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A solitary boat in the North Harbour, Cape Clear Island.

PS. Check out Jolt++, a new photoblog created by fellow Automatticer Michael Pick. Great photos, and I really like the Tumble theme. I wonder how I’d squeeze my adverts into such a theme?
PPS. My brother Donal was featured on the envelope of the first issue of new Irish stamps commemorating Irish pipers. If the day job ever fails, you can always try your hand at modelling!
PPPS. Server was down for several hours, sorry. VPS was upgraded to “Xen” and failed to reboot. I didn’t realise I could reboot it until a few minutes ago..

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Tags: boats, Canon 40D, Cape Clear, Cork, Cork Photos, harbour, Ireland, Irish photos, irishblogs, Oilean Chleire, Photography, Photos, reflection, Sea, Sigma 18-200, Water

Kinsale Co. Cork, last July.

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Tags: Black and White, boats, Candid, Cork, Cork Photos, harbour, Irish photos, Kinsale, People, photographym canon 20d, Photos, reland, Sea, Sigma 18-200, Water

Lifeboats are dotted around the The Queen Elizabeth 2. They’re high up above some of the lower decks as far as I can remember and there are plenty of them. Hopefully won’t ever be needed.

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Tags: boats, Canon 40D, Cobh, Cork, Cork Photos, Ireland, Irish photos, irishblogs, lifeboats, Look up, Photography, Photos, QE2, Queen Elizabeth 2, ship, Sigma 18-200

The remains of a boat lie in the water by Dunboy Castle in Co Cork, Ireland. We were there last March, only days before 3 young men were killed when their car went into the water.

As you may know, I’m in Colorado along with most of Automattic. You can check out photos taken by me and my colleagues. It’s a beautiful area, but the thin air at such a high altitude is playing havoc with my body: breathlessness, a racing heart while lying down, sinuses out of whack, the after effects of 3 drinks feels like a heavy night of boozing.

Budget Day today in Ireland. If I don’t catch the RTE coverage of it live I’ll watch Twitter and check the headlines after.

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Tags: Boat, Canon 20D, Cork, Cork Photos, Dunboy Castle, holiday, Ireland, Irish photos, irishblogs, lake, Photography, Photos, Sigma 18-200, vacation, Water

The funnel of the Queen Elizabeth 2 looms over Cobh as seen from near the Commodore Hotel.

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Tags: Black and White, Canon 40D, Cobh, Cork, Cork Photos, Ireland, Irish photos, irishblogs, Look up, People, Photography, Photos, QE2, Queen Elizabeth 2, Sigma 18-200, Sky, Street, Water

The QE2 docked in Cobh last Thursday. This was shot at the bottom of steps down to the water where seaweed made footing precarious. I saw a few people venture down the steps but none went further than half way down. The tide was well out so I was maybe 3m below the quayside, standing in wet and slippery seaweed. The risks I take to get a photo!

Oh yeah, there’s already something gone bust in my new Canon 40D. The pop up flash refuses to pop up unless I prise it open with a fingernail. It tries a few times, gives up and issues an Error 99 and needs to be switched off and on. The same happened to my Canon 20D, but I’m surprised the 40D didn’t last a bit longer ..

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Tags: Canon 10-22, Canon 40D, Cobh, Cork, Cork Harbour, Cork Photos, Ireland, Irish photos, irishblogs, QE2, Queen Elizabeth 2, Sea, ships, Water

Luxury cruise ship Queen Elizabeth 2 tied up at the quayside in Cobh, Co Cork last Thursday. This was moments before she cast off. You can see a tug in the background of this image.

It was bitterly cold down on the quay, but we were lucky that the evening sun cast a lovely golden glow over everything.

PS. some photography links: The Right Frame of Mind, Design Star, Join a stock photog on a photoshoot.

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Tags: Canon 40D, Cork, Cork Photos, evening, golden hour, Ireland, Irish photos, irishblogs, Photography, Photos, QE2, Queen Elizabeth 2, ship, Sigma 18-200, Signs, Sky, Sun

The Queen Elizabeth 2 is a British ship, and it’s likely that many of the passengers were British too. I spotted one large Union Jack flag draped over a railing and people on the ship waved mini Union Jack flags too. That sort of gets under the skin of many Irish people.

A huge crowd had gathered on the quayside at Cobh. A band was playing and people cheered and waved as the ship departed. The atmosphere was great but when the Irish Tricolour appeared on the roof of the ship, being waved by a young man, the crowd let out a huge cheer, and whistled and clapped in appreciation.
They were still waving the Irish flag as the ship left the harbour. I spotted them after she turned!

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Tags: boats, Candid, Canon 40D, Cobh, Cork, Cork Photos, Ireland, Irish photos, Irish Tricolour, Irish-flag, irishblogs, People, QE2, Queen Elizabeth 2, Sigma 18-200

The Queen Elizabeth 2, or QE2, flagship of the Cunard Line, docked for the last time in Cobh yesterday and left this evening just after 6pm. Here she is after turning in Cork Harbour and seconds before she increased speed and left the harbour for good.

In 2009, she will become a floating hotel in Dubai. A fitting ending for a luxury ship that has plied the waters of the world for the last 39 years.

I took over 300 shots of the Queen Elizabeth 2 today and filled almost 4GB of space with RAW images. In hindsight, many of the images would have been fine as Jpeg files but I had the space, so I used it. I hope to upload a gallery of my favourite images tomorrow.

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Tags: boats, Canon 40D, Cobh, Cork, Cork Photos, cruise liner, Cunard, Ireland, Irish photos, irishblogs, QE2, Queen Elizabeth 2, Sea, ship, Sigma 18-200, Vehicles, Water

Cape Clear Island, or Oilean Chleire, is only 3 miles long and 1 mile wide, but it’s only 40 minutes by ferry to the mainland so it’s fairly easy to bring out vehicles. In fact, I saw many more cars on the island than I did on my last trip.

As you may have guessed by the photo above, once the cars get here, they really don’t go anywhere else, and many of them are in a bad state of repair. On a previous trip, my father and I were driven up a very steep hill above the harbour in a multicoloured VW Beetle that was literally falling apart with rust. I’ll post a photo of the hill in a few days.

There also isn’t a police force on the island. I don’t think cars here are insured or taxed and you can forget the NCT ..

Apart from the two taxi vans sitting on the quay when we arrived, the newest car was a 1999 model. The oldest was a 1986 Renault. The taxis were had 2004 reg plates and in good condition.

I’d love to how or why the van in the far background got to the Island. It looks abandoned now.

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Tags: Black and White, boats, Canon 40D, Cape Clear, cars, Cork, Ireland, irishblogs, Oilean Chleire, Photography, Photos, pier, quay, Sigma 18-200, Vehicles, Water