Ireland Day 9 – Dingle to Galway

Today was mostly a day of driving. We got up around 6:30 AM and had breakfast at 8:00AM. We were on the road to Galway by 9:00AM. To avoid driving around the peninsula, again we took Conner’s Pass which is one of the quickest way across the peninsula and involves going up Dingle’s highest mountain, using a narrow one lane twisty road. From there we joined up with a more “major” two lane road before joining a “N” road which is a very major road but not quite freeway. Our first and only stop today was the Cliffs of Mohr. I wanted to stop at the oldest working windmill in Ireland, but it was closed today.

Along Conner's Pass

I was last at the Cliffs of Mohr in 2006, it has changed. When I was first there was a basic gravel parking lot and some gravel paths with signs saying don’t fall off the cliff. Now it is like a Disney attraction with way too many tour buses and people. It has a visitor center, with a museum, gift shop, café, and little convenience store. It also has a few permanent gift shops along the edge of the center. The paths are now paved with steps and a golf cart that runs people who don’t walk well up to the one tower and back. It turned commercial and into a destination instead of staying a nice little roadside viewpoint. From there we continued along the Wild Atlantic Way up to Galway, with a slow down so I could grab a picture of a castle out the car window.

Cliffs of Mohr (cell phone photo)

Castle from side of the road (cell phone photo)

Our hotel is a five-star hotel and former manor house just outside of Galway. It has a golf course, a 2.5-kilometer walking path, spa, restaurants, a parlor to relax in, and falconry on site. I actually could stay here at least two days and just enjoy the hotel. We will be having dinner in the Pullman restaurant, which is a restored Pullman train car that used to be part of the Orient Express. No, we have no idea how a train car from the Orient Express ended up in Ireland.

Tomorrow, we head back to Dublin for our last full day in Ireland.

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...

The Optical Spot

The weekend of November 16 th , I got a little ambitious and did four sessions to test out the Lindsey Adler Optical Spot . I originally rented the optical spot from LensRentals , but that session had to be rescheduled; however, I didn’t want the rental to go to waste, thus a TFP weekend. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 2 FJ400 Westcott Strobes 1 Optical Spot 2 strip boxes 1 bell reflector grids 2 C-stands 2 light stands Sandbags Backdrop stand Savage Fashion Grey Seamless Gobos Gels Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps Star filter Red Curtains Posing stool The set up While I did four shoots in one weekend, the lighting setup was basically the same for all four sessions; what changed was the gels and the gobos. I started with a fashion grey seam...

Whispering Waters

On July 19th, I drove up to Poughkeepsie, NY to attend the Whispers of Waterhouse photo event held by Everlore Events . This was an all-day event, which included a light lunch, vendors, arts, and crafts areas, and three different styled shooting locations. I was one of the roaming photographers for this event, which means you work with models who are not currently working with a featured photographer (who have schedules), and can wander between all three shooting locations at your convenience. For this event I used: Canon R6 1 Speed light Trigger Umbrella Gels 24 - 105mm lens Camera Settings: This was an outside shoot that had sets in heavy forested areas, out on a pond, and sunny meadows; thus, I was adjusting the settings to the lighting conditions. I used ISO 100 and 400. My goal was to keep my aperture around f/4 to achieve a nice background blur; however, depending on the conditions, I had to stop down to f/9 and f/11 to manage the light...

The Munchkin's Notebook

Search This Blog