The Author – Bart Busschots
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Jun
8
Photo of the Week 16 – St. Patrick’s College by Night
Filed Under Photography on June 8, 2008 | 2 Comments
Just after sunset there is a window of an hour or so where the sky turns a deep blue on long exposure photographs. Unsurprisingly you’ll hear it referred to as the blue hour by some photographers. This shot was taken during the blue hour and shows the most famous building on the St. Patrick’s College campus in Maynooth. This is St. Patrick’s House as seen from St. Joseph’s Square. The twin towers over the front door are used as the logo for St. Patrick’s College.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1.6 sec (using tripod)
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: F3.5
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
[tags]Photography, Maynooth, Ireland, Kilare, St. Patrick’s College, night[/tags]
Jun
2
Photo of the Week 15 – Wild Cherry Blossom
Filed Under Photography on June 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment
something I’ve come to realise over the last few months is that a little cropping can make a huge difference. In particular I find that I love working with square crops. This is an example of a square crop I really love. It’s a shot of a little cluster of Cherry Blossoms on a wild Cherry tree near my parent’s house.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/1600 sec
- Focal Length: 55mm
- Focal Ratio: F5.6
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
[tags]Photography, Cavan, Ireland, Cherry, Wild Cherry, blossom, flower[/tags]
May
25
Photo of the Week 14 – The Moon Over the Gunne Chapel
Filed Under Photography on May 25, 2008 | 3 Comments
I took this shot back in December last year as the sun was setting after work. This shot was taken as a very special time of the day, when you can expose both the landscape and the Moon correctly in a single exposure.
The shot shows the Moon over the Gunne Chapel (AKA the College Chapel) on the campus of St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland. This campus is also shared with NUI Maynooth.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/200 sec
- Focal Length: 45mm
- Focal Ratio: F5.6
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
[tags]Photography, Maynooth, Ireland, Moon, church, spire[/tags]
May
19
Photo of the Week 13 – A Horse Chestnut Blossom
Filed Under Photography on May 19, 2008 | 1 Comment
This week’s photo of the week is a little special in that it co-incides with my camera’s first birthday. Well, rather with the first anniversary of the day it arrived.
Anyhow, last week’s photo of the week served as an example of how some of your best shots come from pure chance. You see an opportunity and you shoot, no planning, no preparation just a spur of the moment capture. This week’s photo of the week is pretty much the complete opposite. This is the culmination of an extended effort to capture the beauty of the flower spikes of the Horse Chestnut tree.
These flowers proved hard to capture well because of their subtle detail and dazzling white colour. They are mostly white but the centre of each flower is either pink or yellow and you get both colours within the one flowering stalk. There is also a veritable sea of stamens sticking out at all angles which must be captured too.
I tried quite a few different approaches until I finally got this shot last Thursday. It captures all the details of the flowers as well as the wonderfully majestic leaves. You should look at the larger version to really see the detail in the flowers.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again!
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm
- Exposure: 1/1250 sec
- Focal Length: 200mm
- Focal Ratio: F8
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: -0.67
[tags]Photography, Maynooth, Ireland, Horse Chestnut, tree, flower[/tags]
May
10
Photo of the Week 12 – Autumn in Maynooth Castle
Filed Under Photography on May 10, 2008 | 1 Comment
This is a shot I came across by complete accident when having my lunch outside with a friend. I’m not even sure why I had my camera with me but I did. This shot was taken with a zoom lens from the back of The Mill Shopping Centre in Maynooth and looks through the grounds of Maynooth Castle up towards the front gate.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/50 sec
- Focal Length: 55mm
- Focal Ratio: F8
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Auto
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
[tags]Photography, Maynooth, Ireland, Castle, Autumn[/tags]
May
4
Photo of the Week 11 – A Lunar Reflection
Filed Under Photography on May 4, 2008 | 2 Comments
Although planning and preparation are very important in photography, some of the best shots are still happy coincidences. This is the perfect example of such a shot. I thought I’d figured out the exact shot I wanted so I was making my way to the spot I’d chosen very carefully when I glint of reflected moonlight hit my eye. I stopped my bike immediately and managed to get this shot after a few attempts.
I took this shot not long after sunset on an evening early last month from the edge of the playing fields on the campus of St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 6 Sec
- Focal Length: 28mm
- Focal Ratio: F4.2
- ISO: 800
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
[tags]Maynooth, Ireland, Moon, Reflection[/tags]
Apr
29
Photo of the Week 10 – A Spanish Mountain View
Filed Under Photography on April 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Like my Photo of the Week 3 (El Castell de Guadalest) this shot was taken way back in 2000 with the old Olympus OM-1 I inherited from my parents. In fact, this shot is taken just a few meters from where the last one was but looking in the exact opposite direction. I have no idea why I like this shot so much but I just do. There’s something about it that I really love.
Since good old fashioned 35mm film doesn’t store EXIF data I can’t give any technical specs for this shot.
[tags]Spain, El Castell de Guadalest[/tags]
Apr
20
Photo of the Week 9 – The Light of Christ
Filed Under Photography on April 20, 2008 | 10 Comments
No, I haven’t had some sort of epiphany, I’m still every bit as agnostic as ever, however, I think the title fits the photograph perfectly. I took this image months ago but was never quite happy with it until yesterday. So what’s changed? I converted the image to partially black & white using the technique I described yesterday. I had a hunch this image would work well partially mono-chormoed but my jaw still dropped when I saw the result. It went from a picture with promise to one of my very favourite photos.
The image is of one of the stained glass windows on the back of the Gunne Chapel on the campus of St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland. I took it shortly before Christmas last year.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Sigma EX 30mm 1:1.4 DC HSM
- Exposure: 1/15 Sec
- Focal Length: 30mm
- Focal Ratio: F1.4
- ISO: 800
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: -1.0
- Post Processing: Partially converted to black & white with the GIMP.
Updated (21 April 2008): At the request of Paul in the comments I’ve tilt-shifted this shot too. Personally I’m not over-joyed with the results. You can find the tilt-shifted version here.
[tags]Photography, partial black & white, stained glass, Maynooth, Ireland[/tags]
Apr
13
Photo of the Week 8 – Where Dark & Light Collide
Filed Under Photography on April 13, 2008 | 3 Comments
I shot this photo a few weeks ago near Maynooth when the sky was particularly dramatic looking. On the one hand you have lovely fluffy white clouds and on the other you had huge and threatening looking black clouds. I took quite a few shots that day which you can see in my gallery but this is my favourite one. It shows the interface between the dark and the light clouds and I really like the way the curve in the road is mirrored by the curve in the dark cloud.
For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/125 Sec
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: F14
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
[tags]Ireland, Maynooth, Clouds, Road[/tags]
Apr
6
Photo of the Week 6 and 7 – The Last Gate
Filed Under Photography on April 6, 2008 | 2 Comments
Having missed last week I’ve decided to release a double photo of the week this week. Both of these images are tone mapped HDR shots and both are of the entrance to the College grave yard in St. Patrick’s College Maynooth in Ireland. The entrance is simply breath-taking. There is a long and very high avenue created by two rows of Yew trees that have been meshed together to form a high and wide tunnel that leads up to the gate to the cemetery. The gate itself is made of beautiful carved stone with a statue of the Virgin Mary above the entrance. There is also a large high-cross directly in line with the gate in the very centre of the cemetery.
The first image was taken from the start of the avenue of Yew trees looking down towards the gate to the cemetery. The second image shows the gate with the high cross framed in the entrance.
