Following the light .
Following the suns light through the trees
Castlemorris Woodlands , County KIlkenny
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
During the Winter months the Suns is sitting low in the sky for most of the day, this is a feature that I personally like a lot when taking images. Long shadows form on the landscape from woodlands and trees , hedge rows form deep and dark areas in your images during the morning and long into the afternoon.
What about the Sun in the deepness of the forests, its light finds it hard to penetrate far into the woodlands and onto forest floors.
If you get as deep into the woods as you can and find an thinned area of old tall trees however the light that does get through can be used to wonderful effect, in the images below I did my best to capture the light that was getting through, making use of some moss covered rocked and the trunks of the trees themselves.
One thing I noticed was that if you position the sun right behind a tree , the light wraps its way around both sides of the trees in front of you, forming an outline of sun light.
I also very much like placing the sun on the very edge of the image or just outside it and using lens flare to bring a beam of light on to some of the rocks and plants.
Following the suns light through the trees: Gallery
When I Am Among the Trees, Poem by : Mary Oliver
Castlemorris Woodlands , County KIlkenny
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
When I Am Among the Trees
by Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
Images of Ireland from the Air.
Images of the south east of Ireland from the air.
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
One of the most exciting ways you can see County Kilkenny and its surrounding counties is from the air, the images posted here are taken during a flight in a light aircraft.
You can fly from Kilkenny air field on a sight seeing visit to any location you would like, on this trip we travelled south of Kilkenny and followed the river Suir towards Waterford city, returning to the airfield about 2 hours later.
Its a great way to see Ireland and wonderful on a sunny clear day.
Gallery of the flight
January Sky. A poem by : Dorothy (Alves) Holmes
Landscape view of south county Kilkenny
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
January Sky
Dorothy (Alves) Holmes
January chill freezes sky –
Early morning silhouette of pines
Are lifeless…
I close the blinds to this pale sky and go to
The east window where the sunrise
Throws kisses to awaken the day,
With promises to make me smile and
Bring the trees to life.
Her promise glows!
Duiske Abbey
Duiske Abbey, County Kilkenny
Irish Photography : Nigel Borrington
Duiske Abbey, County Kilkenny, is one of the best maintained Cistercian Abbey’s in Ireland also known as Graiguenamanagh Abbey, it is a 13th-century Cistercian monastery situated in Graiguenamanagh, County Kilkenny in Ireland.
Duiske Abbey was founded by William Marshall in 1204 and is one of the first, largest and perhaps the finest of the thirty-four medieval Cistercian monasteries in Ireland. The Abbey is the parish church of Graiguenamanagh town and beautifully dominates the town centre.
The Abbey is located in the valley of the river Barrow, on a site between the main river and the Duiske tributary. The abbey derives its name from the Douskey River Irish: An Dubhuisce, meaning “Black Water”.
Both the Abbey and the town of Graiguenamanagh are wonderful locations to visit with a camera, Park in the town and visit the Abbey first , then you can walk along the river Barrow, north towards kilkenny or south towards Waterford.
Gallery
Kells Priory
Kells priory, county Kilkenny
Canon G1 x
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Kells Priory is located at Kells in county Kilkenny and is a great place to visit if you are in the county.
While most of America and Canada are dealing with snow storms and sub zero temperatures this winter , Ireland has been very mild with well over 40mm of rain during the Christmas period. I visited the Priory yesterday and most of the grounds are under water from flooding. The water however added a new feeling to the priory grounds and I took the following images to capture the atmosphere of an Irish winter here.
Kells Priory, Winters Gallary
Irish photography – Irish rivers
River Nore, Thomastown, County Kilkenny
Digital Infra-red image
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
County KIlkenny’s rivers
The River Nore, one of the three sisters.
The River Nore, is a 140-kilometre (87 mi) long river located in south-east of Ireland. Along with the River Suir and River Barrow, it is one of the constituent rivers of the group known as the Three Sisters.
The river drains approximately 977 square kilometres (377 sq mi) of Leinster. The river rises in the Devil’s Bit Mountain, North Tipperary. Flowing generally southeast, and then south, before emptying into the Celtic Sea at Waterford Harbour, Waterford.
Kilkenny landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Kilkenny photography
Autumn view through the trees, county Kilkenny
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Autumn through Kilkenny’s trees
Autumn is in full flight here in Kilkenny, I took these images yesterday while on a walk through one of our local woods.
The Gold of the Beach trees is just Wonderful.
Gallery
Ninemile house grave yard, Happy Halloween.
Ninemile house Grave yard,
On the Kilkenny and Tipperary county borders.
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Happy Halloween! – welcome to Ninemile house grave yard, a place of rest OR is it ?
I few weeks back I visited this old Graveyard at Nine mile house, County Tipperary.
This place just has to be one of the most atmospheric Grave yards in the local area. It is full of very old graves and the remains of an old chapel who’s insides have been used as the location of some graves dating from the 1800’s.
This is a place of rest however and a very peaceful location, But on Halloween night, well I just wonder ? ?
For anyone who has been following my blog, they will know I love poetry, well last night I had a go at my own poem for Halloween!
A poem for Halloween
There is nothing in the dark…
Don’t run to the light, Run towards the night.
For ever fearing the Dark .
Don’t turn on a lights, Shining a torch into the blackness.
There is nothing in the Dark, No monsters to fear.
Nothing hiding in the blackness.
No possessions
No ghosts
No evil demons
No open graves
No devils to consume your soul
No vampires
No zombies
No omen of death
No!
Don’t look towards the stars, Fires of the heavens.
Hoping forever to be alive.
Don’t fear the blackness of the woods at night.
There is nothing in the dark,
nothing that is not just asleep in the day
and awake at night.
It is not the dark you should fear,
Fear the light.
In the dark there is rest,
A peace of your mind.
There is nothing in the dark but rest and a lack of light !
Images of a Winters Message – Poem by Mark R Slaughter
Images from a Kilkenny winter
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
A Winter Message
By : Mark R Slaughter
A flake of snow in flurry thro’ the air
Had landed as a kiss upon my cheek:
A secret message, just for me to share;
.
To take to heart but never dare to speak
About or presuppose to other eyes
Your open feelings – distant though they are.
And so, upon my own surprise:
A flake of snow returned from me afar.
.
Rain Water, The chaos of falling and splashing
Nikon D7000, 105mm f2.8 Macro lens
Rain water, County Kilkenny, The chaos of falling and splashing
Irish based photographer : Nigel borrington
Yesterday here in Ireland was very wet, I still had to use my Camera.
So I sheltered under the cover of the Ballykeeffe Amphitheatre, and took these images of the rain running of the roof and hitting the ground. The rain flowed freely from the lowest parts of the roof and down over the bolts that hold it together.
The rain was so heavy that the effects I feel I captured, show just how chaotic the water looks as it splashed of the paving stones.
Rain water flowing and landing
Kilkenny landscape photography
Fujifilm x100
Kilkenny forestry, Hugginstown, county Kilkenny
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Forestry is one of the biggest and fastest growing industries in Ireland today, only some 10% of the Irish country side is Forested this being the second lowest in Europe.
This article on thejournal.ie covers this subject very well:
Ireland now has the ‘second-smallest’ forest area in Europe
The Gallery below is of a Birch woodland near Huggins town county Kilkenny.
The foresters had been in and thinning the trees so that this area can develop into a wonderful open woodland space.
Kilkenny Forestry , Black and white Gallery
The Red Barn Remembers
Fujifilm x100
The old red barn. kells, county Kilkenny
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
The Red Barn Remembers
The red barn stands, silhouetted against the sky.
A tree wraps its young limbs about her
as if to protect her from time and age.
Her roof is sagging, color faded ,
An errant plume of red along her frame.
.
Yet, proudly she stands, remembrance of a happy time.
Shelter from the rain, children
Playing in her hair, lovers hiding in her shadows.
Beauty I see now, not bright, not boastful.
With dignity and respect she bows to age.
Knockroe
Nikon d7000, 35mm f1.8g lens
Knockroe passage tomb, county kilkenny
irish landscape photography
Knockrow passage tomb is located about 15km from Callan. county kilkenny and I have visited this tomb many time, The images in this post are from Monday this week, it was a warm and sunny October afternoon and a perfect day for walking around the area the tomb is located in.
Knockroe passage tomb, County Kilkenny was excavated in 1990. It has some 30 decorated stones and could be connected to Newgrange in the Boyne Valley, the front of the cairn flanking the eastern tomb was decorated with a frieze of quartz. Also, like Newgrange, the roof-box in the western tomb allows the rays of the sun to pass along the upward-sloping passage at the Winter Solstice (21st December), when it illuminates a tall red-sandstone portal.
Unlike Newgrange however these rays pass through the roofbox at sunset rather than sunrise. The other aspect of Knockroe that makes it worth investigating is that until its discovery, the prior most southern site of its kind was at Baltinglass Hill in County Wicklow. And the fact that there are two tombs on the one site also marks it out as uncommon.
Two of the images below show a track that at some point in the past was cut through the centre of the tomb, for a farm on the hill just above, thankfully it looks like any damage was not to the most important parts of the site. but no one knows for sure what was removed.
Knockroe passage tomb : Gallery
The Waterwheel, by Jalaluddin Rumi
Nikon D300
The Waterwheel at kells, County Kilkenny
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
The Waterwheel
Stay together, friends.
Don’t scatter and sleep.
Our friendship is made
of being awake.
The waterwheel accepts water
and turns and gives it away,
weeping.
That way it stays in the garden,
whereas another roundness rolls
through a dry riverbed looking
for what it thinks it wants.
Stay here, quivering with each moment
like a drop of mercury.
Kilkenny landscape photography
Fujifilm x100
Sheepstown church, County Kilkenny
Irish Landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Sheepstown Chapel, which is located at the end of a very small field in county kilkenny was built during the twelfth century which mark the reorganisation from a monastic church system to a diocesan system. The grounds of the church are small with only a very few graves with in the walls, the chapel building is also tiny. When built, only being used for the local community of farmers and their workers.
The chapel was dedicated to St. Muicin, It’s architectural details, as in the doorway are plain, except for the beaded moulding on the four corners of the building and what is known as a ” Clock – Stone ” high up on the West Gable.
The location is very secluded and peaceful, the kind of place well worth visiting and taking your time in.
Read more: http://www.documentingireland.com/products/sheepstown-church-knocktopher-newmarket-co-kilkenny-2-/
Sheepstown church, County Kilkenny, Gallery
Sunday evening Poem
Fuji film x100
Kilkenny landscape view
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Today is the tomorrow
By Neol Cronin
Always on the horizon but never here,
Travelling towards, but never near,
Never sure of what’s in store
No matter what, we will always want more.
Tomorrow’s a day, full of great hope,
Because maybe today, we just cannot cope.
Tomorrow is the day, to us no-one can give.
Tomorrow is the day, we will never live.
.
Our being is the present, the here and now.
Our hope – is tomorrow, somewhere, somehow
Tomorrow’s the pipedream, we have today
Today is the tomorrow, we sought yesterday.
Classic Irish homes
Images take using a Nikon D7000
Classic Irish Home, County Tipperary
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
When I first came to live in Ireland, one thing I really noticed what the different architecture around the country.
While many homes in both Ireland and main land Europe can and do look the same, I started wondering what the classical Irish house looked like, Well this house sitting on the borders of county Tipperary and Kilkenny to myself is it.
Rectangular with it’s five windows at the front and an arched red front door, this house is so classically Irish in nature that I would now see it as the classic 1900’s Irish home.
These houses could both be a Farm house with the Farm yard at the back or a town house sitting with a garden at the back and the street at the front.
Classical 1900’s Irish home
Irish landscape photography
All images taken using a, Fujifilm x100
The black and white Farming landscape of the woodstock estate, county Kilkenny
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
The Following images are from the wonderful Rural landscape of the Woodstock farming estate, above the river Barrow at Inistioge, county Kilkenny.
Taken last Saturday afternoon, while walking in the area.
Irish Landscape : Gallery
My Land
Fujifilm X100
The Landscape of county Kilkenny, Ireland
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
My Land
By Thomas Davis
She is a rich and rare land;
Oh! she’s a fresh and fair land;
She is a dear and rare land–
This native land of mine.
No men than her’s are braver–
Her women’s hearts ne’er waver;
I’d freely die to save her,
And think my lot divine.
She’s not a dull or cold land;
No! she’s a warm and bold land;
Oh! she’s a true and old land–
This native land of mine.
Could beauty ever guard her,
And virtue still reward her,
No foe would cross her border–
No friend within it pine!
Oh! she’s a fresh and fair land;
Oh! she’s a true and rare land;
Yes! she’s a rare and fair land–
This native land of mine.
Kilkenny landscape photography
All images using a Nikon D7000
Landscape of County Kilkenny in black and white
Irish Landscape photography by : Nigel Borrington
A black and white Monday, these images of the landscape around county Kilkenny have been taken over the last three or four years.
I am selecting some landscape work this morning and wanted to share a few of them here.
County Kilkenny in black and white, a Gallery
Kilkenny photography
Fuji film x100
Mullins Mill, Kells, country kilkenny
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Mullins Mill, Kells, country kilkenny
One feature of the landscape around county kilkenny is it’s old mills, the main river flowing through the county is the river Nore , the county however also has many smaller rivers, including the Kings river that flows from the Slieveardagh Hills in South Tipperary to the river Nore at stoneyford.
Along many of the rivers in county kilkenny you will find the remains of a once thriving milling industry that has long since stop any production, Most of these building however still stand today and some have been very well perserved.
Mullins Mill (Pictured here) in the town of Kells, has to be one of the best such example
Frosty Morning at Mullins Mill, Kells, Co.Kilkenny : Nigel Borrington
Ballykeeffe Amphitheatre
All images using a Nikon D7000
Ballykeeffe Amphitheatre, county KIlkenny
KIlkenny landscape photography
Ballykeeffe Amphitheatre, county kilkenny
The Ballykeeffe Amphitheatre is Kilkenny’s outdoor auditorium and it is used many times during the year for outdoor performances. Located beneath Ballykeeffe Woods and Nature Reserve, I have visited this area many times to walk our dog and get some exercise.
The Amphitheatre was build in the remains of an old slate quarry, for a longtime the performances were held in the open air but very recently it boasts a state of the art canopy which fits within the worked-out quarry.
The acoustics and setting are designed to provide for a great outdoor theatre and music performance.
When the new canopy first appeared, I took the following images.
Ballykeeffe Amphitheatre – a gallery
Nigel Borrington 
Monday mornings in the Mist
Mist on a Monday Morning
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Misty Monday Mornings.
Some Monday Mornings start full of purpose, the weekend has revived your spirits and you have a clear focus of what your aims are for the week. Other Monday mornings you just don’t know what your doing, you have aims but they just are not in focus sitting in a misty haze and you just cannot reach out to grab them.
This Monday morning, well ?
It was a wonderful Morning for a walk to clear my mind and try to find some direction, the mist was down on the local fields again and a blue and very peaceful haze just floated about the trees.
After Lunch time I hope the mist will lift ….. ?
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February 10, 2014 | Categories: Comment, Gallery, Kilkenny Landscape images, kilkenny photography, Landscape | Tags: focus, fog, Irish landscape photography, Mist on a Monday Morning Irish Landscape Photography, Misty fields, Monday mornings, Nigel Borrington, Nikon D7000, starting the week | 27 Comments