Robert’s Ramblings

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