Tag: Manfrotto studio tripod and hydrostatic ball head

Coolcreen View Four

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

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Number four of six from the Kerry County side on the descent Healy Pass, R574. Here I turn the camera on the Manfrotto studio tripod with hydrostatic ball head to the original view, a little less lit with a better leveling of the horizon.

A first glance, the rhododendrons in bloom are beautiful along the hedgerows and the foreground. Click me for our first encounter with this flowering plant. Later, during out stay at Ashford Castle, County Mayo, during kayaking on Lough Corrib, I remembered this scene and described it to my guide. He filled me in the rhododendron is a notorious invasive species. Click me for an interesting article with all the details.

Here is story of visitors LOST in a rhododendron forest.

Beara Peninsula, Coolcreen townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.

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Coolcreen View Three

Coolcreen Townland

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Number three of six from the Kerry County side on the descent Healy Pass, R574. I turned the camera a few more degrees into the gathering darkness, under the cloud, for an almost complete view of Glanmore Lake.

It is possible to just make out several lake houses. Click me for more information about who live here during the early twentieth century.

Click me to learn more about the name of the lake.

Beara Peninsula, Coolcreen townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.

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Coolcreen View Two

Coolcreen Townland

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Number two of six from the Kerry County side on the descent Healy Pass, R574. The dynamic range is a photographic challenge: the scene darkens as a cloud covers the westering sun, I turn the camera toward Glanmore Lake. The large, distant water is a bay on the North Atlantic named for the city at the foot, Kenmare.

Beara Peninsula, Coolcreen townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.

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Coolcreen View One

Coolcreen Townland

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Number one of six from the Kerry County side on the Healy Pass, R574, descent. You can see the turnout we are using on the road below in this photograph Kerry View Seven. We have not travelled far, still in Coolcreen townland.

Here is a story collected by Shelia Sheahan from Mrs. M. Sheahan of Beal Middle, County Kerry. “The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0621, Page 413” by Dúchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.

There is a fort in Beale and it is supposed to be the principal resort of the fairies. One day as two men were drawing hay from Slios near Caill na calman, one went through the fields as it was shorter than to go by the road, and his brother drove the horse by the road to Slios. As he was passing this fort, a little boy came out of it and ran after the car and sat into it. When they were gone a short distance he offered the man some sweets but he refuse to take any. None of them spoke anymore until they arrived in Slios. Again the little boy offer the sheets to the second man who went through the fields. But his brother went behind the little boy’s back and grinned at the other man not to take the sweets, because he was about to take them. At this the little boy went into the fort and they saw him no more. Background: a fort, or rath, is a grassy, round mound. By emerging from the rath, the boy is identified as one of the Others (“fairies”). Accepting and consuming a foodstuff or beverage from the Others puts a human under their control. The second man did not know where the boy came from and was warned away by his companion, otherwise the story would be much longer.

Beara Peninsula, Coolcreen townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.

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Kerry View Seven

Coolcreen Townland

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Number seven of seven from the Kerry County side near the top of Healy Pass, R574. Here is a brother to Number Six, being an improvement: the horizon is corrected. Can you make out the two sheep on the road?

Here is a story of the Caha Mountains, collected 1939. It was collected from a man living on the opposite side of Kenmare Bay, the water of the Atlantic Ocean glimpsed in the distance. “The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0621, Page 413” by Dúchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.

Long ago a big worm was crossing the Caha Mountains when Saint Patrick met it. He made the Sign of the Cross over the worm and the worm was cut in two halves. One half fell at each side of the mountain. The worm was buried where it fell and it can be seen yet where it was buried in Coomnapeiste. This is a hollow on the side of one of the hills of the Caha Mountains and is visible from Blackwater Bridge National School playground. Situate opposite Lackeen other side of Kenmare Bay probably Tuosist Parish.

Beara Peninsula, Coolcreen townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.

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Kerry View Five

Coolcreen Townland

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You might say Number five of seven from the Kerry County side near the top of Healy Pass, R574 is the same as number four and not be far from correct. Indeed, while Number 5 is very different from View One, taken nearby, it differs from Number 4 in an improved orientation of the horizon.

The Mark III Canon dslr used here does not have a leveling guide, or if it does I was unaware. I perfected the orientation through several exposures, of which Number Five was one. Each photograph from this series provides a bit of information about the sight. Start with Number One and progress through each to obtain a full exposition.

Beara Peninsula, Coolcreen townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.

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Kerry View Four

Coolcreen Townland

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Number four of seven from the Kerry County side near the top of Healy Pass, R574. With a Canon 24 mm, wide angle, lens mounted on the Canon 5D Mark IV dslr, all on a sturdy Manfrotto studio tripod and hydrostatic ball head, I moved the rig forward, as can be seen by comparing the four photographs shared so far in this series. Your can see the foreground “reef” boulder of today’s photograph in the previous three views.

As I moved forward the ground dropped away and the view opens up. The near water is Glenmore Lake, discussed in yesterday’s view, the far waters are rivers and the Atlantic, as discussed in the first view. The road is Healy Pass, R574, in this direction headed toward Lauragh.

Beara Peninsula, Coolcreen townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.

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Kerry View Three

Coolcreen Townland

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Number three of seven from the Kerry County side near the top of Healy Pass, R574. Coolcreen townland is in the foreground of this photograph, the aspect turned 90 degrees to portrait mode, compared to View One..

For the first time, though not the last, in this series we glimpse a lake. Like many of the Irish place names, Glenmore Lake has a connection to the Irish Language name, Loch an Ghleanna Mhóir. Roughly translated the name means Large Lake of the Glen. The names in use today, in English, are derived from the sounds of the Irish. It happens the Irish Ghleanna sounds link Glen (or in another version, Glan, roughly the same).

Beara Peninsula, Coolcreen townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland. To learn more of the distant waters, read One and Two of this series (links are above).

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Kerry View One

Coolcreen Townland

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Number one of seven from the Kerry County side near the top of Healy Pass. Visible in the distance from this point on R574, Healy Pass, are the Rivers Drunminboyr, Glanstrasna flowing into a sheltered inlet of the Atlantic Ocean. Beara Peninsula, Coolcreen townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.

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Ireland on the Mind at Christmas

Reflections and Mementoes

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Where would we be without Saint Patrick?  He was a force, to be sure.  A favorite story, is the landing of his return to the island 432 AD.  The tides on the eastern coast of the Irish Sea can be strong.  His plan was to sail up to coast further north than what we call today Strangford Lough.  On passing this inlet the boat was swept into the lough tidal narrows.  Circumstances called for a landing, rather than wait for the tide.  Patrick came ashore where the Slaney River enter the lough and “quickly converted” the local chieftan, Dichu, who provided a barn for holding services.  The name of the town “Saul” in Irish is Sabhall Phádraig, translated as “Patrick’s Barn.”

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In this posting I’ll go lighter on descriptions of technique.  Leave it to say I held to the Canon fixed lens EF 50mm f1.2L USM throughout.  Some, like the photograph of Saint Patrick, used a tripod.  Others, like the latter two of the following Irish Themed Cross set were handheld.  Generally a flash was used to supplement ambient sunlight from a large north-facing bay window.

Here the “celtic” cross is converted to an Irish theme through a substitution of a shamrock with golden decoration inspired by pagan neolithic petroglyphs for the nimbus (circle) intersecting the central intersection of arms and stem.

For the first three I played with aperture, taking advantage of the stability of a tripod.  The final two of the set are handheld.

Note the fanciful leprechaun snowman with pot o’ gold, on the left.

Blown glass Irish dancers.

“Travel memories”

Lets’s finish up with a resin cast Santa Claus in hiking garb.  Hiking is a favorite activity of ours.  Featuring a stout staff and Aran Island sweater.

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