photography

Noble Knights and Spirit of Ancestors

Image courtesy of Mirko Cuneo

There is no doubt that people can live their dreams. It doesn’t usually happen overnight though. Every worthy dream comes true after hard work is involved, and also discipline, dedication and perseverance. If you want to become a knight, any of the above applies.

In the Middle ages knight training started at the age of 7, and those who made it through the difficult and expensive training program were knighted around the age of 21. The culture of honor, courage, battle and courtesy to Ladies associated with the medieval institution of knighthood continues to this day among the modern knights.

I am not a specialist on the knighthood. I only want to tell you about some aspects of their activities and share some photographs too.

There are some images courtesy of a modern Knight Mirko Cuneo, from Milan, Italy. He has a private Facebook page, so I can link only two images, but those of you who have Facebook account might be able to see more of his images and learn a thing or two about the knighthood in Italy.

Mirko Cuneo

Viking training. Image courtesy of Mirko Cuneo

Two images ( above) courtesy of Mirko Cuneo . Film set Richard the Lion Heart: Rebellion, directed by Stefano Milla Carnasciale Jousting: Mirko Cuneo and His Lady Casei Medievale – Medieval festival Mirko organized

To those who are wondering about the outfits and accessories. There is an amazingly talented artist and photographer from the beautiful city of Arona, Marco Ferrari, who has done splendid job for Celtica Festivals over the years. I think he makes a great William Wallace in these images. Image courtesy of Marco Ferrari Image courtesy of Marco Ferrari

Here is a link to the Facebook page of Lady Malina who is based in Poland. All the information is in English. Her garments and accessories look quite authentic and charming.

Here is also a link to the page of Celtica Festival in Courmayeur Mont Blanc, Italy and a link to the Frederick Celtic Festival in Maryland, USA. I would say that there are hundreds of such festivals and you can google for one closer to your hometown and book your tickets for 2015.

There is everything at these festivals to keep the Celtic Spirit alive: the bards telling legends of heroes and singing romantic ballads; Celtic dancing, sweet harps, bodhráns, mandolins and bagpipes. It is much more than a musical event. Usually the festival’s program of activities includes lectures and talks, numerous workshops, ceremonies and rituals, falconry, acrobatic performances, re-enactments and many more fascinating activities. Your children can participate in almost everything and learn a lot about history.

Now I want to share with you my own photographs from Cahir Castle Medieval Festival, Ireland. Check out this page: these guys are amazing, and no wonder they are booked out for all the 2014. Cahir Castle hosting the festival. Black Knight arrived… White Knight followed… The mean and cunning Black Knight is trying to kill the White Knight’s pet rabbit with a poisoned carrot… This is too much! The White Knight is getting ready for the battle… The Black Knight is ready to fight too… The Knights crossed lances… The battle continues with the swords… When all the weapons are broken, a watermelon does the job… Everybody is laughing at the Black Knight… He has to apologize for all his mischiefs… The Narrator looks very focused… In fact he is as good a warrior as the others, but today he has to stay off the battle… Yet he got a chance to talk with a lady…

Wait, something isn’t right… Norman Invasion! Everyone get ready to defend the Castle!

The Monk and his young warriors are getting ready for their first battle!

Oh! Ah! Hope my warrior comes home unharmed… The Narrator’s name is Michael Moylan. He loves and knows Irish History, and makes weapons and other stuff of any era and culture. The battle is over!

Cahir Castle is safe!

Thank you for reading, and hope someone clicks on the links and falls in love with the Celtic Spirit and the Knighthood. You can enlarge the images, I made them low resolution for your convenience:)

Photography tip of the day: If you are attending an event, take pictures of different objects too: they will come in handy when making a collage.

Have a great weekend!

Street Pride

If you want to live a happy and fulfilling life focus on the best in people and in yourself. Sometimes the same rule goes for street photography:)

There are a few images from Dublin Pride 2013 (unfortunately I didn’t make it to Dublin this year). The images were taken after the parade was over.

Gardai look tired. It was a busy day.

I liked that hat, it is why I asked them for a picture:)

This lovely dog came to Dublin from Brazil.

Coachman and his son are amused by the fluffy Brazilian:)

I have got many images of this lovely old lady. I like this one for a reason: follow her eyes, they are staring right at the bare chest of that hot Brazilian fella in the right corner:)

This sweet couple enjoyed themselves, especially the gentleman: He was chatting with everyone in his reach ( I put a picture of them in my previous blog post)

Some people were rushing through the crowd as fast as they could. Locals want to get home, they are tired of the crowded streets.

Late evening. This texting street performer is too tired of real people. With no one around it is nice to share a quiet company, at last.

Hope you like this evening in Dublin. Click on the images to enlarge them a little: they are all reasonable size images. I didn’t post pictures from the parade: people’s faces tell more stories than their fancy dresses ( except that cute yellow hat :)…). But my next post… It is about something very special, and plenty of elaborated garments too 😉 Talk to you Friday!

Photography tip of the day: Black&white images focus on the story with no distractions. Great for portraiture, architectural details, lines, shapes, textures, light/shadows, mismatched colors in your composition, and for improving bland uninteresting images you still want to keep.

Have a great week!

Very Inspiring Blogger award

A Mythology expert blogger Aquileana nominated my blog for a Very Inspiring Blogger award. I am very honored, and so hope my humble blog deserves the award. I love Aquileana’s interpretations of the Myths, thoughtfully illustrated blog and sparkling sense of humor. Being a big believer in education I invite you to check it out and refresh your school memories:) Thank you Aquileana!

Now my favorite part. I am to nominate 15 bloggers for this reward. I like your blogs, I think they are amazing, and I want all the blogger community to know about you:) If you don’t accept it, well, it is up to you, but I think that promoting those who follow your blog is a nice thing to do:)

There are the fifteen, and I hope you click the links and have a look. You will like what you see and read.

1. http://availablelightonly.com/

2. http://thepoorphotog.wordpress.com/

3. http://todoelorodelmundo.wordpress.com/

4. http://chaosgirlandtherealworld.wordpress.com/

5. http://doctorly.wordpress.com/

6. http://sweetafternoons.wordpress.com/

7. http://moodphototeija.wordpress.com/

8. http://andrea-oconnellphotography.com/

9. http://strassenfotografien.wordpress.com/

10. http://harvestinghecate.wordpress.com/

11. http://jeteliot.wordpress.com/

12. http://sweetwillowman.wordpress.com/

13. http://mywordwall.wordpress.com/

14. http://aalifemoment.com/page/2/

15. http://mytrainofthoughtson.wordpress.com/

Guys, accepting the nomination there are two simple rules:

1) The nominee shall display the Very Inspiring Blogger Award logo on her/his blog, and link to the blog they got nominated from.

2) The nominee shall nominate fifteen (15) bloggers she/he admires, by linking to their blogs and informing them about it.

Best of luck with your blogging!

Photography tip of the day: Smile to people and they won’t mind you taking pictures of them:)

inesemjphotography Have a great weekend!

Golden faces, silver eyes and blue eyelids.

It started raining. Creeping from one rock to another I was finally done with photographing the puffins willing to pose.

I looked around and saw that my peeps took off and started to disappear one by one in the sea of ferns. So I hurried after them.

Our next destination was Gannet Headland, a nesting ground for the Northern gannets. You cannot see the place before you climb up to the highest point of the island through the high ferns and then walk down to the rugged cliffs. Then you just stop there, speechless.

The gannet is Europe’s largest sea bird with a wingspan up to 2 metres. The adults are white and the young birds are very dark brown. It takes 5 years for them to reach maturity and start breeding. They say there are two thousand couples nesting there on the island. The gannets make their nests from seaweeds, feathers and human made materials found in the water.

Gannet with a bunch of seaweed to furnish the nest.

Gannets hunt fish by plunge-diving from a remarkable height into the sea and then using their wings and feet to swim deeper. After returning from the sea they have this gentle ritual of affection with the other partner, preening and touching the bills.

The young chick reaches deep into its parent’s throat for its meal of partially digested fish.

The parent birds take turns warming the eggs and protecting the chicks.

The gannets are very vocal:)

As you can see, there are some couples with very young chicks, naked and helpless, and some with the older ones, covered with soft white down.

Gannets have very interesting features. For example, they have no external nostrils: they are located inside the mouth. Their eyes are positioned slightly up to the front which gives them a better view.

There is my reflection in the gannet’s eye:)

Clumsy on take-offs and landings the gannets are powerful fliers with an impressive wing span.

Now I want to share something sad. Please read this article…

Gold-faced, silver-eyed, gracious birds… Isn’t there anything else to eat in this century?

There are also other species of birds on the island. This is a Herring gull in its flight.

This is a Fulmar.

These are the Blackback gull chicks.

This angry bird is a Shag. Shags breed colonially between the rocks and in sea caves.

This is the island owners’ house. We were heading to the shelter to hide from the rain and wait for our boat.

The ferrying boat could not come closer, so we had to be carried over there by an inflatable boat.

Little and Great Saltee islands on the horizon. It was one of the most memorable trips in my life.

I hope you enjoyed this trip with me. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger. They are all resized for the web with resolution 72, so you won’t have problems opening them. Same for the previous post about the Puffins.

Photography tip of the day: When you are going to take pictures of sea birds, not having a telephoto shouldn’t stop you – the birds let you come close enough. These pictures were taken with a 70-200, but you can bring any lens you have. The settings matter, as I wrote in the previous post, and your vision matters. I wanted to get dreamy, a little bit grainy pictures with blurred background. Also watch your white colors. It is important to see the details on the white feathers, otherwise they look like burnt-out spots.

Have a great week!

Saltee Islands, a place where birds rule

Our Camera Club had an outing to Great Saltee island for bird photography. Before the trip I did a research as I always do, which helps me not miss anything important and regret it afterwards. There is a website with beautiful photographs where you can learn more about the owners of the Islands. I don’t know if anybody ever met them when visiting Great Saltee, but I am sure they are wonderful and hospitable people. They have a shelter behind their home: a kitchen packed with bottled water and basic utensils for those who might get stuck on the island because of the weather, and two beds upstairs. We used the shelter while waiting for the boat to pick us up: the rain shortened our visit by two hours…

If you plan this trip you might find useful the Trip Advisor comments and Captain Declan Bates’ telephone number to arrange the boat and ask your questions: 353-53 9129684, mobile: 353-87 529 736. The boat leaves from Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford. Late May – mid June would be the best time for the trip.

I found this 1837 report about the Saltees; was surprised to learn that the islands were populated in the past. There even used to be a church on Great Saltee, but now the island is a home to thousands of sea birds. I have never been so close to any bird except may be some ducks, and this closeness to the beautiful, gracious creatures filled me with sense of awe and reverence.

Some of the birds are nesting on the side of the path. Great Saltee is a busy place, sometimes about a hundred people are wandering around the island all the day, and having a nest on the side of the path sounds like a strange choice. But it is their island, their nesting ground, and they can do as they like. We are their guests and we are the ones who have to respect their rules. Earlier this week I had two conversations and one argument about the same subject: tourists/ immigrants/ temporary residents and their behavior in a foreign country. Here is my opinion: 1. If people are rude, stupid, arrogant, selfish, irresponsible, annoying while abroad, you bet they are the same at home. 2. Before judging the locals and their ways remember that you can leave when you please but they will have to stay and keep that country going as did their ancestors. You are not the one to teach them how to, and you would only benefit if you learn something from them 3. They might don’t like you. You can sometimes complain if you are not happy, it is OK, but don’t be a fool, don’t do it on Facebook or any social media! And never over-generalize and call a whole nation names.

So, this is what I was thinking about as I watched a colony of Gannets as they go about their routine. 200 species of birds have been recorded on Saltees, most of them migratory. Many species are nesting there, and I took pictures of some.

I have got many nice shots, so I though I could make two posts instead of one. I leave the Gannets for my Tuesday post.

I will start with the Razorbills, the first birds I saw as we walked towards the cliffs. The smaller, brownish birds in the pictures are Common guillemots.

Puffins. My dreams fulfilled! I was dreaming to see a puffin since I was a child. When I saw my first puffin from the boat my heart skipped a beat. Neat little fellas with comical faces and clumsy manner of flying mate for life and dig a burrow where they return every year to raise a chick. They feel more comfortable in the water; flying isn’t their forte. Probably it is why they take as much fish as they can hold.

A Fulmar photobombing:)

Puffin’s home.

To be continued.

Photography tip of the day: Taking pictures of birds be patient, focus on the eye, use the fastest shutter speed you can ( you might want to increase ISO) or use “Sport” setting.

Have a great weekend!