travel photography

All creatures

For those who are reading the fox story for the first time – here are two links to my previous posts – Kindness and Fox News.

This spring, I got a word that Minnie, the six-years old vixen, was pregnant. The only “suspect” was a two-year old male fox Henry, badly mauled by dogs in his early days and restored to health in Pat’s care. Being very busy at that time, I didn’t come over to greet the cub and take pictures. I feel sad about that – I don’t think I will have another chance. Now the cub is gone. Pat has too much on his hands to accommodate one more fox, and a lady from Kilkenny was happy to give the little foxy a family and a little kit for a sibling to grow together. I only hope for an interview in near future.

I didn’t take pictures of Henry. He was in a bad mood, and we left him in his pen. I only can tell that he looks very grown up, and his injured eye is not as teary as it was last year.

I have got a new “fox picture”, this time with Minnie.

Grainne and Minnie are full of character, and are visually different.

Minnie is not angry in these photographs, or upset in any way. She is just being herself, playing and watching if your attention is still on her 🙂 As you know from my previous post, Minnie doesn’t like walking and prefers being carried and cuddled, and talked to all the time. I think I performed all these tasks very well, and she expected me to carry on, but Patsy thought different and Minnie had to walk to the den on her own feet.

After the photo session, we all went to the garden. The weather improved, a lovely change. All the creatures of the house joined us, and I was amazed with their friendliness and good humor: even a huge rooster didn’t mind to be photographed. Cats, chickens, dog Blackie – all of them relaxed and at ease with the strangers.

And of course we talked about foxes, how important they are to the environment. Their diet consists mostly of rats and mice; if they steal a chicken it only means that the chickens were not locked properly. Wild fox killed his ducks yet Pat doesn’t blame the fox but the hole in the fencing. While opposing the fox hunting, Pat doesn’t encourage people to take a fox cub home if it has been found alone. The cub is not abandoned. Foxes belong to the wild and they will survive in the wild. Pat wishes people would just leave them alone.

We were invited for a cup of tea. Pat’s brother showed us a photograph of their parents. Calm, intelligent, beautiful faces. They have raised their eleven children well.

As I have learned, Pat is famous not only because of his foxes. While attending a hurling game, he was spotted and taken a picture of for Kilkenny People newspaper. What has drawn the photographer’s attention? A hat. Pat’s sister is knitting these hats for the match goers, in county colors. Amber and black – Kilkenny colors. I asked Pat if he had another hat for a photograph, and he brought me a Red and White, a Cork one… Didn’t feel comfortable in it… 😉 I should have replaced the colors in Photoshop… 😉

On our way back home we took a few pictures in Thomastown.

A French tourism-oriented website recently posted a story about Pat and his foxes, and asked if they could use my photographs. I am delighted that more people will learn about this wonderful man and his beloved pets. They are already known in England, Scotland, and New Zealand, thanks to Grainne who is kind of a movie star, since she has several film and tourism commercial credits.

I hope you enjoyed the day with Pat Gibbons, and will visit with him in person on your next trip to Ireland.

Have a great week!

People in the streets

What is street photography? Almost everything! Photographing street scenes, public events and human characters; landmarks and architecture, urban environment, transportation… Plus colors, patterns, shadows… Simply everything.

People walk in the streets, but they also do many other things. They sell and buy stuff, sometimes quite amazing, like this green cat…

… or this hand-made jewelry. Well, the sellers can be remarkable too.

This young man is not texting. He is reading. Not good for the sales, but good for him. I took this picture because of the color arrangement: red parasol and hoodie – blond hair and wooden kitchenware.

More amazing stuff, and the artist himself is a character.

Street vendors in NYC are not different from their colleagues in the rest of the world. It is an old photograph – I wonder if anything has changed.

People also perform in the streets. I already posted about the street performers in Dublin. This guy was spotted in Belfast.

That’s NYC again.

Tall Ships festival in Waterford.

Dublin Pride – this girl came all the way from Brasil. A spectator in his underpants could be from anywhere – could be a time travelling gone wrong…

This band was actually brilliant, but the streets were empty: beach party in progress.

This guy is a reggae musician Cian Finn. I had no idea when I spotted him in Cork and asked for a photograph. Things happen 🙂

People use electronic devices in the streets.

People sometimes cook in the streets.

People are generally friendly and happy. They pose if asked nicely.

People chat with strangers.

Unhappy people protest, usually peacefully…

… or use electronic devices…

Some people stay in the streets most of their time.

Some people own terrific cars and look darn cool, like this Italian policeman. In 2004, Lamborghini donated two Lamborghini Gallardo police cars to the Polizia di Stato on their 152nd anniversary. On the 31st November 2009 one of these 165,000-euro cars was badly damaged in a collision near the northern Italian town of Cremona where it was on display at a student jobs fair. It was repaired in January 2010. I took this photograph of the famous Lamborghinis in Tivoli in March 2010, and consider myself very lucky for being in the right place at the right time 🙂

Some people own bikes, like this shiny one. I was circling around it long enough to get arrested 🙂

Some people just wait for their bus.

Most of people walk…

… and cast shadows if the day is sunny.

Most of the days are not sunny here, it is why I am posting a sad song for you: Johnny Cash – Streets of Laredo.

Have a wonderful weekend!

William Despard Hemphill, Clonmel, County Tipperary

Clonmel is one of my favorite towns in County Tipperary – a place rich of history, and surrounded by beautiful landscapes. If you travel Ireland and are interested in photography, it is a place to visit for many reasons.

In 1840 an instruction manual in the use of the daguerreotype was offered by the Dublin Mechanical Institute and the natural Philosophy Committee of the Royal Dublin Society purchased a camera for taking daguerreotypes in the same year. Photography started its journey in Ireland.

Photography was quickly taken up by Ireland’s professional and landowning classes and the residents of Ireland’s big country houses. One of Ireland’s pioneering photographers, William Despard Hemphill was a native of Clonmel

William Despard Hemphill (1816–1902) was born into a large professional middle class Church of Ireland Tipperary family in 1816. After graduating University of St Andrews, he returned to Clonmel and had a successful medical practice, being doctor to both the Lunatic Asylum and the Prison.

Dr Hemphill composed and played music, was an avid orchid grower, turned ivory ornaments and was interested in archaeology, geology, and Waterford glass. He experimented with the latest photographic techniques, won several prestigious awards, and left a vast historical photography record of the 19the century scenes and people. He won fourteen prizes in Dublin, London and Paris. His photographs were praised for excellence of composition and artistic taste.

William Despard Hemphill is best known for his book ‘Stereoscopic illustrations of Clonmel and surrounding country, including Abbeys, Castles and Scenery. With descriptive Letterpress’, which was printed in Dublin, in 1860.

Stereoscopic photography recreates the illusion of depth by utilizing the binocularity of human vision. Stereoscopic photographs, or stereographs, consist of two nearly identical photographs – one for the left eye, one for the right. Viewing the side-by-side images through a special lens arrangement called a stereoscope helps our brain combine the two flat images and see the illusion of depth. Stereoscopic photographs became very popular after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert received the gift of a stereoscopic viewer at the Crystal Palace exhibition in 1851.

Dr Hemphill’s “Stereoscopic Illustrations” book comprises two volumes – one is the stereoscopic photographs themselves, the other – the descriptive text. The work is extremely rare; it was never available to the general public, and possibly only distributed by Hemphill to his aristocratic friends in South Tipperary. Each known copy is unique and differs from the others. The National Library lacks all the photographs. Clonmel County Museum has two full copies containing the photographs, however, they are not on display for the general public .

Clonmel Library has a copy of the volume containing the descriptions to the photographs (no illustrations). If you ask, they will give you the book and you can read it all – 102 pages. It is printed in red & black, with the decorative red border vignettes. A sonnet written by a well-known, or anonymous author, or by William Despard Hemphill himself, opens each chapter. The volume opens with two quotes written in Greek and Latin – by Lucian and John Dryden respectively.

I went around the town to recreate some of Dr Hemphill’s photographs. The bits of information about the scenes I took from that famous book.

In 1857 Dr Hemphill photographed St Mary’s, Clonmel, his parish church shortly before the reconstruction and alteration works. The Western Wing was not altered and looks the same today.

This image depicts a part of the Eastern Wing that was altered during the reconstruction works and no longer exists.

This image of the Quay is taken from a boat. Commercial barges like this one were used before the railway was built in 1854. Some buildings along the Quay are still there, but the Manor Mills in the background have been demolished.

Quay, Thro’ The Arch Of The Bridge, Clonmel ( 1857-58)

Scot’s Church, Anglesea St, Clonmel (1857-58) with its pretty little Ionic portico

“Clonmel, the assize town and capital of the County of Tipperary, is situated on the River Suir, which here separates the Counties of Tipperary and Waterford, and is built principally on the north side, and partly on some islands in the river, which are connected with each other and the town by bridges of considerable antiquity.” (Descriptive text by William Hemphill)

In the street, you can see a car. It is a Bianconi long car. Bianconi was an Italian man who settled in Clonmel and became a Father of Public Transportation in Ireland. The headquarters of Bianconi’s Transport was in Parnell St nearby.

Otherwise the street hasn’t changed.

Another beautiful place that still exists is The Patrick’s Well and Church.

An old lady selling some religious souvenirs used to sit at the tree every day.

This is what the Patrick Well site looks these days. No one is selling souvenirs any more, but an old man, David, is there almost every day ready to answer your every question about the site and its history.

There are some changes inside the Church. The altar had to be removed because of the repeated acts of vandalism, and only the base of it remained intact. David showed me some carvings I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise: a figure of Jesus with the fields and buildings of Jerusalem in background.

And here are a few more pictures of Clonmel taken over the years. Different seasons, different vantage points, different moods. Lovely town that has a tiny Tourist office in the Mary’s church premises, because there are very little tourists. A gem that is not hidden, just overlooked.

So, back to Dr Hemphill again. His home was demolished and a shopping center was built where a beautiful garden used to be.

I went to the parking lot and asked random people if they knew who William Despard Hemphill is. Two elderly gentlemen knew to tell me about the Hemphills’ estate. Not that he is completely forgotten – in 2013, Clonmel County Museum presented a stunning exhibition of the photographs of William Despard Hemphill – Silent Exposure. It was my first experience viewing stereoscopic photographs.

I went to his parish church graveyard and found his grave. There is a beautiful Celtic cross with the inscription that says: The memory of the just is blessed.

Thank you for walking the streets of Clonmel with me!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ghosts and mysteries

Many years ago I and my young daughter were looking for a place to rent. I was in the middle of my postgraduate studies and she was about to start her second year in the Mittelschule. After a long, fruitless search, we found that woman who gave us the keys of her late ex-husband’s apartment and asked for a very modest rent. The man died in September, and we got the keys the following July. The apartment was stripped almost empty, but if we really needed anything, we could ship some stuff from our own home, so I agreed and we moved in.

The worst piece of furniture was an old bed. I timidly inquired whether the old man died in there, but was told that it happened in the next room and his bed was dumped. Needless to say, we made that room a non-living zone.

The said bed didn’t look like the one in the picture, but it was still very old, so I though I would use this image to create some suspense, since the story is actually scary and difficult to believe.

That first night nothing happened – or so I think. I arranged for a children’s bed to be delivered, and until then my daughter and I shared the old wreck. It was our second night in the place. My daughter was already asleep when I switched off the light and joined her. Trying to be quiet, I covered myself with a woolen spread and the same second I heard distinct heavy footsteps coming from the kitchen. I stopped breathing. The footsteps walked into the room and my hair stood on end. I was waiting, breathless – I would fight hard to protect my daughter. The footsteps never stopped and went straight to the next room. I didn’t move. After a minute or so the footsteps made it back and disappeared in the kitchen exactly the same way they came. Here is the path.

I was listening for the door to unlock, but there was no sound. Being completely shattered I fell asleep.

The following day was a torture. I already realized that my visitor didn’t belong to this world, but this realization didn’t give me a clue how to stop him from coming. Besides, I was not sure he wouldn’t venture to our bed to say hello one night. I discussed the situation with my friend, and she suggested lighting a candle in church. The candle didn’t help.

For the rest of the summer, every single night he was there shortly before midnight. I was so grateful that my daughter was always sound asleep by that time. I have never looked at him – I was not sure if he liked attention.

But I did talk to him – after a month or so. “For God’s sake, I would tell him in a hushed voice, why are you walking here instead of resting in peace? You are a grown up man, shame on you! Don’t you know I have a 8 year old child here, and you can scare her! What are you looking for here? Just let me know and I will take to your grave whatever stuff you need.”

He kept coming until his one year anniversary, and I kept giving out to him for that. Then he just stopped coming, and that was it.

Some mysteries can be explained though, like the ones in the books of Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle

These pictures were taken in the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London, England. It opened in 1990 and is situated in Baker Street, bearing the number 221 B, as per books, although it lies between numbers 237 and 241. The Georgian town house was formerly used as a boarding house from 1860 to 1936, which covers the period of 1881 to 1904 when Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson were reported to have resided there as tenants of Mrs Hudson. The museum is run by the Sherlock Holmes Society of England, a non-profit organisation. I guess they actually have some profit since the tickets are overpriced, but it is not that I am complaining – the museum was a #1 item on my London list.

This is the monster from The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The Red-Headed League

A criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty

I read all the Sherlock Holmes books when I was a young teenager. People read a lot at that time. Not that I am a hardcore Sherlock fan, but I enjoyed reading the novels way before I saw my first movie: for that, I consider myself lucky. And I did want to visit the museum because I love the idea of the monuments and museums dedicated to the fictional characters.

It is why the reviews in the Trip Adviser upset me. Especially one like this:

“I think it’s interesting if you’re a big fan and know all the stories. If you’re not (like me) you’ll learn nothing.”

For Goodness sake! Sorry you learned nothing, man.

But there was one review that I loved. A very long one, and I want to quote a part of it here, because I couldn’t say it better myself:

“…I’m sorry that you probably live in a world where people insist that Sherlock Holmes is not real. I invite you to live in my world instead, my friend. Because in my world, people can fall from waterfalls and 15 story buildings and live to solve crime another day. In my world empty hearses are not creepy precursors to post apocalyptic zombie films. In my world one landlord can be both Mrs. Hudson, AND Mrs. Turner, because the hell with continuity! The difference between fiction and real life is that fiction has to make sense, and when did Sherlock Holmes ever make sense? Never! If that’s not confirmation, I don’t know what is.

Anyway, they’ll try to tell you this is a “museum”, but whatever. You know that the great detective and his dear friend Doctor Watson have just stepped out on a consultation at Scotland Yard. And don’t you ever forget it.”

Bless you, young lady.

I want to share some soundtracks to the different Sherlock Holmes movies. Which of the soundtracks is your favorite?

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984–1985), Granada Television, starred Jeremy Brett and David Burke/Edward Hardwicke. Composer Patrick Gowers.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1979-1986), Lenfilm, starred Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin. Composer Vladimir Dashkevich.

BBC Sherlock (TV series) 2010. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Composers David Arnold and Michael Price. This is actually a cover, but I think it is brilliant – Sherlock Medley on Violin – Taryn Harbridge

And this one is from the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movie, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Composer Hans Zimmer

The living room and all the familiar items are on display – you can sit in the chairs, put on the hats and even play the violin if you wish.

The maid is real.

If you don’t mind wax figures, Madame Tussauds museum is some 10 minutes walk from here.

And you know what? There are people who still write to the famous Detective. Blessed readers – I am sure that most of them are readers.

So, that’s the story. Some mysteries still remain unsolved…

The Rocky Road to Dublin by The Dubliners – this song was used in the Sherlock movie.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Saltee Islands – treasure bigger than money -part 2

(Click on the photographs to enlarge them)

First three hours were gone in a blink. It is the magic of Puffins. I was on my way to the Cat Cliff on the Southern end of the island – the land of the Northern Gannets.

Great Saltee island ascends from 3-5m high shore on the mainland side to 20-30m high cliffs on its south-eastern side. The Southern Summit rises to an altitude of 58m.

I was walking along a stone wall, and after it ended the path took steep up through the waist-high ferns.

On the summit I made a stop to take a picture. It was still foggy.

A Great black backed gull was standing on a rock. I came closer. It is a large bird, a predator attacking and killing even the far larger animals and birds, and I didn’t want to take a risk. Yet, I didn’t notice the chicks until they ran and hid themselves, and only then I knew I was in trouble. The last thing I needed was to be struck by a gull! I turned back and walked away as fast as I could without running in panic, while the gull’s partner repeatedly flew over my head diving low enough to touch my hair. With its wingspan of 150-170cm the attacking gull was as good as a small aircraft.

I caught up with the other photographers and we headed to the Cat Cliff barely visible in the mist.

There was another gull – a male with no chicks around ( we will see them later).

To get to the Cat Cliff takes an effort, but it was a fun climb because of the many species of the sea birds and their young we met on our way. Look at these Razorbills with their soft fluffy bellies.

A young Common shag looks from under the rock…

…and makes a careful step with his clumsy webbed foot.

An adult bird is different, all shiny and beautiful.

This is the place. A small colony of Gannets are settled on the left from the Cat Cliff. We don’t go there – it is a steep cliff and very little room for a tripod.

This is the Cat Cliff itself.

I sat there enjoying the sight, and took this panorama. Unfortunately there is no sky because of the thick fog.

We came very close to the nesting birds, but they didn’t mind. They have lived a long life, and have seen it all…

In my previous posts, there are more facts and more different photographs. If you are interested, you can go back and read these post – I have reblogged them.

Here you can listen to the gannet call. Multiply it by couple of thousand 🙂

The sky is crawling with Gannets.

After landing the birds perform a “dance”.

Sometimes they bring some weeds.

Under every rock there is a chick. I have no idea what bird they belong to.

This one looks different.

And finally I see them – the chicks of the Great black backed gull I photographed in the flight. Their mother is standing next to them and looking at me with the menacing red eye. They are so tiny and innocent, but the fact is that three more killers will join the party soon. Sorry for the Puffins…

Look at this tiny wing 🙂

Who can find the chicks in this photograph in 10 seconds? 🙂

On the way back the sky cleared for a few minutes and I took another picture of the island.

We also got to see the seals.

The boat was coming in an hour. I started getting nervous. This photograph of a tiny rock that stuck between the big rocks forever shows exactly how I felt.

We went down to the Boulder Beach and sat there looking in the mist. Our motorboats finally came, the inflatable boats took us six at a time on board, and off we went again. Lucky me. The wind was not that strong, and I had never left the deck this time, all soaked in seawater but perfectly well and happy.

Thank you for reading about my adventures!

Have a great weekend!