I’ve decided to redirect my url www.declanflynn.ie to this blog and leave the old website behind. I was not updating the website and I preferred the look and content of the WordPress blog. If you want to access the old site you can still use the url http://www.declanflynn.ie/Welcome.html
Month: September 2009
Arthur Guinness Day
Yesterday was Arthurs Day in Dublin. A celebration (maunfactured) to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the lease for the Guinness Brewery. A 9000 year lease at £45 a year, a pretty good deal. I decided to wander down to the Guinness Brewery to see what going on, very little really. Most of the events were ticket only but I did get into one pub in time for 17:59 when the people around the world toasted Arthur.
Fusilier’s Arch
The underside of the Fusiliers Arch which is the main entrance to St Stephens Green. Built to commemorate the 212 soldiers from the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who died in the Boer War. I’ve walked under the arch hundreds of times but am afraid that I have only looked up at the names a handful of times.
I’ve been playing with Lightroom presets again. There are hundreds of free ones available on line and they produce a variety of effects. Some awful some brilliant. At the very least they serve as a starting point. Download a preset see what it does, figure out how it does it and how to do something similar but better suited to your own photographs.
Spyder 3 Pro
I bought a Spyder 3 Pro today to calibrate my laptop screen and my God the difference is incredible. Previously I had just used the calibrate by eye functions built into Mac OS-X and the results varied so much from one calibration to another that I felt I couldn’t depend on the results.
The Spyder was easy to set up. The only problem I had was installing the software which started with a Chinese or Japanese screen but when I clicked on the right hand button (which I guessed was cancel or continue) the installer continued and the rest of the panels were in English. I cleaned the screen with the included sample of cleaning tissues. Finally I ran the application and followed the instructions on screen. The calibrator did fall off during the first run so I just cancelled the task and stuck it back on the screen with no problems. The first complete calibration took around five minutes. An hour later I ran it again and the next time it only took a minute or two.
I feel might be a little warm compared to what I am used to but when I compare it to my old settings now I realize they look very blue and cold. I’ve looked at other peoples photos on sites like flickr and they look pretty good so I’m really happy. Now the next thing is to start working on some photos and see what they come out like.
Black and White Cathedral
Following on from the previous post I have a copy of the cathedral photograph in simple black and white. At the moment I prefer the sepia one but that could just be the fact that I am used to them. I also think the photos look better in Lightroom before I export them and compared to the prints the photos on the blog seem a little bland. I think I need to learn more about exporting photographs for use on the web. Also I think I need to get a device to calibrate my screen.
Things to photograph
I’ve started to look at the photos I used for Peoples Photo 2009 and try to fill some gaps. It seemed the photos that sold were photos of Dublin landmarks and I was asked if I had photos of things like the Ha’penny Bridge. I didnt really so I’ve decided that I need to do a couple of things over the next year.
First I need to fill the gaps. Take photos of things that I don’t already have photos of. That’s not to say that I don’t have any photos of places like St Patricks Cathedral or the Ha’Penny Bridge but that I’ve only got basic photos that are not up to scratch. Two weeks ago I got a photo of the bridge, this week I wandered around St Patricks Cathedral to try and figure out what I wanted to take photos of. I did snap some and I intend on going back with a tripod to try and get some nice photos of the cathedral. I was lucky to get there last week when there were still flowers in the garden. I hope when I go there next time there will be new ones planted though with winter coming. I may have to wait until next spring for some nice flowers to put in the foreground.
Secondly I need to decide if I want to continue with the sepia effect. It stood out but I don’t want to just have sepia photos and nothing else. Some nice black and white and long exposure photos might be in order.