Monthly Archive for December, 2009

Two apologies. The first is that I should have posted this last night, before Christmas day.
The second is for the title of this post. I know it’s cheesy – however it explains the scenario.
It was a wintry drive from Dublin to Limavady and the fog was thick. As I approached Toome, a small village about 20 odd miles from the hot chocolate and sofa, I knew that I’d be puling over to take a photo of the Toome bridge.

The truth is that I wanted to photograph this bridge a few years ago when I once crossed it in heavy fog. That day, for whatever reason, I decided to drive on regretting  it ever since as I’d never again crossed it in those same conditions. So this time, with the setting I’d been waiting for, I knew what I had to do.

Probably looking rather dodgey as I stood alone at the side of the road in the cold dark night I spent about half an hour taking shots from various angles. The one I took from the middle of the carriageway was probably the most nerve wracking – I had to set the camera up, set the timer and do a runner! Not to be recommended…

To see the rest of the shoot click here or on the image below.

Taken with the new tilt shift lens

“You’ll love it!”, “It’ll be incredible”, “a once a year, maybe once in a lifetime experience!” – just some of the things I was told as I found myself driving around dark and deserted country roads at 3am this morning.

We’d gone through our checklist….

Blankets – Check.
Sleeping bag – Check.
Flasks of coffee and soup – Check.
Sandwiches – Check.
Chocolate and  sweets – Check.
Camera – Check.

and with that we were on the road. Destination? Somewhere with no clouds. Reason? A Meteor shower!

“Better than a hot shower?” I asked. “Definitely!” was the reply. We’ll see.

With the Geminid meteor shower expected to peak that night and considered by many to be the best meteor shower of it’s kind it was expected to produce up to 140 meteors an hour! “Not to be missed” – I was told.

We had a bit of difficulty at first finding somewhere that would remain cloud free. First stop was Maynooth Hockey club as we thought it’d be nice and dark on the pitch – and it was. However, no sooner were the blankets on the ground and gazing begun when the clouds found their way to us and so we packed up and decided to move on.

After some help from internet weather reports and a sat nav we found ourselves on the road between Killcock and Summerhill. The sky was perfect. We seemed to have found this huge hole in the clouds that gave us a perfect view of the heavens. We pulled into a lay-by and with the blankets on the bonnet it wasn’t long before they started whizzing by from all angles. It was pretty incredible I have to say.

I set up the camera and tripod and aimed it at an area of the sky that was pretty clear, plugged in my shutter remote and left it to expose for as long as I thought I could get away with. After 37 minutes I had a look. Here’s the result.

Click to see it nice and large.

No meteors were captured but just look how much those stars have moved in such a short space of time. Incredible.

I didn’t take anymore. I’m going to blame traffic build up (their lights flared up the sky every few minutes and during long exposures that kind of ruins things) – that and because it was flipping freezing and all I wanted was sit on top of the warm bonnet and not move, except to point to the sky every so often and shout “wwwoooooaaaahhhhh there’s one!”.

It was a great night I have to say – It probably looked very odd to any passing traffic – two weirdos sitting on the bonnet of a car pointing frantically into the sky. At one point a garda officer pulled in to ask if we were okay – I’m pretty sure he was wondering if we’d run into car trouble but with hindsight maybe he was enquiring if we were okay in the head….  To which my answer would have been “No – I’m with you officer, this is not wise.”

Better than a hot shower? I’m still thinking about it.

I’ve just returned from a week in London where I went to see one of the most brilliant concerts I’ve yet to experience. It was “A Not So Silent Night” and held in the Royal Albert Hall. Traditionally the show has been rooted in Carnegie Hall, but for the first time it has made it across the Atlantic. Hosted by Rufus and Martha Wainwright and their mum Kate, and aunt Anna McGarrigle they invite you into their own little world, giving you a glimpse of what things must be like in their own front sitting room at this time a year. Well, sort of. The main difference being that you’re in an enormous sitting room and there are a ton of special guests – most notably Guy Garvey from Elbow who led a choir and had the whole of the Royal Albert Hall on their feet singing along to John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas” (War is Over). A goose pimpingly brilliant experience.

Guy, Rufus and Martha on stage – Click to see more from the night

Topping it off for me though was Sloan Wainwright (the Wainwrights – what a talented lot) singing a version of Queen’s “Thank God It’s Christmas.” What a voice. I was up on the first tier and way too far away to be worrying myself with videos but lucky for me Youtube is littered with videos from the night. Here is that very performance recorded by LysWant. Enjoy.

Anyway – this post was not supposed to be about that particular night. What I’m trying to get to is that I’m now filled to the brim with Christmas spirit. Luckily for me my return to Dublin has been helped by the fact that the 12 Days of Christmas, a Christmas market, has just opened in Georges Dock. I took a trip down tonight with my buddy, Ian, to take some photos. It’s a lovely little setup too, with lots of tents drawing you nearer with the smells of mulled wine and German sausages. I’m very easily tempted. I plan to go back with my camera to take some more shots over the next few days to add to this little slideshow. It’s only there until the 23rd Dec. It would be a shame not to really.

To see the slideshow click here on on the image below.

I don’t remember Merry-Go-Rounds being this psychedelic as a child.