Outdoor Discoveries

A time for adding photos

The greyness of the weekend did nothing to shift my inclination to stay put at home. To be honest, I was in that mood anyway and I could have made something of yesterday and today if I was so determined. January hasn’t had a bad start and I did get in some lunchtime walking this past week and my surroundings looked ever so enticing with that dusting of snow that was gifted to us earlier in the week. The weather over the Christmas wasn’t so unkind to us either, even if it did require us to wrap up warm when going out of doors. I was in Ireland for that and got some short walks too, even if that meant tarmac bashing for most of the time. Some sunshine was visited upon us when the grey gloom wasn’t about and we ended up on the Dingle Peninsula for a few hours. That meant that a number of photos were made in the late afternoon sunshine and some of these have found their way into the Kerry section of the photo gallery. There are some photos taken on a brief visit to Dublin’s Phoenix Park before Christmas that are candidates for addition too once I decide which ones make the cut. Thinking back over 2008, I think that it has one of the better years when it comes to my taking good photos in the land of my birth. For now, I can only hope that 2009 brings more of the same.

Straight into the gallery

A visit to family in Ireland last month allowed me a day trip to the beauty spot that is Gougane Barra; somewhere to which I have devoted a previous post on here. That also followed a day trip there when the skies remained resolutely grey with any photos not being the type of thing that I’d share on here. In fact, it seems that many of my trips to Gougane over the years have been on cloudy days. My most recent outing looked as if it might have been the same, with the forecast predicting a rain band moving south over Ireland. In the event, we managed to see Gougane under blue skies with the sun making it out from behind any clouds to make photography a more than worthwhile pursuit. The result is that I have some pleasing photos from my excursion and these have now made their way into the West Cork section of the photo gallery and I have taken the chance to freshen up some existing ones too.

The addition of new photos has not been the sole change to that online photo gallery. Some work has gone into simplifying navigation and enhancing the search facility. Behind the scenes, the wonders of ImageMagick (it’s a neat command line tool, but that probably makes it best for technophiles) have been such that the process of adding new photos is now more streamlined than it ever was. Even so, the need for devoting some attention to each individual photo doesn’t go away and that is regardless of whether it was made on film or digitally. Nevertheless, any time saved might make me add new photos to the gallery on a more regular basis than has been the case in recent times. After all, there’s a potential new section for the Western Isles on the horizon and more photos from other outings to be shared.

More Pennine Way photos

I took my chance while I was at home this weekend to add new photos to the Pennine Way gallery, filling in some of the outstanding gaps. I was planning to head out and about, but other things derailed my plans and the largely cloudy skies didn’t coax me out today though yesterday’s sights of the hills from my house were a delight until a large bank of cloud wandered in at around 4pm.

So, it was time for more vistas from the South Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales to make their online debut. Photography amid Yorkshire’s limestone country is a far easier pursuit than the moorland of the South Pennines; focal points present themselves more regularly in the former while a spot of thought is needed with the latter. That very much became apparent on my view of photographs that I had taken. Having a camera while hill walking does tempt one to pursue drive by photography; I know that it’s not the best type and it definitely doesn’t work with moorland. Maybe, a specific photographic mission with a tripod in tow is what’s needed so that there can be lots of walking around looking for decent compositions. The latter is best done out of view of busybodies lest anyone gets the wrong impression…

End of a trail, start of a gallery

Because I had until this year only walked the West Highland Way north of Bridge of Orchy, I had the photos from the corresponding treks bundled with those from Lochaber. Following my establishment of a Pennine Way gallery and my walking the rest of the WHW, it was time to split the previous Lochaber gallery in two and recognise that some photos that were included there really belonged under the Argyll umbrella. So, I now have two sections in the gallery, one for a circuit of Lochaber and another for the WHW. The WHW one is still awaiting more photos and some that are already included may need a spot of sympathetic retouching so the WHW show really is only starting. And knowing me, I may even encounter the WHW again and again so you never know what’ll turn up yet.

Pennine Way gallery added

Despite the fact that I haven’t done all the photo processing yet, I have created a Pennine Way section to my photo gallery as promised. Photo selection was a little tricky because of the nature of the countryside frequented by the Way: not only is featureless moorland a navigational challenge but it is also a photographic one. The lack of any focal point makes for dull photos, so effort is required. Still, I hope that you enjoy the photos. This gallery is a work in progress, very much like the completion of the long-distance trail itself.