Ireland Day 75 - Around Connemara

Today saw more exploration adventures!

I mentioned recently that I hadn't been out and about lately. I've been sticking around town and tending to my current routine, not having many chances to do anymore touring. Funds are tight and I'm not interested in doing tours by myself. These aspects do tend to restrict my options!

Tra Sáilín, a small beach past Spiddal. 

However, knowing that I'll be back before too long makes me feel less sad about missing out on popular places. There will be time! :)

After spending some time with Miriam she asked me if I'd had a chance to see Connemara yet. I told her that I had not but that I wanted to, just didn't want to do a tour alone.

So, she ever so kindly offered to take me today! And we had a very nice time.

We explored down a random road and met this nice fellow here.

One thing that I miss out on while being part of a tour? Stopping wherever I want. Miriam was awesome; she stopped wherever I asked her to and even pulled off on a few places that she knew of that she thought I'd enjoy.

Since she was in no hurry I was allowed to take my time photographing one thing over and over again and stopping randomly in the middle of a conversation.

Joy!!

For the most part we had very fair weather. The first half of our excursion was almost too warm. There was mist hanging over the ocean and it was beautiful. On our way back down to Galway clouds and fog started to settle over the landscape, obscuring the views rather heavily.

Another random stop shortly past Maam Cross. I wanted that valley in the background and this is where the sheep ran from me!

A few times we passed some pretty spectacular views but the lighting was just so bad that I didn't bother to have her stop. It wouldn't have hurt for me to snap a few shots, but I knew I'd be disappointed with the results so meh.

I got a lot of shots that I'm very happy with! My only let down is my lack of sheep photos D: I badly wanted to get some cute sheep pictures! At one point we pulled over near some sheep grazing behind a fence and they freakin' ran like crazy when I got out of the car :( :( Even after standing still for a while to prove I was harmless they still wouldn't come back.

Kylemore Abbey.

Next time! Grrr.

But speaking of sheep, I was rather surprised when we turned a bend in the road and there were two sheep moseying nonchalantly down the center line!

"Sheep!" I exclaimed. Miriam laughed and said that they're everywhere.

"But who do they belong to?" I asked. She said most likely some farmer nearby.

"What if something happens to them?" I was so amused and curious. She explained that cars are used to sheep wandering the roads so they rarely get hit, and there aren't many predators in the area. On top of all that the farmers generally have so many sheep that they probably don't even notice if one or two go missing.

Fascinating!

Early Autumn leaves resting at the top of a small waterfall at Connemara National Park.

She decided to take the route that the tour buses take, therefore ensuring plenty of beautiful sights for my camera and myself. We went up past Maam Cross and around to Kylemore Abbey. We walked around outside of the Abbey but didn't pay to go in. I'll leave that for another time.

After that we rode out toward Clifden and then stopped at Connemara National Park. It was mostly just trails but I saw some dogs swimming in a pond and that was cute. We stopped in Clifden because she was thirsty and she bought me a Loop de Loop, which was a lemon/lime partially chocolate covered popsicle. It was good too!

We stopped at Joyce's for some groceries and then I made dinner. To my great dismay (and pain) my sciatic nerve in my left side decided to freak the EFF OUT and I can barely walk right now. I have been stretching as much as I can and now I'm just laying down. I wanted to do the dishes but standing is friggin'... just no. So I hobbled upstairs and collapsed into bed. I do NOT know what's going on but it had better be finished when I wake up tomorrow.

I forget what this flower is called. I like it.

I'm sleepy. Today was fun.

-MJ

Ireland Day 27 - First Shoot!

I did my first shoot at my internship today! All by myself! I feel that it went pretty well. The subject in question was a super cute 10 month old girl. She had the hugest eyes! She was also accustomed to being photographed by her parents, so she wasn't camera shy at all. I couldn't have had an easier "first". I can only guess that all future shoots that I do will be exceedingly complicated xD We did a lot of training today, actually. Catharine (a woman that works for Brad when he needs it) and I are going to be doing a very large family shoot this Sunday. Should be interesting! He set up the studio in a very imaginative way; he really makes every inch count in there. I'm doing two shoots by myself on Saturday as well! Catharine is popping in for the first one to make sure everything goes smoothly. This internship rocks, it's exactly what I wanted it to be.

Today was very long. Work was busy busy busy, the bus was late, didn't get home until 7ish, then I went to the store and bought food (yay). I snacked while my mini pizza cooked, then I burned the pizza so I had to make something else. Sheesh. I made hot dogs, by the way. I found them all the way in Ireland. I had an epic hunt for ketchup and mustard though. The buns were not precut. I was a little flabbergasted there. I sorta tore them because I didn't want to dirty a knife with bread.

I really love it here in Ireland. Specifically Galway. It's special. Amazing. To me, it is perfect.

-MJ

P.S. super lazy photo. I have a bit of a sore throat.

I've had four of these and two of another kind today.

Pictures?

I haven't been posting a lot but I'd like to be. I've been going along with my 365 project with no issues, I guess I feel that nothing particularly exciting has happened to warrant a blog update. I haven't been doing many big push ideas for my daily photos. In a way I'm taking a serious break before I embark on my epic adventure abroad. My senior year was so packed with photography projects, ideas and lessons. I learned an insane amount and was constantly applying new techniques and methods to expand my capabilities. It makes my head spin to think about how much was crammed into one year. And now, my brain needs to sleep. It will be excitedly reawakened after a much needed rest once I arrive in Ireland. My pointer finger and right eye ball are going to be exhausted!

195/365

The other day I picked up a copy of ShutterBug; this particular issue was a travel photography special. Seemed appropriate. It contained some moderately useful information, a lot of it I had already thought of though. Looks like my college learning has done me some good already! It did serve the excellent purpose of adding more proverbial fuel to my excitement flame. Detail shots! Details details. Carlos taught me that well.

175/365

I've thought about making a photography bucket list, but it seems like it would just be infinity long and that's not helpful. Here it is:

Everything

That's just for when I'm in Ireland! Here's a better rundown: my goals for Ireland and two weeks of traveling:

-Take at least one hundred photos everyday. This probably sounds like a lot, but really, it's not. Morning walk? Photos. Walk to bus stop? Photos. Bus ride? Photos. Lunch break? Photos. Walk around after work? Photos. Go out with hopefully-soon-to-make-friends? Photos! Weekends? PHOTOS!

187/365

-Make a blog post everyday. It doesn't have to be a huge blog, but this space will act as my journal for my trip. I want to remember and record as much as I can. If a day is particularly busy and I'm absolutely wiped out then I'll just do a bullet list of what happened that day.

-Post one or two photos on my blog everyday. I won't have time to go through all of my photos each day, especially not if I reach my goal, so I'll post one or two of my favorite shots and save the rest for when I return home.

-Bring a pad and pencil with me so I can write down information about what I'm taking a picture of. It'd be awesome if my D80 had GPS built in, but sadly it does not. I'm sure I'll visit locations that are obvious as to what they are, but for lesser known (to me) places, I want to record some information about them!

194/365

-Project Pub Portraits. This is pretty self-explanatory. Find pubs that I like, feel out the atmosphere, strike up conversations with grizzled old men, take portraits. DREAM PROJECT! I get so nervous every time I think about doing this.

-Galway Doors. I know this has been done a million times, but there are no new ideas and I don't see someone else having already taken the photo being a good enough reason to stop me from my own interpretation! Plus, I'll have all IP rights to the images so I can do a lot with post, woo!

-Landscapes. What a given, right? Perhaps I'll drag my lazy butt out of bed early on my days off and get some spectacular sunrises =3 I have a great rain coat now so I can't use that as an excuse. All I need is a simple plastic bag for my camera and I'm golden.

So there's my bucket list in its entirety (so far). I don't know yet if I'll be adding to it, it seems pretty full to me!

181/365

I leave for Ireland in a week.

:O

-MJ

My first event coverage!

Apparently I'm a photographer :O :D (that statement is a bit of an inside joke)

Tonight in Olympia there was an animation showing called Eye Candy Animation Festival. There were animated shorts from students and professional alike playing in the Capital Theatre. My friend Hannah was supposed to take pictures of the event as a favor to the guy who was essentially co-hosting the event, Tommy Thompson, but she had fallen ill and asked if I would do it instead. I was a little nervous at first, I hadn't done any preparing to photograph an event! I asked her a lot of questions and then agreed to it.

At this point I've gone on a fair amount of event shoots with her and I already have the equipment necessary to do what she needed me to do. I just wanted to do well, take some nice shots and provide Tommy with photos that show what a great turnout the event had.

I'm going to go through the photos later, for now I'll just post the one picture that is serving as my 365 for June 5th. I have some photography stuff to share in general but I don't feel like typing anymore and also my brain is scattered right now!

This is a photo of the main character of Tommy Thompson's animation short entitled "High Strung".



-MJ