Who am I?

A journalist student from Dublin, Ireland. I'm looking to show the world a view through my camera's lens and where I point it. You may even learn something about photography along the way! Weekly blog posts about my adventures.

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Just Outside Dublin's Fair City


Dear reader,
This is my spot with an amazing view of Dublin! In the picture above I was basically sitting in my usual spot and this is one of the single most incredible views of Dublin City I can find in a nice quiet place. That was until I was rudely interrupted by a tour guide and a group of American people learning all about the history of DeerPark and the National Transport Museum just below us. Which I'll be honest, was helpful and he was talking about how you can take boat travels out to Ireland's Eye and Lambay Island (Pictured below). 

Near the bottom left of this photo you can see the National Transport Museum in the form of what used to be DeerPark Castle (Add Historic Mumbo Jumbo of what the tour guide was saying). The first and closer Island is Ireland's Eye and a little further out is Lambay. Both easily accessible by boat from Howth Harbour which is pictured below. 


Ok I'll be honest, this photo is a little edited! I put it in Lightroom and added the 'Old Style' filter just to see what would happen and wow! Any way, this week I used my Canon 1000D and had it on 4000/1 of a second shutter speed because the sun was shining and there was little clouds out to ruin the photos. These first three photos were also taken at about 50mm on my 17mm - 75mm lens which is a wide angle lens that I use for scenic pictures such as these. If I want to get a closer look at Dublin City or what ever may be a bit further away from me that I would like to focus on, I use my 75mm - 300mm lens. The picture below was taken on the 75-300mm lens with a lens cap on to keep away the sun rays and try get a closer view of what Dublin looks like from about 15km - 20km away. 

Again, this picture was LightRoom friendly and I had to bring the DPI (Dots Per Inch) up so that the picture could actually be seen and not a mess. Being at my spot a little later then I had hoped, the sun was beginning to set so this is Dublin at about 9 o'clock at night.

When I first got up the hill and had a drink of water from all the steps and rock scaling I had to do, I got to the top of the hill and this was the view I was greeted with. So I very quickly took out my camera and made sure I shot it. I was a little nervous on the way up too because it had started raining a little bit before I left Dublin on the bus but I was very glad to see it totally gone by the time I got to Howth.


Just take a minute and take this picture in and tell me what you think! @AndyIWaller on Twitter by the by!




Lastly, this Sunday just gone I got to run the game in one of the youth clubs I help at. With the help of these two amazing people, Nathan and Martha, we came up with our very own version of Quidditch which went down a treat and I am so glad to have their help! Thanks guys and here's your shout out! I didn't take these because I'm in them! Mr Mark Murray (my intern!) did. I'm not posting your sly selfie Mark!



Thanks for reading another one of my favourite places in the world. More pictures through my eyes and even some of what I get up to during the week. If you have any ideas or suggestions for future posts please contact me on Twitter as mentioned above.

Andy.




Wednesday 3 June 2015

A place to get away!

 Dear Reader,

My name is Andy Waller and this is my first ever blog! I study journalism in Rathmines and want to be a radio journalist some day when I'm a grown up.

For the moment though I want to talk about one of my other favorite hobbies, which in the last two years or so, I have over-looked quite a lot, photography.

It all started in secondary school when my dad gave me his old Asahi Pentax camera, which is a beautiful film camera which I didn't know how to use. I found out the hard way that you couldn't just point and shoot with this camera, it was all about light settings, shutter speeds, where the sun was at different parts of the day and even if I hadn't got steady hands and I needed a tripod.

After getting back a few ruined film roles from pharmacies, I decided that I would never ruin another role of film and I would actually learn to use the camera properly. I then went to college for the first time to study computer science and joined the Photo Soc (Photography Society) almost straight away to try and learn more about cameras and how to get the most out of them. At the end of my second year there I had bought a Canon 1000D for myself as a starter camera with a fixed 50mm lens (Wide Angle) and started learning about lenses and what they can do.


After a few trips out to places with the Photo Soc, I had started to get the hang of this new camera and started falling in love with the art of photography. I then won photographer of the year for the society and finished college.

After taking a year out of college to do an internship and think about what was next for myself in life, I decided to do a photography course in Sallynoggin (yes that is as far away as it sounds) to try and learn more about getting the right picture at the right time and how to do about that, rather then just pointing and clicking.

I got to go in and learn how to use a dark room and develop and print my own pictures from the Asahi. This meant getting the lighting right at the shot and not having Photoshop to fall back on if something went wrong. I started to learn all about the different chemicals used, the paper used and what not to do if you drop a scissors in the dark room when stuck in there with a lecturer and the film was out and any light would have destroyed everything on it.

After making mistakes with some shots, I started to get to grips with the art and started wanting to just go out and keep shooting.

So that is how the idea of this blog came about. This will be a space where I share my weekly adventures with my Canon and talk about the photographs, why they mean so much to me and how/or why I took them. You may even learn something.

The three shots I have this week come from my quiet place which is one of the piers at Dun Laghoire. It's the quiet pier and most of the time I get a nice place to just sit and think without distractions. Sometimes a jogger will run by or the pier police will take their dogs for a walk (I always get nervous when they pull up in their jeep for some reason and then two little dogs jump out!)

With these pictures however I may have cheated just a little. I didn't have my camera with me so I decided to just use my IPhone because I knew I  had a busy weekend ahead of me and I couldn't carry my camera around. Next week I'll be showing you another beautiful place I go to get away and think and trust me, this is a beautiful spot! None of my posts will be Photoshopped (mainly because I don't own Photoshop).

So come back next week and see the world through my eyes! (love clichés)

Andy.