Kilkenny Landscape Photography : The Simple things – A line of trees.
Kilkenny Landscape Photography
Nigel Borrington
Most of the time when I am out taking Landscape pictures, its the simple things that catch my attention, like this simple line of trees at one end of a large woodland, set in the hills above Windgap, county Kilkenny.
When trees are young like these ones they are planted very close together. later this area will be thinned out and half these trees will be cut down so that there is space for the best trees to develop and grow, the cut trees will be sold as firewood so it is not wasted.
There are so many things we just don’t notice, I think this is one thing I love most about doing about Landscape photography, it makes you look at and see things so often lost in the bigger picture of daily life.
Sundays on the hill
Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8g lens
Ballykeeffe Wood and Nature Reserve, County Kilkenny
Irish landscape photography : Nigel Borrington
Sunday’s are a great time to get outside and do some walking, so why not find a woodland walk and a place with a view.
Sit down stay for a while and relax….
Coolagh old church, county kilkenny
Nikon D200, 35mm focus length, iso 200
The old church at coolagh
Kilkenny photographer : nigel borrington
When we first came to live in Kilkenny back in 2003, we lived right next to these old church ruins at coolagh county kilkenny. Early each morning I would walk our then 6 month old golden retriever puppy, molly into the fields and up-to this spring below the tree.
These old church remains date back from around (1171-72) being constructed by the Anglo-Normans. The old church on coolaghmore hill, was replaced with a new church in about 1880. These old remains of the original church have stood unused ever since.
The wonderful Kilkenny landscape.
Kilkenny photography
Coolagh fields, Co.kilkenny :Nigel Borrington
Taken at Kyle, Coolagh, Co.Kilkenny one early September morning while on a walk through some local fields.
Shot in black and white as I very much liked the tones being produced my this early foggy mornings light.
Kilkenny photographer : Nigel Borrington
Over exposure
Brandon Hill Kilkenny, highkey Image : Nigel Borrington
Brandon Hill Kilkenny is some 515m in hight and offers great views of north east Kilkenny.
This image just like the last one from Brandon hill, was taken in order to experiment with creating an image with as much detail removed as possible. This time however I am using over exposure in order to create a high key image. High key is the introduction of as much bright light into the images as possible thus removing unwanted details.
In pure terms this is overexposure, but used with an effect in mind, In this image its to remove any of the landscape detail behind the trees from about halfway up the image. This helps to make the trees the main feature in this photograph.
I am happy to a point with this image and the effect is interesting, I am going to keep working on compositions that better match. I think if the trees could be placed alone the horizon next time it would be an improvement.
An evening walk – Ballykeefe, Kilkenny
An Evening Walk In ballykeefe Woods
I finished working on some archiving photography about 4:30pm today, so took Molly for a Walk In Ballykeefe woods. What a great day for sunny autumn weather.
An evening walk with Molly, ballykeefe KIlkenny
Kilkenny photographer, Nigel Borrington
Castlecomer discovery park – Co Kilkenny
castlecomer Discovery park, woodland walks and fishing lakes
Explore Woodlands & Lake fishing in Castlecomer
Castlecomer Discovery Park grounds consist of 30 hectares (80 acres) of mixed woodland on the banks of the River Deen which were once part of the old Wandesforde Estate.
There are 6km of themed woodland walks centred on our two rainbow trout angling lakes.
The three main walking routes are colour coded and signposted and there are also a number of interconnecting paths.
The woodlands also play host to a number of wooden sculptures.
These were created on-site in September 1999 by a number of Irish and International artists working with the natural materials of the area.
Castlecomer Discovery park, Sculpture - Nigel Borrington
Twelve sculptures were created within the woodland, designed to blend in with and complement their surroundings and five of these now remain. They can be found scattered throughout the woodlands.
A stone sculpture located in the parkland beside the river is a replica of a culm grinder, which would have been used to grind coal dust to a fine powder.
Picnic tables are located in the parkland by the river’s edge close to the car park and children’s playground and there are also a number of more secluded picnic spots located along the woodland walks
Ref : Castlecomer Discovery park
Kilkenny landscape photography by, Kilkenny photographer : Nigel Borrington
Coolagh
Coolagh Kilkenny, Nigel Borrington
This image was taken early on an October morning last year, this time of day on foggy morning can produce some fantastic light!
Kilkenny Landscape images by, Kilkenny photographer : Nigel Borrington
The Killamery High Cross.
Killamery Highcross, Killamery Co.Kilkenny
An Infra-red photograph of the Kilamery grave yard,High cross and old church.
21st June 2011.
Killamery – High Cross
“Situated in an old graveyard in Kilkenny is the High Cross of Killamery one of the western Ossory group of crosses. The cross stands at 3.65 metres high and the west face of the cross bears most of the figure sculpture. The east face pictured right, is decorated with three marigolds on the shaft and has a boss in the centre of the head surrounded by intertwining serpents with an open mouthed dragon above the boss. The cross is known as the Snake-Dragon cross. The cross has a gabled cap-stone and the narrow sides have double mouldings. At the end of the southern arm of the cross there is a panel depicting Noah in the Ark and the end of the northern arm features four scenes centered around John the Baptist. There is also a worn inscription on the base of the western side of the cross which is said to read as ‘OR DO MAELSECHNAILL’ a prayer for Maelsechnaill. Maelsechnaill was the High King of Ireland from 846 to 862.”
The symbol that I find most interesting is that of the sun at the centre of the cross “The sun of God” or the “Sun of the Zodiac”. This sun symbol has five or six arms rotating from its centre, age has made it hard to tell. Five reach the outer edge of the suns circle, the big question though is its placement at the centre of the cross.
I will return after more reading.
Kilkenny landscape photography series, by Kilkenny photographer : Nigel Borrington
Infrared photography, The bridge over the kings river, kells, Co Kilkenny
Infrared Photography, The bridge over the kings river
An infrared shot of the bridge that crosses the kings river at kells, Co.Kilkenny. This images is taken using a camera on a tripod that has an infrared (IR) filter over the lens.
Because these filters block anything but light in the infrared wave length, composing the shot is performed with the filter removed and then put in place, you cannot see anything through the viewfinder with the filter attached. Focusing the shot is not made simple as the focus point of IR light is not the same as visible light so focusing after you attach the filter will not work.
Older lenses such as Nikon Nikkor AIS lenses had a red (R) marking on them so that you could see the focus point for IR light at any given focus length of the lens, if the lens was a zoom lens the marking changed as you moved the zoom position. I still have some AIS lenses so they get used for this purpose.
Another option for IR photography is to purchase a digital camera converted to photograph only IR light, focusing however will still be down to you. The use of a small lens aperture such as f22 will help with focus errors but you must remember to lengthen your exposure time, yes the cameras exposure meter will not work on IR light so you’re into full manual mode.
Because IR light levels are very low you will need to use both a tripod and a slow shutter speed in order to get a sharp and well exposed shot. The use of software such as photoshop is not needed if you can get the correct exposure directly from the camera. One thing that will become clear is that in a colour exposure only red light is recorded, so if you intend to print directly to your printer then change your camera setting to black and white or set your printer for a monotone print.
This type of photography is great fun and can produce some great results, such as the water in this image. It took some 8 seconds to get the correct exposure so the water movement has merged to produce a mirror like effect.
The feeling you get must be the closest thing to the original feeling that Landscape photographers had when they set-up very large format cameras in the field.
Nigel Borrington 
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