Sunrise and a Cheeky Mooning at the 40ft
Sunrise at the Forty Foot, Dublin, Ireland © Greig Houghton 2012
The Forty Foot is a popular swimming spot located on the southern point of Dublin Bay, Sandycove, Dublin, Ireland. This bather, one of many in Dublin, was men-only for the majority of its existance but since the 70′s has been enjoyed by men, women and children alike and is a still a popular place today for swimming.
I arrived early to find another photographer in situ but we managed to work around each other with out getting in each others way. I settled on a composition and began shooting my long-exposures. The above photo is a combination on two exposures – one for the sky and another for the foreground which I manually combined using a mask in Elements.
Sunrise over Bray, Co Wicklow
Sunrise over Bray, Co Wicklow, Ireland
Having returned on Saturday evening from my trip to Lough Tay, I started to question whether I should get up for my planned sunrise shoot at the brach in Bray. The weather was ok, but there was more cloud in the sky that I had hoped for. The required 5am rise was definitely the main reason for my change in attitude.
I somehow managed to convince myself to set my alarm before hitting the sack and thus with bleary eyes the next morning I set off in the car for the beach. I arrived in good time and had a short wait at my destination before leaving the car. As seems to be the norm with my shoots at the moment, I had a clearish sky above me, but a really thick low band of cloud on the horizon.
Lough Tay Sunset, Co Wicklow, Ireland
I woke up to the alarm clock on Friday morning to hear the latest weather forecast predict the return of frost and cold weather for the weekend. My wife cursed, but I smiled as I knew the chances of a great sunrise has just risen significantly and immediately started to plan my weekend.
Sunset over Lough Tay, Co Wicklow, Ireland © Greig Houghton 2012
The best of the weather of was forecast for Sunday so I began to plan a seascape shoot so hit my usual research tools of Google earth, Google+, Flickr and the Photographer’s Ephemeris to find a great location. I shoot a lot of landscapes and in particular a few lakes, but recently I have had the urge to go shoot the sea. I live in the East and only an hour from the coast, so it is surprising that I haven’t tried seascapes more often.
Come Saturday afternoon, I was kicking around the house and noticed that the weather was clearing nicely for the sunset so I had to grab my camera and head out shooting. The only problem is that I started to get into bad habits after my shoots and I had a dawning realisation that my camera battery was less than half full. My trip was delayed as I gave the battery a quick boost leaving it as late as I dared before leaving the house. (more…)
