Ireland Day 8 – Dingle Peninsula

This morning we got up around 7:00AM and had breakfast around 8:00 AM. Breakfast was good, they always give us way too much food. After breakfast we decided to head out to the “sheep highway” that I missed yesterday before heading into town for our ocean safari. However, the weather had alternate plans for us, since it was rainy and foggy. We braved the rain out at the sheep highway so I could get a picture, it was obvious where to stand since it was the worn-down spot on the top of the cliff. So, I now have a picture just like everyone else. Honestly there is really no other place to take pictures from and still know what you are photographing unless you have a drone. From there we stopped back at the B&B briefly then into town to get an early lunch and go on our ocean safari. Sadly, our ocean safari was canceled due to the weather, I did get a full refund. We weren’t exactly sure why it was cancelled due to the weather since the sea itself was fairly calm and it was just misty and slightly foggy in spots. I’m guessing it was due to the fog, so we had to improvise.

Sheep Highway in the Morning in the rain

Our first improvised stop of the day was the Blasket Center, to learn about the islands we were going to boat around on the ocean safari but now weren’t going to. It was kind of interesting, the last people 80 people were evacuated off the island in 1950s. There population was falling because everyone was moving off the island and to the U.S. When you compare how they were living on the island at the time, to how we were living in the U.S. at the time you could understand why. It was like the island was stuck in the past. From there we went to the West Kerry Museum, which was super tiny but had some interesting Celtic artifacts. From there it was over to Rahinnane Castle Ruins. When we were in view of the castle there were sheep on the ruins, but the obnoxious American tourists who were there before us let their kids chase and scare the sheep, and they weren’t even little kids but teenager who should know better, so no sheep photos. Also, who wears sandals to a sheep pasture in the rain.

Rahinnane Castle Ruins

From there it was back to the sheep highway to see if I could get a better photo and not get soaking wet in the process, because by this time the clouds were starting to break up and the sun was coming out. From there we had one last stop, a scenic viewpoint before heading back into town for dinner.

Sheep Highway in partly cloudy conditions in the afternoon

scenic overlook

Tomorrow, we head to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway.

Comments

2024 Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2025

This year felt a little off for me; I think it was because I was in a mental recovery mode. I finished my graduate program in June and immediately went on a week-long vacation to Palm Springs. I do not recommend Palm Springs in June; way too hot. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the graduate program mentally and physically exhausted me, which I think showed in some of my creative work. But being able to work with great people like Natalie Hanrion , Coralinx Cosplay , and Anastasia B kept me motivated. While I didn’t attend as many Cosplay Photo Shoot events as in the past, the ones I did attend were helpful in keeping the creativity flowing. I also took some time this year to reflect on a few things and will be making some changes for 2025. In 2024, I shot 6241 frames, which is a 30-percent decrease from last year. I edited 3187 frames, which is a 40-percent decrease from 2023. I think this year, I started focusing on being very min...

First Session of 2025 - Queen of Hearts

My first official shoot of 2025 was with Lady Cels on January 4 th , to shoot her Queen of Hearts cosplay based off the NoFlutter Design. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 1 FJ400 Westcott Strobes 60-inch umbrella with sock 1 rectangular soft box 1 bell reflector grids 2 C-stands 1 Platypod Sandbags Backdrop stand Savage Primary Red Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps Gold ring wedding altar pieces Playing cards Flowers Styrofoam block Scotch tape The set up The inspiration for this shoot was obviously the Queen of Hearts, but I took my set design cues from the original NoFlutter drawing. I wanted to create something similar to the swirls used in the background of the image, so I started looking at wrought iron garden fences and ended up on gold we...

Snow Session

On January 9 th , Washu Cosplay and I did a slightly impromptu snow session at Great Falls National Park. This was possible because of the passing of the Explorers Act which allows photography in a National Park with a model without a permit. Before you get too excited, the law limits equipment and the size of the party; you are allowed your camera, tripod, and handheld lighting equipment, and the group can be no more than 5 people, which includes the photographer, model, and assistants. So, there are no big lighting setups or big crews; for big shots, you will still need a permit. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 1 speed light 1 light stand The set up For this shoot I was mixing flash and natural light. In most cases, my model was partially backlighted by the sun. Thus, I u...

The Munchkin's Notebook

Search This Blog