Skip to main content

Ireland Wrap Up

Places Visited

Our trip to Ireland came to an end on June 14th with our flight back to Virginia.  The trip overall wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either.  It was a variety of things from the accommodations, activities, and us dealing with sinus infections that really put a damper on the overall trip.

The flight out was good.  I will be booking 1st class lay flat seats again for international travel.  It was very much worth the price in my opinion. It would have been even better if there wasn’t heavy turbulence for the first couple hours of the flight, but that is always unpredictable.  On the way back we did regular economy since it was a daytime flight, which wasn’t too bad for being a 3x3. The other unique thing was they did all the US customs and immigrations stuff in Ireland so when we landed back in the US it was like we just arriving from an in country flight, allowing us to get home quicker. 

In general, I think I should have done a little more planning and a bit more research before choosing the tour company we did. I should have walked away when they were having trouble booking us a hotel Dublin.  I ended up booking the Dublin hotel myself.   The two out of the three B&Bs they booked us weren’t bad, we didn’t stay in the one just because it was an unwelcoming environment.  No one wants to take their shoes off entering a B&B before going to their room and having only one breakfast time at 9:30AM when you want to be out the door already is not great.   The 5-star hotel we stayed in for one night was great, including the two-course meal on the train car.  The last hotel outside the airport was miserable since the air conditioning in our room was broke and they couldn’t move our room.  They gave us a desk fan that was no real help.  So, from an accommodation standpoint the trip was not wonderful.

Next the car we had was an Audi A5 which we upgraded to from the original booked car.  The ride overall was nice but a bit large for the Irish roads.  Also, we ran into trouble with its Android Auto loosing connection to the phone.  We think the port in the car or the cable might have been bad. Also, the car randomly decided it had low tire pressure, but was fine. I found a YouTube video on how to fix the problem and make the error go away.  So ok car, but I wasn’t the one driving, thus my opinion has a low weight.

As for sightseeing we did the basic tourist things, but I was hoping for a bit more from the tour company when it came to tour recommendations.  I usually have a general idea of what I want to see, but suggestions for unique things or special tours were never really made.  They offered to book us the standard stuff, I don’t want standard, I want unique things that I just can’t normally book.   I basically did a google search for spots in Ireland and we visited a lot of random places.  It also didn’t help that my husband ended up with either a cold or sinus infection at the very beginning of the trip which just doesn’t make traveling fun.  Especially if you aren’t sleeping well. Then I caught whatever it was near the end, mixed with my allergies didn’t make the last few days any fun.   And as for photos, I feel they are mediocre at best.  Just typical vacation photos.   You can see all the photos here: Ireland 2023.

Overall, not the best and not the worst vacation we have had.  It was nice to get away but I don’t feel rejuvenated like I usually do after vacation.  So, I learned some lessons and I’ll apply those to the next trip.  Maybe we will do a safari or Antarctica.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cobwebs Everywhere

On October 7 th , I did a studio spooky session with Coralinx Cosplay .   The central theme of this shoot was a pretty goth girl who had a fondness for spiders and decorating with cobwebs, making it a perfect Halloween session.   Note: Cobwebs are defined as abandoned or old spiderwebs that have collected dust.   Many cobwebs are the result of comb-footed spider (i.e., black widows) that make irregularly shaped webs.   Spiderwebs are active structures built to catch prey.   (Source: Western Exterminator Company) For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 2 Phottix Strobes 2 strip boxes 2 rectangular soft boxes 2 c-stands 3 light stands Backdrop stand Black seamless 2 Westcott silicon gels Tether cable Laptop Laptop holder Sandbags A-clamps Spyder Color checker Fake cobwebs Table ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Katsucon 2025 Wrap - Up

Katsucon 2025 didn’t seem as crowded as 2024, but I still wasn’t feeling it.  Katsucon will always have a special place in my heart, but I think I’m just bored with it, from a creative perspective.   While I still love working with cosplayers the location itself no longer excites me and I’m tired of fighting the crowds.  If I return to Katsucon 2026 I think I’ll just set up a studio in my room and do studio sessions.  I can be a lot more creative with a studio session, and I get to use all my lights.  So now let's talk about photography.   For Katsucon I was shooting with my Canon R6 with an 24-105 Canon RF lens, and I had a fisheye lens on me as well, but we will discuss that later.  I had two speedlights, one on camera which acted as a trigger 90-percent of the time and one on a light stand which my husband would hold during shoots. This year I booked 11 cosplay sessions and shot 869 frames.  I shot a range of ISOs from ISO 100 to ISO 800...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spooky in the Morning

On October 5 th , I did an on-location spooky session with Rebecca at Claude Moore Park.   The theme was Victorian ghost; however, it is hard to be a ghost at 9:30 in the morning on a bright sunny day.   I did my best to get a spooky look. For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Cannon Speed lights 1 30-inch umbrella Light stand Assistant Smoke Genie The setup The set up was relatively easy.  I mounted a Canon speed light on a light stand with an umbrella.  My assistant then held the light in the appropriate spots as we made our way around the park to different locations. Camera Settings This session was held outdoors in bright morning sun and was intended to look spooky, so I tried to keep the images dark.  Thus, I used ISO 100, which is great for sunny conditions.  I wanted to maintain a soft background as much a...
Post a Comment
Read more