Blue is never more blue than it is when paired with orange. And the orange is never bluer than when eaten on a cloud in the sky. Jarod Kintz It started from the first view of the Montbretia filled hedgerows along the Dingle Peninsula, now orange is everywhere..... Opposite . . .
Those dark elements
You are on your knees in a lavender patch, following the music of bees. In the distance a harvester is droning, and the evening sun highlights wings and petals. You are obsessing about the need for a soft bed and a warm hearth as the autumn sets in; for a safe place to pause, for a warm . . .
The freedom to imagine
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. Albert Einstein Sometimes he is Link, a character from The Legend of Zelda, other times he is Oisin (pronounced Ush-een). Sometimes I'm an outgoing professional, other times I'm a burrowing, childlike, introvert. While we are working together, or perhaps playing . . .
Grounded by light and shade
These days I am using a fixed lens (no zooming) and resisting any kind of cropping or editing. This means that when capturing an image you have to be scrupulous about the composition. What you snap is what you get, an "in the moment" photo. It's good discipline for the eye, and does away with the need for post processing, . . .
Up all night at the Martello Tower : 20.8.15
“The sea, the snotgreen sea, the scrotumtightening sea.” ― James Joyce, Ulysses We spent one night only, camping near the Martello Tower in Sandycove, Dublin. It features in the opening chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses, so they say. All night long they came and went, up and down the walkway from Sandycove to the 40 Foot (famous . . .
Open heart, cold sea
I checked the sea temperature today. Not much more than 13/14 degrees centigrade anywhere in Ireland. This year the cold sea water was harder to bear. By the time we arrive in Kerry our friends are already a couple of weeks into the rhythm of twice daily swims. They glow from endorphins, icy water and warm wine. . . .
A way of life
Clarissa Pinkola Estes posted a letter for her many fans last week. Her book Women who run with the wolves took 20 years and 42 rejection letters to find publication and become one of my all time inspirational books. In the letter she said.... "Stories are medicine. Medicine for the world. Heavy medicine carried . . .
Drifting and dreaming
The world blurs slightly and the living planet intensifies it's presence. Something draws the light and the focus. It enters the ear first, a buzzing maybe or a beating of wings. A scattering of dragonflies flutter across my closed eyelids. One of them, so self absorbed, hitches a ride on a floating leaf, and both of us . . .
The wildest thing
"Ten times a day something happens to me like this - some strengthening throb of amazement - some good sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness." Mary Oliver See more images from my wild garden and from Ireland's lush . . .
Strawberries and the object of his desire
He is not a popular visitor for most soft fruit growers. As always the debt of gratitude I owe to my only photographic models outweighs the loss of any blackcurrants or strawberries that may have taken place during this shoot. I adore working with him, and surely he knows it. Sometimes he just lands on this rock to show . . .
