What's (in) the Picture?

Chris Breebaart Photography – finding stories

Posts from the ‘Ireland’ category

Exploring Tourist Attractions: The Far Photo Gallery

Leann Cole suggested ‘tourist attractions, near and far’ as LAPC’s 307. My motivation for going to places changed in my life time. From ‘active’ holidays (including climbing some big mountains by bycicle) to complete leisure (eg seeing the Greek Isles with lots of lazy moments). And in between the travels to dig into the culture and essence of a place on earth, to learn and experience it. But wherever I went as a ‘photographer’ I tried to capture where I was. To be stunned by what is just there in front of you, the unexpected. And yes, the times I did visit an ‘iconic attraction’ I tried to find my own way of framing it, trying to keep away form the cliches that are so widely known. For this challenge I dig into my blogs archive, all the photos are here published already.

Over the years I learned to value and appreciate my own way of looking, being surprised by my own views of what I saw and how I saw it. To appreciate simple things of beauty that stuck out or the composition of objects. If you travel far, you are only there for a moment, if you stay close to home you have access all of the time. But being close to home the challenge is bigger to stay open, to see what is there, to not take it for granted.

After the ‘near’ version yesterday, today is the ‘far’ version. My blog archive here goes back to 2018 so that is de scope of picking. I started picking them in a big gallery, and doing that it got quite big. But I leave it as it is. I hope you bear with me and browse through them.

You can see randomly photos from England, Greece, France, Germany (some are from Berlin in november 1989), Egypt, Turkey, Yemen, Tibet, Nepal, Belgium, Ireland, Malta, Italy (Rome), Spain. Occasionally you wil see an iconic object, but most of the time I was there for the landscape, the street encounters, nature etc. And I cheated a bit: there are some photos of Tourist Attractions from far that came to Amsterdam in the Ziggo Dome: Genesis and Peter Gabriel.

I hope you do enjoy the gallery, and if you want to plunge deep into more of it I invite you to search by category or countries if you are interested in more.

Hill of Slane

Ierland, Slane – October 2008

Some photos do not fit the LAPC’s themes, so there is a rest category ‘last chance’ being #280. I never am guided by the themes in the photos I shoot. Some fit in, some don’t. But I never know the theme while shooting. Here is one from the archive I recently stumbled upon, never published.

Slane Hill in Ireland. Close to Slane Castle castle that is famous among other historical facts, for being the recording site for U2’s The unforgettable fire’ in 1984. And famous open air concerts.

Outside the village is The Hill of Slane with a small old ruined chapel, a ruined monastery and a graveyard, overlooking the landscape and the river Boyne.

The most interesting place is a small hill with undergrowth right behind the site, from which this photo was taken.

shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Hill of Tara and Stone of Scone and Coronation Chair

Ireland, Hill of Tara – October 2008

The Hill of Tara was the location for the inauguration of the High Kings of Ireland. The candidate should lay his hand on the stone, and if earth roared in acceptance, the candidate should be King. The present stone is not the original one. The original Lia Fáil (Irish for “stone of destiny”) used at Tara for inaugurating the High Kings of Ireland, was taken by the King of Scotland and move to Scone. In 1296, during the First Scottish War of Independence, King Edward I of England took the stone as spoils of war and removed it to Westminster Abbey, where it was fitted into a wooden chair – known as the Coronation Chair or King Edward’s Chair – on which most subsequent English and then British sovereigns have been crowned. For the full story I refer to Wikipedia’s Stone of Scone.

shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version

Strandhill 2008 (available light)

Ireland, Strandhill – October 2008

This weeks challenge #186 is ‘Low Light’. Using the available light is primarily a question of creativity and secondarily the available technology. The advice when using a Kodak Instamatic (a very old point and shoot film camera in the 1970’s) was to keep the sun in the back. My advice is not to do that. When using film it was a calculated guess (the result came after developing of the film). Nowadays in digital times the result is immediately available on your camera, hence a source of more playing around and tweaking. Playing with light is playing with the source of light. This photo of Strandhill was taken on a ‘normal’ sunny day. The angle used makes it much more dramatic. This photo ‘See Sea’ gives an idea of the light as it was that day. The fog and dark sky added to the atmosphere (in the Archive Ireland you can find two more photo’s of this perspective taken at the same moment).

Strandhill in Sligo is a small town, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean to the West. Rising over it is Knocknarea with Queen Maeve.

shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.

See Sea

Ireland, Strandhill – October 2008

The theme for this week Lens-artists challenge #155 is ‘on the water’.

Strandhill in Sligo is a small town, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean to the West. Rising over it is Knocknarea with Queen Maeve.

shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.

Strandhill

Ireland, Strandhill – October 2008

The theme for this week Lens-artists challenge #155 is ‘on the water’.

Strandhill in Sligo is a small town, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean to the West. Rising over it is Knocknarea with Queen Maeve.

shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.

Trees: Hill Of Slane

Ireland, Slane – October 2008

This one is for Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday weekly theme ‘trees’.

Hill of Slane in Ireland.

shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.

Watch the Bird

Ireland, Slane – October 2008

The theme for the weekly Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #79  is ‘a window with a view’

If you want to join or participate in the weekly Lens-Artists Photo Challenges just follow the link above,

Slane Hill in Ireland. The ruins of an old monastery.

shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.

Strandhill

Ireland, Strandhill – October 2008

This one is for Dutch goes the photo’s ‘portal’ theme.

Strandhill in Sligo is a small town, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean to the West. Rising over it is Knocknarea with Queen Maeve.

shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.

Portal

Ireland, Slane  – October 2008

This one is for Dutch goes the photo’s ‘portal’ theme.

Slane Hill in Ireland. Close to Slane Castle castle that is famous among other historical facts, for being the recording site for U2’s The unforgettable fire’ in 1984.
Never judge an album by its cover, but part of the castle burned in 1991, but was restored in 2001. Slane Castle is also famous for its concerts and festivals; a lot of famous band and artists performed there.

Outside the village is The Hill of Slane with a small old ruined chapel, a ruined monastery and a graveyard, overlooking the landscape and the river Boyne.

shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.