of the human foot.
Experimenting with and without human interaction various compositions where tried. Fearful of the inky blue sky turning to black I grab a number of images at this location.

Then it is off down the river to the famine memorial.

Sean Ó Casy Bridge Dublin

The famine memorial in Dublin is a good example of how Ireland has developed as a country. The haunted worn appearance of the statues combined with the lights of the city shows how the country has advanced from a country that experienced famine not so long ago to a bustling modern city.
With a 17-40 wide-angle lens in use, I set about capturing the statues as part of their environment. The surrounding street lights are the ugly type that throw out that horrible orange light.
fstatues

As ever I am shooting in RAW which will enable me later to adjust the colour balance and reduce the influence of the colour cast from artifical light sources.
With the sky almost black, its time to hit the road and head for home. There’s the prospect of a 4a.m start and an early morning in the hills awaiting.

P.S. It never happened!