I can has your milkz?

Anna Braine

Quick post on phone from hospital. Anna Elizabeth Braine was born today at 4.44pm. Both girls are fine and we're all over the moon. See flickr photo in sidebar.

Update: Some proper photos here:

Some more on Flickr:

PhotoWow!

Wowsers! This is one of the most amazing photos I've ever seen. I know no more about it but it appears to be a wasp-like creature glistening with dew. Look at those eyes, nature multiplied by nature.

Spotted at www.likecool.com.

Some great photos by a Great uncle

My Great Uncle, Harry Braine, set up the Dublin Camera club in 1945. Apparently he spent some time in the Tower of London having been arrested as a spy for being found with photos that were used to plan attacks with the bouncing bomb, or something like that. I say apparently as male members of my family have been know to talk a lot of shit, not least of all the oul lad, also named Harry Braine. Although his shit-talking is more fondly remembered.

Apparently, he also had one of the first cars in Dublin and he also invented the car battery, or at least a part of it. Although I have seen photos that give the latter some credence, and there's no doubting that he was a prominent member of the Photographic Society of Ireland. According to the History of the Dublin Camera Club (pdf), club meetings were sometimes held in his Drumcondra garage and he won many awards. The Bathers, above, is available to buy for a mere €300.00, maybe I'll buy it some day. But it's on a long list of currently unaffordable luxuries, and having my tattoo removed is top of the list.

Here are some other great shots he took. Some backstage photos from Dublin theater back in the day. Found at www.news4.ie

John Harry Braine.

P.S. Speaking of photography, here's a fascinating project:

  This exhibition features people whose lives are coming to an end. It explores the experiences, hopes and fears of the terminally ill. All of them agreed to be photographed shortly before and immediately after death.

Dundalk Ice Dome

Ice skating is one of the rare physical activities I find myself enjoying but was restricted to doing once a year, and while listening to Jingle Bell Rock. I considered roller blades for about 1/2 a second but even thinking about it made me feel like a nipple. So we were looking for something to do at the weekend and came across the Dundalk Ice Dome. Took a motorway hour to get there but it's something else (for an ice rink). It's a full-on ice hockey stadium with a huge rink and there weren't that many people there at all.

And in other weekend photos:

Irish Wolfhound

Mini me Zoolander

Piclens

Here's a great plug-in for your browser. It's called Piclens, installs in the blink of an eye and works great. It's a photo browser for sites like flickr, Picasa, and facebook. Searching through Google images is no longer a chore. Jesus I sound like I'm straight out of an Ad - it's just really handy. Below is a video of me looking around Gingerpixel's Flickr photos, although the crap quality doesn't really show off how good it looks, you can kind of see how easy it is to use.

There's a better post at davidbehan.com, and here's the actual plug-in page.

Rhinos

Rhinos01, originally uploaded by jbraine.

John Williams makes it look so easy.

Black Alcatraz

I really like this photo. It's almost illusionary. Looks like its printed on a block of metal or something. Or some layered photoshopping was involed, but nope, that's exactly how it came off my phone. It's from the inside of Alcatraz pointing out a small window to San Francisco (I still haven't got around to writing about Alcatraz - here's a summary: best tourist attraction ever!).

It looks much better surrounded by lots of black.

Don't go out on the Moors!

If you think Sandyford Industrial estate is bad, try Airside Business Park in Swords. There's nothing out here at all. There's only one wee bit of eye candy that shines out of the nothingness - the surrounding land untouched by human hands. I love that kind of rough rugged land that you don't usually see beside a workplace, specially when its foggy. Just wish I had a better camera phone.

Fake model photos

Had a bit of Photoshop fun making holiday snaps look like model towns. Here's two of the better ones:

Worked well on Nerja. Looks more like Lego land. Large version. Original image.

A riverside in Stockholm looks like a Guinea pig is about to arrive on a boat. Large version. Original image.

There are some great one's on the Tilt-shift miniature fakes Flickr group. Here's a video featuring the original Tilt-Shift photographic technique.

Wedding Photos

Two and a half years later I've finally rooted out all our wedding photos and stuck them on Flickr. Full collection is here.

Bride to be

Fi in the Rolls while I was on the LUAS!

The ring bearer

"You're my wife now!"

Let the festival begin!

Ballybeg House

Entering marquee

Inside the Marquee

My 30 second Speech!

The Ska ban, Special Brew

Our honeymoon tree house in Costa Rica

Costa Rican beach.

If you were at the wedding, and you're on Flickr please add your pics to this group.

You've been Gingerpixel'd!

Had the pleasure of being the recipient of Gingerpixel's fine photography talent at the weekend. Just wish I'd thought to have a late shave!

More photos here.

Few Rome photos

We were over in Rome last weekend and were surprised to come across a red Trevi Fountain. Only looking it up now, though it was big news in Italy that night. Here's an article in the Telegraph, apparently it was a futurist artist.

The red Trevi Fountain.

A panoramic shot, stitching together 5 shots in photoshop is no fun when you haven't used a tripod.

Caravaggio - The Calling of Saint Matthew (Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi)

Great Leonardo exhibition. Wasn't allowed to take any photos after this but it contained recreations of lots of his machines.

Obligatory, silly tourist photo. Saves money sticking your head through a hole when there are plenty of headless statues around.

This chair had very muddy legs

Look if I leave a chair in my parking space you better not move it. I'll just put it back where it was. I don't care what match is on.

Creation Party 2007

All worked out pretty well for me. Was dissapointed to be on first, at first but because of bus times etc a good crowd arrived pretty early. I mean good in both senses; friendly, up for it lively crowd. And because I was on first I got a half hour more than any other DJ, which still went by very quickly. Location was great too, I love the woods! And they had some sound system. I'm talking about a seperate tent just for the equipment and a seperate mixing desk with sound engineer kind of sound system. Apparently it was called to a halt at about 4am but I was back in Dublin by then after a generous offer of a lift, cheers Dor! It's a pity the bizzies came because the place would probably have been properly cleaned up, if they weren't forced out in a hurry.

Update/Edit: If you can't see the photo slide show above, you can look at the photos on flickr. Also, turns out the place was left spotless anway. Good stuff!

Through the looking glass

I'm sure its is all very amateurish from a photography point of view to do things like sticking a camera into a vase and pointing it at a light but I like how this turned out.

Students next door are growing some interesting plants

Fish and Flowers

Stumbled across Altamont gardens in Carlow over the weekend and took lots of pictures of flowers. But don't worry, I got a good shot of testosterone the next day when I went fishing. Full sets above but here's a few of each:

Full set of Altamont gardens.
Full set of Gone fishin'.