This reminds me of a hollow Geode, with the outer crystals replaced by green moss.

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A doorway in Vancouver, Canada.

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It’s been ages since I posted an image. This one was taken in the Beijing art district 798 Space. It’s well worth a visit, it is quite commercial but they have so great free exhibitions and some interesting spaces and quite a bit of graffiti.

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Window frames can be a great device to frame a subject and the frame can also be of interest in the photo as it adds context. This photo was taken on the Moscow Metro.

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The Chinese engineers about to start work on a Trans-Mongolian Railway carriage as seen from the window of the adjoining carriage.

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When traveling between the former Soviet countries and China the train bogies have to be exchange. Each carriage of the train is separated and lifted up while the 1,520 mm bogie is exchanged for the Chinese 1,435 mm bogie.

Passengers have to remain on the train while the process is carried out* and the toilets are all locked; to avoid the possibility of waste being spilled on the floor of the garage or onto an unfortunate worker. Luckily for us and our fellow passengers we had a key to open the bathroom door (we avoided flushing).

More photos tomorrow.

* When we stopped at the border Chinese guards we’re placed at every exit. It was kind of spooky because the remained very diligent and stared intently at the door they we’re assigned to.

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Wow. They sell beer on the street, can you imagine the consequences of that in Ireland!

I find this one interesting because of the similarities in the colour palette between the Beer Stall and the Painting.

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Wind swept.

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Picture in Picture #1.

A series of photos taken in Moscow. I took multiple shots at the same location and looked for the best combination of pedestrian and painting.

This one is all about the tilting of the head of both subjects.

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The night before I took this photo we spent the evening drinking in our Ger with a few other members of our group and I got up a 4:30 am to be sure that I caught the dawn.

It was such a peaceful experience, I could hear dogs barking way off in the distance. It was clear for miles but there was a bank on fog way off behind a hill and when I turned around a few minutes later it covered the hill and this photo was taken a few minutes later as it approached me.

The barking dog and her pup soon joined me, the only other people up at that hour were a couple of Japanese tourists and the Mongolian girl that was setting the fires in the Gers.

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Another photo of the electrical storm taken from a moving train in Siberia.

There were more lightening strikes tonight on the other side of the lake to us. They weren’t as close to us as the ones in this picture, but they were still a pleasure to watch nonetheless (with a couple of beers, while listening to the water of the deepest lake in the world lap against the shoreline, would have been very romantic if my wife wasn’t asleep).

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A storm somewhere near Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia. Taken from our carriage on the Trans-Siberian train.

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We didn’t get to see the submarine today most of our time was spent getting to the Space Museum which was great but it was all in Russian which was a little disappointing but we still had a great time all the same.

We got the monorail to the museum, we must say thanks to the trainee priests that helped us with directions. They stopped us in the Metro because they recognised us from the day before which is really strange because we were nowhere near that location yesterday. We left them feeling a little bit sad, they were so young and they still had another year in Moscow and one of them in particular didn’t seem very happy.

After the museum we did a boat trip along the Moskva River, that was really nice. Last day in Moscow tomorrow before our three days on the train.

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Another sunny evening at the Roskilde Festival.

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Ken is a bit excited here against the backdrop of people sitting around tents in the build-up to the Roskilde Festival.

Last year we spent a week in a field in Denmark in the days prior to the main event we drank, played crazy games with the locals, seen some smaller gigs, seen some films, drank, played frisbee with some strangers, lost frisbee, drank some more, visited the Medical Station to get some ointment for a bee sting, had some food and drank some warm beer.

Taken the same time as this shot
http://www.pygment.com/blog/2008/07/10/roskilde-2008/

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No music festival for me this year. First time I haven’t attended one for 10 years, but the flip side will be my honeymoon. This was taken at Roskilde last summer, it kind of sums up what I love about festivals, sunny days, random people a general good vibe.

Don’t think I’ll ever go back to Roskilde, there are too many other festivals to visit, i haven’t been to Glastonbury yet, maybe next year.

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We’ve had great weather in Ireland for the past few days, when your not in the shade it’s almost feels like the Summer, with that in mind I picked out a photo taken in Barcelona in 2007

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A photo of my new born Nephew. In the past few months both of my brothers have had their first child (one boy and one girl) making me an uncle, for he first time, twice over. It’ll be awhile yet till I return that favour

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Had to get out of bed early to catch the snow, luckily I did because it had all melted (in the city) by 1

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Another fantastic exhibition from the Pompidou Centre, Anish Kapoor, Sans Titre, (that’s without title).

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Concept design for the Upperworld Hotel, Battersea Power Station, London. This concept was developed by Ron Arad he was “commissioned to design a 10,000sqm luxurious 50-bedroom hotel between the 4 chimneys at roof level of Battersea Power Station”.

The furniture designs of Ron Arad are very futuristic and well worth a look, it was one of the best exhibits in the Pompidou Centre. Some of the best pieces were constructed of a single sheet of highly polished metal and they formed very organic shapes.

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Another photo of the Paris Metro…. Am I becoming a train spotter!?

Most of our honeymoon is going to be spent on a train, the Trans-Siberian from Moscow to Beijing and I’m really looking forward to traveling on the Moscow Underground. I don’t think standing round on isolated platforms with note books is really my thing and besides Ireland doesn’t have a big enough the train network, more’s the pity.

With the current recession will the Governments plans for a Western Rail Corridor go ahead? I hope so and I’m lead to believe that they are still working on the line between Limerick and Galway. My Fiance has a bet on with my Uncle that it will open, it’s a pretty safe bet because he didn’t quantify the bet with a date.

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Almost conforms to the rule of thirds. Again I like the simplicity of the subject and I hope it has something to say about Paris. This could make a nice background for some design…..

Clare loves these type of tiles, I think we’ll end up with something like this in out bathroom.

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A love the simplicity of the image. Billboards are often an intrusion, but in other countries they can be interesting because they give you an insight into local culture, see tomorrows image. Of course this example has nothing commercial to say for itself, all the better.

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Another photo from the Paris Metro. Yesterdays image is still my favourite of the batch, but I do like the contrast between the dark floor and the yellow chairs in this one and the effort that has been put into the tiling.

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There are some really nice features in the Paris Metro, most of the stations have different colour schemes. I would have thought that the colours would match the colour of the line they are on but they don’t.

I have a series of photos over the next few days which show some of the interesting features I noticed. I took most of these photos late on Saturday night.

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Went to the Centre Pompidou in Paris over the weekend, it was quite inspirational, Clare and myself loved all the 3D work of British Industrial Designer and Architect Ron Arad and the work of Mexican Artist Damian Ortega but she wasn’t so keen on the Futurist work of Georges Braque, Robert Delaunay, Félix Del Marle, Albert Gleizes, Frantiek Kupka, Fernand Léger, Kasimir Malévitch, Jean Metzinger, Francis Picabia and Ardengo Soffi although she did like the work of Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso.

I also loved the work of Ettore Sottsass, he was a designer that I studied while in college, and I didn’t know that he passed away in 2007.

Great Art Gallery

Unfortunately I didn’t get the name of the artist that construed the work in this photo, the glass case was full of Gas Masks I thought that the contrast between the wall and the case was interesting plus there was too much glare on the case to do the complete work the justice it deserved and I’m trying to make it look interested for my viewer as apposed to the viewer in the gallery.

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I was thinking that I had enough of this series on the site but I had to include this version. There is a more than a little post-production, the original file had some of the red sky but area around the moon was a bit neutral so I boasted the exposure and red channel in the image using Apple Aperture.

In Photoshop I duplicated the image and made it black and white, I then masked out the sky leaving the grass and then I took down the Opacity a bit. I also adjusted the curves and set them to Cross Process

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New Years day and it was a beautifully crisp, dry, evening there was no one around, and to add to the spooky feeling the local church bell rang out across the field of frosty grass, thistle and frozen cow pats.

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Another example of a beautiful minimalist ceramic work from Nuala, a graduate from Galway IT ceramics course.

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This is a piece for the final year of Ceramics in Galway IT, it’s by Naula a friend of ours. I can’t hope to remember what it was all about (it was deep) but I loved the minimalism.

Clare, my fiance, is featured in the current issue of Ceramics Review. Limerick Art College was the only Irish college covered in this years review and Clare was one of the two students featured. I order a copy on-line we’re expecting it in the post soon

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Just a snapshot taking at a wedding I was photographing, I think this would make a nice background to a poster. I like the contrast between the ornate austere ceiling and the quintessential 1970’s ‘Disco’ Ball.

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I took this photo many months ago at a final year show. Original artwork by Paraic Leahy, a student in Limerick College Of Art And Design. I’m afraid that’s all I know about it but I love the simplicity and the almost random nature of the placement frames and the random choice of subject matter painted on like Polaroids. In fact I really like the idea of framing a Polaroid, it’s a little bit odd or should I say different - interior designers take note!

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These feet were on a bridge in Copenhagen.

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More info

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Another exhibition from from this years TWEAK festival. More information can be here.

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This is the work of Video and Audio Artist, Giovanni Longo and Peggy Sylopp.

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I haven’t posted in awhile, it’s mostly down to been too busy with design work for TWEAK, also my site has experiencing some problems, hopefully it’s resolved now.

This was one of the interactive exhibits from the TWEAK exhibition, the dials control the colour and frequency of the colour flashes (RGB) and it also outputs sounds that correspond to the visuals. In all there were four pieces that the users can interact with.

http://www.tweak.ie/gregory.html

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I got this from playing football against members of the Garda Síochána na hÉireann, a clash of heads.

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Some graffiti from Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark.

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The Øresund Bridge connects Copenhagen (Denmark) and Malmo (Sweden). It’s a great bridge, when I was traveling over the first time there was a thunder storm which looked great although the lack of light made photographing it a bit difficult. This shot was taken on the return journey before the Roskilde Festival.

Oh and thanks to Felice for a great night in Malmo it was fun.

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Maedhbh’s Wedding Dress.

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Radiohead were amazing better than the Dublin gig, they had the same show but they didn’t play creep, thank God. Great atmosphere and great weather, Thom seemed to be having a good time.
Yeasayer put on a great show, lots of energy and the plenty of the Rock symbols from from the lead singer. Of course like all American bands they had to apologies for Bush, can’t wait till they have something else to apologies for. Have to go see them again and the new tracks sound great.

Black Mountain, about 100 times better than I thought it would be, the female vocalist was outstanding and we couldn’t see the lead singers face, it was all hair and beard. The music was other worldly, another band I have to see again.

Holy Fuck rock, bit like Battles. I’d go out of my way to see them again. The chants of ‘Holy Fuck! Holy Fuck!’ in Danish accents beforehand was very funny. Holy Fuck were much better than Fuck Buttons who I found a bit boring.

Band Of Horses great fun, and great music the lead singer was loving it, he kept saying it was the best day of his life, it sounded a bit hackneyed to us but you couldn’t help but love them.

Battles seen ‘em before, I don’t think anything could to top the gig in The Roisin Dubh in Galway. We listened to a few songs but left to go see Yeasayer.

MGMT.  I was a little disappointed by the gig, I think their album is great but maybe that’s down to the production by Dave Fridmann. Their a new band so maybe they need some time to perfect the live show.

The Notwist didn’t do anything for me.

We seen lots more bands including Slayer, Judas Priest (Spinal Tap is alive and well) and Grinderman which I thought might be good but the lyrics were trite and basically they were living off persona, we all agreed it was utter crap and went to watch something else. Cat Power was OK I thought she would be better. Kings Of Leon were OK.

No Roskilde for us next year, we’ll be saving for our wedding, hope 2010 is sunny.

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Saturday 10:30
Got a train from Høje Taastrup with 4 Danish people and we go to Roskilde town. We walked the couple of Km to the gate. One of the Danish guys is a bit worse for wear and while holding a slab of Tuborg he slips down an embankment, he was OK and we had a good laugh about it. The same guy lost all his stuff and only found them again three days later, they were in the same place he left them, he was so drunk he just didn’t know where that was

Our Danish friend who was working at the Festival brought our bags into the campsite cause we had to queue, it was the longest queue I have ever been in there were 1000’s of people queuing.

Sunday 05:50

Phew 6 hours in a queue, (we fought for every meter) now we have to find our bags….. 40 mins later and we meet up with the Danes and Ken got his bags but mine we’re missing - no tent, no sleeping bag and I haven’t slept all night.

Sunday Approx 08:00

With the help of Peter we locate the rest of the stuff, it’s with a very drunk sleeping Dane.

Monday - Wednesday
Sunny days with some clouds to give us some respite. We had a good walk around the Campsite and checked out the Pavilion area (the only stage open during the build-up).

We went into Copenhagen one of the days and checked out a reggae band playing in Christiania, it was lovely and the Danes have some cool looking bicycles.

We had great craic in the campsite with the Danes playing “Beer Bowling”, a game involving two teams of two, each team member is either sitting on a camping chair or kneeing, the teams are 10 meters apart and each team has a 2lt bottle placed between the two members. The object of the game is to bowl or throw an American football at the bottle if you knock it over the other team has to drink a can of Tuborg between them, but they have only one go at it each, if they fail they forfeit. The forfeits vary from drinking another can or getting a spanking.

The camping at Roskilde is serious, people bring in huge sound systems, lights, lazers the whole shabang. Just walking around the place was like visiting 10 different clubs, they even have their own flyers and names like “Camp Van Damme”, “Invisible Ninja Wizards” and “The Camp Pink Flamingo Sexy Laguna Party Beach”.

Myself and Ken spent one evening playing frisbee between loads of people walking around at camping east. It was really fun seeing the frisbee fly past people, most of them hadn’t a clue, except the ones we hit of course. The frisbee was finally lost in the dark by a Norwegian trying to return it to Ken.

Five more Irish on the way and lots of music to look forward to.

Next Post Roskilde Thursday - Sunday it’s all about the music.

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This photo was taken in Markree Castle in Co. Sligo, Ireland. Markree has a wonderful entrance stairway that leads up to the reception. I asked for all the guests to come down from the bar and gather on the stairs and I took a few shots while the guests arranged them selves.

I was really happy with the final staged photo but this version has a different quality to it.

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This is one of my girlfriends plates form her Degree course in Ceramics, except more photos of beautifully broken plates in the near future.

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