An October Sunset, Duncannon Beach, County Wexford, Ireland
A collection of images, all taken on my favorite beach in county Wexford – Duncannon beach, with its fort overlooking one end of the beach and a view down toward hook head at the other. The Sunsets here in October can be amazing and full of Autumn light 🙂 🙂
There are also pictures here of Molly, our much loved golden retriever, she is sadly no longer with us but she is always remembered and missed for moment like these ones. It was always great fun watching her exploring beaches and the sea, she love swimming so much she would spend hours returning sticks and balls from the water 🙂 🙂
Sand Flesh and Sky, Poem By Clarence Major
Sand Flesh and Sky
By Clarence Major
Our ropes are the roots
of our life. We fish
low in the earth,
the river beneath runs through our veins,
blue and cold in a riverbed.
When the sun comes up,
the moon moves slowly to the left.
I tie the logs and limbs together,
holding them in place.
The ocean beats them
smooth like rock.
Here my sense of time is flat.
I find in a strip of damp sand
footprints and marks of hands,
and torn pieces of flesh.
Night is a beast.
The tide moves, gushing
back and forth.
Sunlight touches our faces,
turning us, turning us, turning us
in our morning sleep.
1976
On The Beach – A Poem by Michael Williams
Beach Photography
Nigel Borrington
On The Beach –
A Poem by Michael Williams
At dawn, bare footed, viewing as far as eyes can reach,
the water’s edge advances and recedes along the beach.
Before me I see a carpet of half-buried shells of sea-creatures,
tide washed and rippled in sodden sand along the beach.
I move, exploring, sodden sand oozing between my toes,
beyond me the wavelets breaking on the sand along the beach.
.
Behind me, my wandering trail is blurred and indistinct,
as the water’s edge advances and recedes along the beach.
At mid-day, on the soft dry sand behind the water’s edge,
undressed worshippers lie in the sun that beats down along the beach.
.
At night, the moon’s reflection at the water’s edge
resembles sea serpents playing in the wavelets along the beach.
St Anne’s Pier, a Sunset beach walk…..
St Anne’s Pier,
St Anne’s-on-the-Sea, Lancashire
Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Well I am back on my Blog following a great Easter holiday, spent visiting much loved family and friends. It was great to see them and to visit some great locations and share some time with, food and drinks and chat.
My Aunt lives near the town of St Anne’s Lancashire, located in the north west of England.
I can remember visiting the town as a kid and one of the most exciting locations was the Pier.
Half way through this last visit I took an evening walk to the Pier and took this series of images.
These days the Pier looks a little less visited than I remember when I was younger but its looking in great condition and it was perfect to see in just as the sunset out at sea…..
St Anne’s Pier, St Anne’s-on-the-Sea, Lancashire, UK
St Anne’s Pier is a Victorian era pleasure pier in the English seaside resort of St Anne’s-on-the-Sea, Lancashire. It lies on the estuary of the River Ribble. The pier, designed by A. Dowson, was completed in 1885 and was one of the earliest public buildings in St Anne’s, a 19th-century planned town. The pier was originally intended to be a sedate promenading venue for the resort’s visitors, but attractions were later added. Changes made to the estuary channels to improve access to Preston Dock left the pier on dry land and ended its steamer services to Blackpool and Liverpool.
A Tudor-style entrance was built in 1899. Early 20th-century additions included a Moorish-style pavilion in 1904 and the Floral Hall in 1910. The Moorish Pavilion was destroyed by fire in 1974, shortly after the town’s centenary; the Floral Hall burned down in 1982. Originally 914 feet (279 m) long, the pier was reduced to 600 feet (180 m) by the demolition of the seaward end. English Heritage has designated the pier a Grade II listed building.
St Anne’s-on-the-Sea is a planned seaside resort on the Fylde coast, at the mouth of the River Ribble, in Lancashire. It was developed in the 19th century, largely by the St Anne’s Land & Building Company. The company was formed in 1874 and leased land for the new town from the estate of the local Clifton family. Towards the end of the 19th century, pleasure piers became a common feature of English seaside resorts, and by the 1870s there were already two piers in nearby Blackpool, one in Southport and one 3.5 miles (5.6 km) away in Lytham. The wording of the land company’s original lease indicates that a pier was probably planned for St Anne’s from its beginning. A subsidiary, the St Anne’s-on-the-Sea Pier and Improvements Company was formed in 1877. The company directors believed that a pier at St Anne’s would offer visitors better conditions for fishing and boating than those at neighbouring resorts.
St Anne’s Pier, a Sunset walk beach walk : Image Gallery
Friday , Beach Photography day. – Taking some Easter down time :)
Irish Beach Photography
County Waterford
Nigel Borrington
Over the next two weeks of the Easter Holidays, I am taking some Offline time, I just want to get the garden ready for the summer,read and walk and maybe visit a beach or two.
I just want to say thanks to everyone for all your great comments and likes here 🙂 🙂 over the months and I look forward to sharing much more of Ireland and reading your great posts when I get back online – have a great holiday period !!!
Friday Is Beach Photography day
Taking a Friday evening trip down to the beach’s along the Waterford coastline is something I love to do in the summer months and I am very much looking forward to doing so again this summer.
I hope to get lots more images to post and share here 🙂
Beach Photography , Friday
Twilight on the Beach : A poem by : Mary Dow Brine
When Twilight falls upon the beach,
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Twilight on the Beach.
By : Mary Dow Brine
The crimson glory of the setting sun
Hath lain a moment on the ocean’s breast,
Till twilight shadows, gathering one by one,
Bring us the tidings, day is gone to rest.
Far out upon the waters, like a veil,
The mists of evening rise and stretch away
Between the horizon and the distant sail,
And earth and sea are clothed in sombre gray.
The tide comes higher up the smooth, wide beach,
Singing the song it has for ages sung;
Recedes, and carries far beyond our reach
The freight my idle hands have seaward flung.
Over the white-capped waves the seagulls soar
With heavy-flapping wing and restless cry,
As darkness spreads its deeper mantle o’er
The changing shadows of the twilight sky.
.
No voice but mine to mingle with the sound
Of ocean’s melody- as one by one
The stars light up the vast concave around,
And live the glory that is never done.
Still higher creeps the tide with subtle power,
And still the waves advance with sullen roar;
But with the last faint gleam of twilight hour
I turn me homeward from the lonely shore.
When the fishing boats go out , Poem and Images, By L. M. Montgomery
When the fishing boats go out.
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
WHEN THE FISHING BOATS GO OUT
By L. M. Montgomery
WHEN the lucent skies of morning flush with dawning rose once more,
And waves of golden glory break adown the sunrise shore,
And o’er the arch of heaven pied films of vapor float.
There’s joyance and there’s freedom when the fishing boats go out.
The wind is blowing freshly up from far, uncharted caves,
And sending sparkling kisses o’er the brows of virgin waves,
While routed dawn-mists shiver–oh, far and fast they flee,
Pierced by the shafts of sunrise athwart the merry sea!
Behind us, fair, light-smitten hills in dappled splendor lie,
Before us the wide ocean runs to meet the limpid sky–
Our hearts are full of poignant life, and care has fled afar
As sweeps the white-winged fishing fleet across the harbor bar.
The sea is calling to us in a blithesome voice and free,
There’s keenest rapture on its breast and boundless liberty!
Each man is master of his craft, its gleaming sails out-blown,
And far behind him on the shore a home he calls his own.
Salt is the breath of ocean slopes and fresher blows the breeze,
And swifter still each bounding keel cuts through the combing seas,
Athwart our masts the shadows of the dipping sea-gulls float,
And all the water-world’s alive when the fishing boats go out.
Solo images, Tide and time
Solo images
Tide and Time : Nigel Borrington
“But now in the dusk the tide is turning, Lower the sea gulls soar, And the waves that rose in resistless yearning Are broken forevermore.”
Image processing using Andriod Tablet Software
Duncannon Beach
Landscape processed with Spadspeed
Nigel Borrington
For almost all of my digital image processing I use a combination of Photoshop or Paintshop-pro and aftershots-pro software, these applications are perfect to getting the best possible quality from you images. However what about times when you want to be a little more creative with your images, processing them in a more artistic fashion and then sending them to your facebook or blog moments after you have taken them.
Last Saturday I visited the coastal town of Duncannon in county Wexford and took some beach images using both a Fujifilm x100 and a Nuxus 7 Andriod Tablet with and used an app that I downloaded sometime back called Snapspeed to process them . This app is well known and used but I had not used it while at a location before, so decided to give it a go !!!
The images here are all processed using some of the filters and packages available in Spanspeed and I was impressed with how they looked after processing.
I think if your a landscape painter who paints raw outside this little app could give you some great ideas as to how you may end up paint the scene in-front of you. I also love the final images, this application is both great fun and also I feel could well be used to produce some great design images.
Snapspeed Gallery
Images of Duncannon beach in the winter Sunlight
Duncannon beach in the sun.
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Duncannon beach , County Wexford
On Saturday I visited the beach at Duncannon, Wexford. The weather was just perfect and it felt very much like the calm after the storm, the weather for most of the week before had been eventful with heavy rain and thick Fog on Thursdays.
Most Irish beaches at this time of year are so peaceful , the summer crowds have all left and you get some great space to yourself. I took these images as I noticed just how low the sun is at this time of year in the late afternoon.
The Sunlight was just amazing on the sand as it created many long and deep shadows.
Images of Duncannon beach in the winter Sunlight
Irish landscape photography : Monday morning sunrise at the beach – a Poem
Monday Morning at the Beach,
Monatray West, Youghal,
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Monday morning at the beach
A Monday morning Sunrise at the Beach
the soft breath of the sea air,
tickles your nose.
You feel the cool morning air,
lightly brushing your cheek.
Soft Sun light
surrounds you in a welcoming hug.
The waves nip at your toes,
you can taste the ocean,
while the moon says goodbye.
Light bursts across the beach,
the sky brightens in a joyful smile.
The clouds disappear,
as the sun dances across the waves.
Monday Poetry : On The Winter Beach
Dookinella, Achill island, County Mayo
The Winter Beach
Irish landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
On The Winter Beach
I walk on the winter beach
from here to there
and beyond where the beach ends
past indifferent sea gulls
over beached kelps
over bleached sea shells
To the sound of crushing waves
to the call of ebbing memories
I walk on the winter beach
I shall go
I must go
alone
beyond where the beach ends
Ballybunion , a view from the cliff
Ballybunion, county Kerry
Irish Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
Ballybunion , county Kerry
Ballybunion in county Kerry is one of Ireland’s most visited sea side locations, it a wonderful little town with a long history of holiday makers visiting here.
It has one very interesting feature that relates to its beach’s, there are two commonly used beaches divided by the reamins of an old castle on the cliff. The beach to the left of the castle (if looking toward the sea) is called the “Men’s Beach”, and the one to the right the “Ladies Beach”, given to the fact that men used to bathe on a separate beach from women and children. Although this practice has not been observed for decades, its amazing to think in this day and age how it even worked or became Normal practice.
Family members having to split-up for a swim.
There is a small cafe, hot seaweed baths and ice cream shop on the women’s beach. The large cliffs to the right of the women’s beach have shallow caves.
The sheer cliffs over the beach have a scenic walking path, featuring a blowhole, views of sea stacks and a multitude of wildlife. The path takes about 20 minutes to walk, and goes round to the “Nun’s Beach”, a beautiful beach with no access these days, it is overlooked by an old convent.
You get an overwhelming feeling of history here from times when traditions and culture was very different than the many visitors today experience.
Ballybunion, is still a place well worth a visit !!
Gallery
My Secret Spot on the Beach, a Poem and images.
Images of an Irish beach
Landscape Photography : Nigel Borrington
My Secret Spot on the Beach
To a few I showed my secret Spot,
To many I reveal it is on The Beach,
In Waterford, still without my help,
none may find, because is called mine,
My hidden Beach Spot
Its open, its free, yet guarded and protected
All can find, all can see, but beyond the vision,
belongs to me, My Secret Spot,
On the Beach, in Waterford…
A friend I call to Show my Paradise,
and share the secret rooted
inside my heart, with all my soul,
My loved Beach spot,
Loved , and so very special to me!
Drift wood on drift wood beach
Two images from driftwood beach
Nikon D700, 18-200mm lens, iso 400
Driftwood beach, north Wales, UK
Landscape Photography by : Nigel Borrington
Nikon D700, 18-200mm lens, iso 400
Driftwood beach, north Wales, UK
Landscape Photography by : Nigel Borrington
Surfing at Bunmahon beach, county waterford
Canon G1x
Surfing at Bunmahon beach, county Waterford
photographer : Nigel Borrington
An evenings walk and one of the best evenings during the summer so far, walking along Bunmahon beach we came across these surfers.
I spent sometime photographing them as they had some great fun in the waves, as did ourselves watching them ….
Kite Flyer – Bunmahon Beach
Nikon D200. 50mm f1.4 lens, iso100
Kite Flyer,Bunmahon Beach, county waterford
Landscape photography by kilkenny based photographer : Nigel Borrington
I first displayed this image as part of a photography exhibition about six years ago, It was taken on a very wet day on the beach and it was a pleasure to work with about five Kite flyers for the day. Keeping the camera dry was a skill I had to learn very quickly…..
Nigel
Nigel Borrington 
Drift wood, shadows on the beach
Shadow’s on the beach
Nigel Borrington
I took this image back in November on a beach walk, I found the shadows from this drift wood very attractive but then wondered what came first the foot prints or the wood ?
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January 13, 2015 | Categories: Comment, Gallery, Landscape | Tags: beach photography, Beach shadows, black and white, Drift wood, Landscape Photography, Nigel Borrington | 2 Comments