Collin's Bakers

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The coat of arms of the Dublin Baker's Guild preserved and restored on the wall of one of the entrances to the main square in Collin's Barracks in Dublin.

Metal Cleaner

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The street sweeper in Madrid's Plaza Santa Anna. It reminds me of the quirky bronze figure of usher Jim Mulvaney outside the Screen Cinema on Dublin's D'Olier St.

Bike or Trike

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A 19th century railway inspector's track bicycle, or is it a tricycle, on display in Berlin's Technikmuseum. A real boneshaker. I wonder how it felt going over a set of points.

Softly Softly

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These two policemen were part of the operation to control the potentially violent confrontation between Kurds and Turks at the recent "hands off Kurdistan" demo in Berlin. They don't carry any weapons and sport longer hair underneath their casual style caps, unlike their tough uncompromising colleagues who are waiting nearby in their thousands to wade in, if the softly softly approach fails to have any effect. I couldn't help but notice the slouchy stance, which is not typical of a German policeman or woman. I suppose it's all part of the psychology of diffusion. Another interesting point is the use of English on the vest. You'd wonder will there be any of the German language in common use in Germany in twenty years. Even the TV adds now are about 50% English. It makes me ask myself if there is any sense in continuing with my German language studies.

Flowers on Friedrichstrasse

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Almost every railway station in Berlin has at least one flower stall. This display is at one of the exits from Friedrichstrasse.

Uptown Snowballs

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Simon getting ready to drop a snowball over granddad. This shot was taken on a bitterly cold day in New York during the big snow storm in February this year. Central Park is in the background.

Broadway Glint

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A view towards New Jersey from the junction of 45th Street and 8th Avenue taken from the 25th floor of the Milford Plaza hotel. I wanted to correct the vertical orientation of the shot, which was skewed due to steadying the camera on the windowsill, but the computer programme clipped the top of the tall building, so I decided to leave it as shot. (All the buildings are tall).

Anti Kapitalismus

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Some suburbs of Berlin are covered in graffiti. This anti G8 slogan was sprayed onto an apartment wall in Neukolln using a stencil.

Der Wirt

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The friendly landlord of the Berliner Treffpunkt pub, just off Friedrichstrasse, takes 5 minutes to pull a pils. He won't be rushed and and the wait is worth it.

Stationary Flight

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A beautifully restored Bucker Jungmann Bu 131B biplane from 1941 hanging vertically by it's nose from the roof of the Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin's Kreutzberg suburb. The shot was taken with my Lumicron 8Mp and was flipped 90 degrees on the computer. Great picture quality from a €100 "point and shoot" camera. Please see larger version.

A Rose By Any Other Name

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This lonely flower has lost it's way outside a Berlin apartment.

Colourful Kurd

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A colourful Kurdish woman attending the "Hands off Kurdistan" demo in the mainly Turkish suburb of Neukolln in Berlin last Sunday. I took this shot with my "point and shoot" Lumicron just before sundown.

Architectural Mistake

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A disused Garda barracks that was built in British times on the main road between Limerick and Tipperary. I was in such a hurry that I forgot to note down it's location. The story goes that it was constructed from plans that were intended for use in India, hence it's colonial appearance. This mistake happened more than once in Ireland and other parts of the Empire.

Spikes

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Deep Yellow

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I think that sunflowers are at their peak right now. I don't know anything about botany but I presume that the yellow powder on the leaves is pollen dropping down from the flower. (See high resolution image).

Beautiful Beast

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A beautiful retro style Triumph twin. Aah, they were the days. This impressive machine was spotted near the Plaza Mayor in central Madrid.


A reflection of myself in the chrome timing cover taking the shot with my 8mp point and shoot Lumicron.

Foynes Fog

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Foynes Port at 4.30 am. This is a 4 second time exposure taken while banks of fog were rolling in along the Shannon estuary before dawn on Sunday morning.

Rotten Encounter

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A nice little reminder of what bin charges have done for the environment. This lot of domestic waste was photographed on the pedestrian walkway along the bank of the River Dodder near Donnybrook. Even Dublin 4 has has not escaped the fly-tippers.

Lord Norbury And The Bronze Beast

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A fine piece of urban art which adorns Wolf Tone Park in the centre of Dublin. The park was a Church of Ireland cemetery up to recently and has been turned over to the people of the city even though the remains of the interred are still there. As to be expected, this nice open space in the middle of Dublin is blighted by the large number of drunks and drug addicts who spend the day there drinking and fighting. Among it's more infamous residents is Lord Norbury who is best known as the judge who sentenced Robert Emmet to death. The following short biography is published on the Irish Courts Service website.

Lord Norbury - the "Hanging Judge"
John Toler was born in Co. Tipperary in 1745. He was admitted to the bar in 1770, and as a strong supporter of the Government, he attained many offices, including that of Lord Chief Justice, and was eventually ennobled as the Earl of Norbury. He was also the Solicitor General and a member of Grattan's Parliament. Later by bribery and deception he reached the Bench to become a corrupt and fearsome judge. He had poor legal skills and used his power to intimidate lawyers and defendants with his sarcastic wit and twisted sense of humour. His courts were like a wild theatre. His most famous trial was that of Robert Emmet, in which Norbury continually interrupted and abused Emmet when he was making his speech from the dock, before sentencing him to death.

First Off

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The Killimer-Tarbert ferry disgorges it's load after crossing the River Shannon at first light on Monday. An empty tanker makes it's way down the estuary to the Atlantic.

Heading Home

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Two German street entertainers who were a regular sight on Dublin's North Earl St. They told me last week that they are been forced to leave the capital due to constant violent abuse and harassment at the hands of drunks and drug addicts who abound in the city centre. The last straw was when recently one of them was stabbed in the arm with a syringe.

Early House

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A quaint little pub in the village of Asdee County Kerry from where Jesse James' ancestors emigrated to America in the 19th century.

The Early Crossing

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At 7.15 am this morning the first ferry of the day prepares to dock at Tarbert ferry port in County Kerry having taken on a selection of trucks and cars at Killimer in County Clare on the opposite bank of the River Shannon.

I'm Keeping An Eye On You

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A relic of bygone days. How many sights like this remain to be seen in Dublin or indeed in Ireland. This friendly jee jee seems quite happy at work outside the Corporation fruit market in Dublin.

Burlington Buildings

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O'Neill's public house on the corner of Suffolk St. and Church Lane in Dublin's city centre. This is the Church Lane entrance at twilight on Friday evening. The city gets ready to rock. I can't find any reference to Burlington Buildings on Google.

All Aboard

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No. 4004 is about to leave Hueston station in Dublin for Cork. It's a nice new clean train but maybe, when the novelty wears off, Iarnrod won't bother to wash it and it'll become a dirty greasy aul machine just like a lot of the older trains. I wonder are there any plans to electrify the Cork-Dublin line.

Yet Another Dublin River

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The Camac River as it flows towards the Liffey, taken at Bow Bridge in Kilmainham.

Another Dublin River

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The River Dodder winding it's way to Ringsend photographed between Ballsbridge and Donnybrook.

Lavish Surroundings

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Part of the magnificent interior of Ryan's of Parkgate St. in Dublin.

Civic Surprise

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This is the first lifebuoy I have seen in Ireland that is intact, fully functional and not vandalised. It was spotted on Litter Strand in the Shannon estuary in North Kerry.

No Driver

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A Docklands Light Rail train pulls into Canning Town station in London's docklands. It's quite an eerie feeling when you're sitting in the front seat where you would normally expect the driver to be. It stops, starts, accelerates, opens and closes it's doors and keeps exactly to schedule, all automatically, with the help of a computer and lots of sensors and cameras.

Saving Art

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Pastor Sam Lindsay, of the Friday Baptist Church, prepares to give an illustrated talk, on the merits of knowing Jesus, in Dublin city centre, last week.

Cutting Edge Technology

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The business end of the giant boring machine, which was used to make the tunnel for the Docklands Light Rail extension to Lewisham, exhibited in the foyer of Cutty Sark station in Greenwich, London.
P.S. The boring head is slightly out of focus because I took the shot for my family album and used my Grandson to focus on.

Rocket Science

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Wernher Von Braun poses with his awesome creation, the Saturn 5 rocket, in 1967. This was the vehicle that took man to the Moon and has been dubbed "the most impressive machine ever constructed". Here are three interesting rocket websites: Saturn V and The Walter Rocket Motor and The V2 rocket

Relaxing With Jim

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James Joyce seems oblivious to his modern-day companions on Dublin's North Earl Street.

Country Roads

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I can't find out which County in Ireland the IR registration belonged to. The cars look post 1922 so the attending officer would have to be a member of An Garda Siochana. Interestingly the Dublin Metropolitan Police continued to operate in the capital until 1925 when they were incorporated into the Garda.

Memorial Site

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Sachsenhausen concentration camp, a few miles north of Berlin, is now a memorial site. It was also the site of the Russian concentration camp which operated there from 1945 to 1950. It commemorates, in a moving and sensitive way, the victims of both camps. My 3 hours there had a profound effect on me and left me contemplating how brutal the 20th century was. Of course the 21st has not got off to a good start either. It is well worth a visit and details can be found on the web at: http://www.stiftung-bg.de/gums/en/index.htm

A Kind Of Blue

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The interior of a hair-dressing salon in central Madrid during siesta. Madrid is a wonderful location for a few days of interesting photography.

Real Or Artificial

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I couldn't figure out if this spectacular vase of flowers, exhibited at the Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art, was the real thing or not. I suppose if it's art it has to be artificial by definition. Needless to say, I could not give in to the temptation to touch it. http://www.mmk-frankfurt.de/

Mr. Bassman

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Herr Bassman and Herr Lead-Guitarman were really getting stuck into "Crocodile Rock", with the help of a drum and rhythm machine, on the Konstablerwache, in Frankfurt during my recent photo trip there. They can be found on the web at http://www.twoandabox.de.

Standing On The Job

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The Bratwurst man doing the business outside the railway station on Friedrich Strasse, in Berlin. The item on his back is a tank of gas and it is balanced at the front by the weight of the grill. He sells other types of sausages in buns as well, all for 1 Euro each.

Ancient Access

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A man-hole cover on the footpath in Cathal Brugha St., Dublin. The shapes around the inner circumference are small inlaid glass blocks for light access to the cellar below. I'm surprised that there are only three pieces of chewing gum on it's surface given how long it's been in situ but maybe the gum doesn't stick very well to cast iron. I'd like to know how long this nice urban feature has been in this location. I've only recently realised that Dublin is a treasure trove of interesting old architectural features. I'm planning to do a two day walking tour around the city, before the Summer ends, to capture as many as I can for posterity.

Noble Entrance

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A grand entrance leading into the site of a derelict two roomed cottage in North Kerry.

On The Way Down

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Charing Cross station viewed as the London Eye capsule descends. The Thames appears quite muddy. The blue of the sky is reflected from the perspex.

Over The Top

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I was in London last week and got the opportunity to shoot a few photos with my Lumicron 8Mp. The view through the perspex was only slightly degraded here on the London Eye as we passed over the top.