Derelict rural schoolhouse
Here’s a few shots that I took yesterday with my brand spanking new canon 5d mark iii of an abandoned schoolhouse that I came across on a roving drive around county Monaghan yesterday.
It took me 5 years to upgrade from my canon 450d, which was my first entry into the world of photography. I finally decided to splurge on the best camera that I could possibly afford because I really fancy moving into making videos and I figured that it’s best to go for the top tier of the market if I want to start making some money from my photographic efforts.
I’ve not had the time to make many videos just yet, but the difference in the quality of the images and the ease with which I can take them is one hell of a step up from my old camera. On my old 450d if I put the iso up to 200 I’d start noticing noise entering the image. Some of these shots are taking at iso of 12,800 and I still can’t see any noise. That’s one heck of a difference! Gone are the days of lugging a tripod around everywhere or worrying about my shaky hands. Behold progress.
These shots are of a derelict schoolhouse that caught my attention as I was driving around looking for an interesting subject to test out the capabilities of my new camera on. I thought that it looked like a schoolhouse from the outisde, so I threw caution to the wind and parked up and hopped over a fence or two to carry out some investigations.
Turns out that the school has been left to crumble since the 1970s. Seems a strange place to have had a school out in the middle of nowhere, but I guess that times have changed. I found a sign for planning permission inside dating from 2007 to turn the school into a house, but I guess that the crash of the Celtic Tiger put an end to that notion. Personally, I can’t help but feel thankful that instead of another faceless rural abandoned property development, there still remains this dilapidated vision of rural Ireland’s past.
I hope that you enjoy the pics.
A nighttime trip down by the River Clyde
Here’s a few shots that I just took on my trip back to Glasgow in search of some work. The night was real cold, but the lights were beautiful enough to warrant traipsing around in the dark getting sore feet for an evening in order to try and capture them.
I took all these shots on whatever platforms that I came across on my travels that could hold my camera steady enough for a 30 second exposure at f11. I retained these settings for pretty much all of these shots, and I’m pretty happy with the results.
I’m still in Glasgow for the foreseeable so let me know if you like the shots, or if you can think of somewhere else that might be worth photographing whilst I’m still here..
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Some of Prague’s Stranger Statues
Here’s just a limited selection of some of the many bizarre though quite fascinating statues that I came across on my trip to Prague in the Czech Republic a while back.
I don’t know whether the surreal nature of Prague’s public art is due to the influence of Czech surrealists such as Jan Svankmajer, or Franz Kafka. Or, perhaps it’s the result of the destruction wrought upon Czech art and architecture by the second world war that required such artistic reinvention. Maybe the Czechs choose not to celebrate historical figures through public effigies because of their country’s troubled period of communist rule that may have left them weary of hero worship after suffering the destructive state sponsored propaganda of fallen idols such as Stalin for so many years. Perhaps it’s simply the prevalence of mind altering drugs on the streets of Bohemia since the decrimalisation of drugs for personal use that has unleashed such a creative approach to enriching public spaces with artistic ingenuity.
Whatever the reason may be for Prague’s bevy of idiosyncratic street sculptures, I for one am all for it. Through a haze of cannabis smoke I trawled throughout the city of Prague constantly surprised and enthralled by the many surreal incursions into my day that these works of art provided me with.
Upon my return to Ireland, whilst trudging through the streets of Dublin I couldn’t help but feel short changed by the lack of invention of our own Irish artisits in their creation of public pieces of art. There are only so many grey statues of long dead war mongerers, or bronze casts of expatriate Irish writers that can be stomached before you start to question what the Irish are lacking in so sorely when it comes enriching public spaces.
I remember once reading the Czech writer Milan Kundera describing his Czech countrymen as “heretics” as a result of their lack of enthusiasm for religous or political doctrines and the simple pleasure that they take in living life to its fullest. As I stood in O’Connell Street in Dublin after my trip to Prague, I looked towards the GPO, the scene of Ireland’s greatest act of rebellion in 1916 which eventually led to our country’s independence. However, my view across the road to this historic building was partially obscured by the great phallic monstrosity that is the Millenium Spire quietly spunking its celtic tiger euro millions into the air. And I thought to myself, that perhaps there’s something that us conformist Irish could do with learning from these Czech herectics.
My voyage to Italy
You may have noticed that my daily posting has slackened off considerably of late, but this has not been the result of laziness on my part (well not completely), but rather because I’ve been off enjoying celebrating my 28th birthday in the lovely city of Rome.
Rome is a beautiful city with so much to see and do that even with a whole week to explore its environs, there’s still a hell of a lot that I missed out on. Whatever I did have the opportunity to visit though, I’ve dutifully tried to photograph, and I hope that you’ll enjoy this little taste of my photographic record of my voyage to Rome.
The juxtaposition of ancient Roman ruins alongside the elaborate architecture and artworks of the Renaissance is a continuous feast for the eyes, whilst the opportunity to indulge myself in my first experiences of authentic Italian food was a delight for my belly (as was evident by its increased rotundity upon my return).
All the photographs that you see are available to buy in my store, which can be visited by clicking here, or on any of the photos.
Thanks for stopping by,
Feargal
