Robert's Ramblings

This view above Lamb Island tells almost everything you need to know about the conditions, …almost everything.

Wall to wall blue sky, check. No swell or current, check. The iconic Skellig Islands clear on the horizon, check. Incredible coastal rock formations above water, check. Fun dive crew on cool RIB, check. A hint of the crystal clear water as Lamb Island descends down 30m below the warter-line, almost check!

See my previous image ‘Below Lamb Island’ to complete the picture and you can see that we had the perfect Irish diving day.


#boating #diving #kerry #ireland #lambisland #portmagee #aerial #seascape

The diving out of Cahersiveen and Portmagee this last weekend was simply amazing. I’m blessed to have this kind of diving on my door step and to be diving with the Inbhear Sceine Kerry SAC crew who live and breathe (via regulator obviously) this beautiful region of Irish coast.

At a depth of around 25 meters my dive buddy Richie is revelling in the 20+ meter visibility, the perfect conditions for wide angle underwater photography. The visibility was so good, and the terrain so spectacular, I often found myself just floating out in mid water taking in the view.

My introduction to Irish diving has been wonderful with perfect conditions 6 out of the last 7 weekends and with the water finally getting warmer it can only get better.

Finally, apologies for the un-imaginative title but it’s one of a two part theme to be completed later.


#scuba #diving #kerry #ireland #lambisland #portmagee #diver #underwater #seascape

My moment with this gentle giant was fleeting, no more than 30 seconds, but wow what a wonderful moment it was.

When finally it swam into the distance, visibility, light and turbidity were not kind to the camera. All colour and definition were gone, but still the grace with which it swam was mesmerising.

This was my last glimpse before it disappeared into the depths below but not before it showed that unmistakable shark profile that evolution has not changed in millions of years.


#scuba #diving #baskingshark #sharks #Cetorhinusmaximus #Kerry #ValentiaIsland #BrayHead #megafauna #ancient #creatures #ireland #blackandwhite #monochrome

All of the diving I have done so far here in Ireland has been on the exposed Kerry coastline and the one common theme of every dive has been kelp!

The kelp line begins around 6m below the surface where it is just out of range of all but the most severe seas and extends down to around 12m where the failing light is no longer sufficient for the photosynthesis the algae needs to survive.

This species called Cuvie (Laminaria hyperborea) has become a landmark of depth for me, greeting me on my way back up to the surface and keeping me company on my safety stops.


#kelp #scuba #diving #cuvie #Laminariahyperborea #algae #seascape

We were nearing the end of a fabulous dive just off Bray Head on Valentia Island and were hovering around 5m sandwiched between the surface and the kelp bed below.

I turned to locate my dive buddy and instead was greeted by a massive grey form coming up from below and swimming directly for me. It is hard to describe and give justice to the experience which followed.

At first I thought it was the biggest and strangest looking dolphin that ever existed. I was stupefied until it gracefully dived under me and the expanse of this giant shark was revealed.

Basking sharks are the second largest shark or fish after the whale shark and typically will reach 8m in length. This one was on the smaller size, perhaps 4-5m, but still possessed incredible presence.

After swimming beneath me, this beautiful creature performed a graceful turn, revealed its ancient profile, then doubled back for a moment before reaching the edge of the kelp and diving back down into the depths.

This was my first encounter with these gentle giants and left us both basking in the beauty of the encounter.


#scuba #diving #baskingshark #sharks #Cetorhinusmaximus #Kerry #ValentiaIsland #BrayHead #megafauna #ancient #creatures

It’s cold down here, it’s dark down here, but it’s anything but quiet. Between the sound of my own breathing and my bubbles escaping to the surface, the water is filled with clicks and chirps and strange sharps noises not unlike forest insects on a warm evening.

As the light of my torch falls on this massive vertical rock wall I am astounded by the beautiful patchwork carpet of colour. Thousands of anemones in colonies of purple and red and yellow all with their tiny stinging tentacles, feed on plankton in the nutrient rich water.

Looking up I catch I glimpse of blue sky above and am filled with gratitude for this amazing magic carpet ride.


#scuba #diving #doulushead #cahershiveen #kerry #ireland #ocean #sea #inbhearsceinesac #anemone

I have just had another fantastic day diving with the crew from Inbhear Sceine SAC diving. This particular dive on Doulus Head was truly spectacular with cliff facing walls coming up from more than 30m below and covered in massive anemone gardens.

This moment captures our all important ascent with Richie being first to the boat and John ready to help us on board.

I am still getting used to the cold 10 degC water, and the crew here think I am crazy diving in a wetsuit, but it’s worth every moment diving in this beautiful part of the world.


#scuba #diving #rib #boat #doulushead #cahershiveen #kerry #ireland #ocean #sea

My discovery of Ireland’s beautiful place seems to have no end and despite previous trips here I’ve really only just started.
We are on the pier at Kells Bay, about to head out into Dingle Bay for a dive, and I just can’t begin to describe how amazing it is to be here.
The diving from here was stunning but to those that will never dip their head below the waves, just look around and enjoy our beautiful planet from what ever perspective you can.


#Kellsbay #tinyplanet #aerial #ireland #landscape #skyscape #tinyplanet

Living in Ireland has provided many firsts for me and my dives with Inbhear Sceine Kerry Sub Aqua have been no exception.
I’ve experienced new underwater sights and sounds with my favourite Southern Australian ‘usual suspects’ being replaced with an entirely new cohort of marine species I am eager to make my acquaintance with.

For the time being at least I’m acclimatising to the 10 degC water temperature, and still tuning my gear, but a couple more dives should see most of those issues sorted (aside from the cold).

For now at least I can share another first, it may not be anything spectacular but here is my first published image from under Irish seas, the Edible Sea Urchin (Echinus esculentus).


#Echinusesculentus #seaurchin #underwater #scuba #diving #ireland #kerry #critters #echinoderms #edibleseaurchin

Nearly seven years ago I got to circumnavigate the famous Skellig Michael off the south west coast of Ireland, symbol of the archangel Micheal and spiritual haven of the Mainistir Fhionáin monks that made this sacred rock their home.

I planned to return one day with the anticipation of climbing to its pinnacle.

Last Saturday was the reunion I never imagined.

We’ve been in living Ireland nearly four months now and like a fish out of water I’ve been pining to dive again, trading a South Australian sea for an Irish one. Considering the colder water and lack of familiarity with diving in Ireland I’d almost resigned to my first Irish dive being something simple and tame, a shake down and ‘get used to it’ dive.

Then I got a text from Micheal! (not the archangel, but can I really be sure?)
“Hi Robert, me and the lads are diving Skellig Micheal this weekend and we’d love to have you along.”

To cut the rest of my story short, my first Irish dive was anything but tame and simple, an adventure beneath Skellig Micheal.

Thank you Micheal, John, Richie, Ellie, Nigel and Gearóid of the Inbhear Sceine Kerry Sub Aqua Club for looking after me and making my first Irish diving simply extraordinary.


#adventure #crag #freedom #ireland #island #kerry #ocean #portmagee #skelligmichael #diving #travel

No one has actually seen a living Irish Elk for 8,000 years but once they were abundant here as well as on much of continental Europe. With an antler span of 3 to 4 m they would have been spectacular to behold.

Nearly 40 years ago, Cork artist Kevin Holland brought the great Irish Elk back to life as a bronze effigy overlooking the N20 road between Cork and Mallow. For twenty years I’ve been wanting to photograph that stag with never quite the opporunity.

Today I finally have.


#Kevinholland #ireland #cork #irishelk #sculpture #bronze #silhouette #aerial

On a recent ‘Create Day’ with the Mallow camera club we explored crazy things like photographing spilled ink in puddles of potcheen.

The process was very simple, pour the potcheen onto blotting paper (with optional nip when no one’s watching), place drop of coloured ink onto the wet and changing paper, take a photograph, pour again, have another nip and repeat.

The constantly moving patterns were quite mesmerising and the challenge was knowing when to stop.

Of the many weird photographic endeavors explored that day we only got a taste (no pun intended) of each but enough to wet the appetite to do it all again.


#Abstract #colour #patterns #mallowcameraclub #createday #potcheen #moonshine

This candid and beautiful moment between two sisters will be forever theirs and no one else’s. Whatever their thoughts, and wherever their hearts, the brightness of the world outside provides everything needed; hope, gratitude, family, friendship and comfort.

It’s not all about landscape, natural beauty and an unblemished world. The light comes first, the heart and mind are drawn to it, and momentarily we become part of the brightness of it all.


#Silouette #jennifer #susan #sisters #home #window #contemplation blackandwhite

I first photographed Dromaneen Castle on banks of the Blackwater river back in 2015. At that time, besides my camera, my most important piece of equipment was a solid pair of ankle high waterproof boots. Those boots were marginal dealing with the mud and the cow manure on route through the fields and knee high wellingtons would have been a better choice.

This time round, despite being in the midst of Storm Kathleen, I found a break in the weather to put my camera up where no cow patty could foul it and capture this birds eye view along side of the, ‘not so meandering’, Blackwater river just out of Mallow.

Dromaneen Castle is said to have been built by Caher O’Callaghan in around 1610 to replace an older tower fortification of the ancient O’Callaghan clan. However, it was soon lost to the English during the Eleven Years' War (Cogadh na hAon-déag mBliana) and was never occupied by an O’Callaghan again.

To this day the O’Callaghan’s of Longueville House, on the other side of the Blackwater, have the ruin of their former castle remind them of Ireland’s, and their own, volatile past.


#Ireland #travel #aerial #dromaneen #castle #ruin #O’Callaghan #blackwater #river #tinyplanet #Longueville

Our Easter Saturday treat was witnessing this beautiful rainbow descent upon ancient Acha Dá Eo, ‘The field of the two yew trees’.

This place, now known as Aghadoe, is very old and dates back to pre-Christian Ireland. The Aghadoe church and cemetery as we see it now is a relatively young 866 years old.

From here the view is a breathtaking mix of modern and ancient humanity with the town of Killarney below, beautiful Loch Leane beyond and the distant Kerry mountains as a spectacular backdrop.

Even without the rainbow, this place is gorgeous.


#ireland #aghadoe #kerry #killarney #travel #history #ruins #church #cemetery #rainbow

It began as a bit of experimental fun capturing images through windows but the angles just did not work for me standing outside, and looking in. In changing my perspective, both in my thinking and in my geometry I brought out my flying camera for a fresh look.

From this high vantage, looking down and in, I have captured Jennifer’s musing gaze and a sense of the room inside, while the rain grimed window pain reminds me she’s cosy in there while I’m out in the cold and drizzle.

Despite the issues of privacy, and public perception, there is so much more creative opportunity now with accessible aerial photography. Yes and unashamedly this bedroom window portrait is, I confess, a candid drone shot.


#aerial #drone #portrait #people #jennifer #bedroom #window

I know this style of image has become a bit ho hum but it’s a celebration so why not.

First it’s taken on St Patrick's Day, a good enough excuse for any craic really.
Second it was the first nice day I’d seen in weeks of cold, wet rain and wind.
Third, it was my first time since we arrived in Ireland last year that I’ve been able to spend time outside wearing a t-shirt, even if was only for 30 minutes.
And to wrap it up up, when this green landscape get lit up, it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Not sorry for the Paddysphere, and not sorry for the ones to come.

#Ireland #tinyplanet #panorama #emeraldisle #aerial #drone

Lisa loves to freeze things and photograph their thaw. She's good at it and was eager to share this passion by preparing blocks of ice entombed frozen flowers.

It was now up to to us to interpret their thaw any way we liked. Aside from all the obvious creative possibilities there was something timeless about just watching and waiting as slowly the petals came to the surface, and finally fell limply away.

It seemed somehow sad watching these frozen moments in time being released, only to collapse and be swept away with the dross of the day.


#abstract #orange #petals #flowers #frozen #creativity #mallowcameraclub #ice #createday

How often have you found yourself sipping an extraordinary coffee while looking into the dungeon below watching the minions creating your next magical chocolate brownie. The only question lingering on your mind is whether to order a second coffee when those brownies are ready!

If you’ve never had such an experiences then you are just not trying, not imaginative enough, drinking the wrong kind of coffee or just unlucky.

Seriously though this industrious woman’s baking below is the reason I can’t wait to return here for another extraordinary coffee and another of her dungeon baked magical chocolate brownies.


#Dungeon #baking #cafe #lab82 #bakery #cellar #cooking #brownies #coffee #cork #baker

There is this little project I’m a part of that involves generating random co-ordinates for a location somewhere on the planet, being randomly given the name of some great photography master as inspiration, going to said random place on the map and doing something creative to what I found there.

Can you imagine my surprise finding myself exactly dropped into a Cork coffee shop with the rain lashing down outside. The deities must have been smiling on me that day!

The coffee shop, ‘Lab 82 Coffee’, was fun and quirky beyond any expectation with one of the best coffees I’ve tasted and brownies to die for. Those deities really went to town for me!

This image is NOT part of my project. It’s just a little taste of the quirkiness of this place and for people who like coffee, cake and ducks.


#Lab82coffee #cork #cafe #ducks #ziggystarduck #duckvader #alcapoduck #art #abstract #stilllife #lab82

Saturday I spent time with the local camera club at their ‘Create Day’. We explored crazy things like photographing melting ice, submerged flowers, oil slicks on water, and multiple exposures with subjects and textures.

This beautiful blue chrysanthemum was placed in a fish tank before being bombarded with various coloured liquid substances. All of this was very interesting and made for some quite dramatic images. I think however I liked this one the best, peacefully submerged, a few clinging bubbles of air, oblivious to what is about to happen next.

Thank you Viv, Paul, Lisa and Joy for a fun, creative and very different day out!


#chrysanthemum #underwater #creativity #mallowcameraclub #abstract #blue #flowers

Friday night, for reasons nothing to do with photography, I found myself in the little Irish town of Pallaskenry with around an hour of free time. Never having been there before, and knowing nothing about this place, I set off down the main street looking for something interesting to photograph.

I soon found Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Church, a Gothic Revival church on the edge of town where I began with the statue of St Brigid as it was well lit by the street.

To the rear of the church I noticed a large mound upon which stood the statue of the Virgin Mary with her silhouette in sharp relief on the rear wall of the yard. This I thought would make for an interesting image so I made my way to the back of the yard, turned around, and was greeted by this amazing sight.

The Lady did not move, she remained as still as stone, but I to me this unexpected vision was a little miracle indeed.

#pallaskenry #saintmarys #church #ireland #night #photography #silhouette

This guy engrossed in his own personal bathing antics attracted the interest of a young lady eager to see what all the fuss was about. But, when she ventured too close he was clearly not happy.

She persisted a few moments but when he got aggressive she was out of there!

A short while later another young lady turned up and was met with a very different reception.


#anasplatyrhynchos #ducks #ireland #donerailepark #mallard #doneraile #waterfowl #birds #courtship

I took a big gun of a lens into Doneraile Park today to see if size really matters.

The pros are obvious of course in being able to get closer to the action. The cons don’t become obvious until you have been holding that camera and lens for a few minutes. It’s a heavy setup and really hampers being dynamic.

In the end for practical reasons I put the camera on a monopod and simply waited for something to happen. And something did happen. A gorgeous mallard flew into the pond and preceded giving itself a bath. Just magic.

Today at least size mattered but I’ll need to build my upper body strength if I am going to make a habit of it.


#anasplatyrhynchos #ducks #ireland #donerailepark #mallard #doneraile #waterfowl #birds

We’ve been living in ‘The Emerald Isle’ for six weeks now and Ireland’s poetic namesake is as true as ever. Despite it being in the middle of winter with most trees being bare, the lushness of the grassy fields makes everything as green as ever.

I’m told the weather can only get better from now on but really arriving into an Irish winter has been kind of fun with the incessant and unpredictable rain, the frozen white frosted mornings, and the occasional peeking through of the sun from rents in a sky shrouded in cloud.

So just for a bit of extra craic here’s our tiny little emerald planet, on a pale blue dot, somewhere in the universe. Our new home.


#Ireland #tinyplanet #panorama #emeraldisle

Have bookshops now entered the world of quirky eccentricity?

It seems like only yesterday experiencing the novelty of buying a book through Amazon for the first time and now its almost all digital whether screen or audio.

I noticed Simon Prim’s bookshop in Kinsale and the word ‘Bibliotherapy’ in the signage and it made me think about the role books and bookshops now have in our digital world.

Having a place where you can explore books, hold them in your hands and feel the weight of their pages as you turn them; where words transport us to other places, other times and other lives, is perhaps a therapy we all could use a little more of again.


#simonprim #kinsale #bookshop #books #street #bibliotherapy

Reflections, reflections everywhere.
Reflections on the water painting squiggly lines of sailing boat masks.
Reflections in shop windows of passersby on the other side.
Reflections in car windscreens of street lights above.
Reflections in doorways of a stranger behind a lens.
Reflections, reflections everywhere.


#Selfie #kinsale #selfportrait #reflection #abstract

The curious thing about the Black-headed gull is that it changes its head from white with a dark smudge to a full black-brown cap when it’s in the mood.

This guy playing with his mates on the shores of Loch Leane is probably only interested in one thing right now, tidbits from visitors! Come breeding season he’ll don his black cap, find a black capped mate and the two will stay that way for the duration.

When parenting is over for the year they’ll leave their black caps in the empty nest and head out into the world again.


#ireland #killarney #landscape #lochleane #seagulls #blackheadedgull

There are ducks a plenty everywhere; it’s the perfect weather for them. For the most part I was ignoring them around me as having been used to being fed by visitors they can become quite annoying.

Suddenly a ray of warm light from the setting sun burst through the Irish winter sky bringing a splash of amazing colour to this lone mallard.

The light only lasted a moment, the duck, oblivious to his moment in the spotlight simply swam on.


#killarney #waterfowl #ducks #mallard #anasplatyrhynchos #reflections #ireland

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." In this case perhaps the title should have been ‘with’ instead of ‘in’.

This quote by Ratty to Mole in the novel 'The Wind in the Willows' echos my own thoughts about boats. Many of my most joyful times have been spent either in them or under them.

These two boats, in the backwaters of Loch Leane, might be docked for now, but come the opening of the season, their owners, fishers for sure, will be be feeling just the same; messing about in boats.


#Killarney #lochleane #boats #reflections #ireland