Here are some shots from Sat / Sun in Dublin. We've had tons of snow since, we're currently buried under about 14" in Firhouse at the foot of the mountains. I hiked from my house up to the top of Mt. Pelier (Hellfire Club) on foot as there was no way my car could get up there.


Hell freezes over 2 by John C. Murphy, on Flickr


V Tree by John C. Murphy, on Flickr


Symmetry on Ice by John C. Murphy, on Flickr


On Thin Ice by John C. Murphy, on Flickr


Mute Swan by John C. Murphy, on Flickr

Lovely shots John.
Funny to see ducks in your backgarden, its not usually where you'd expect them.
Looks like Mr. Cat has taken a fancy to Mr. & Mrs. Duck 

Well done!
You can now claim to be a TV photographer. 

Your probably right Anton.
I could have gone down into the valleys and photograped the deer grazing in the fields, but somehow the shot doesn't look right. The background would be very farm like, the grass short and neat etc. I'm glad I stayed where I was, even though I didn't get many chances to shoot.

Beautiful shots Richard. I particularly like number one - awesome sky and the breaking waves lend an ominous feel.

Just dipping in again briefly.
I hadn't been out with the camera in a while, but this Sunday I managed to get a few hours up in the Wicklow Mountains. I set out on the track of deer, and after a few hours I managed to get a few shots. What was frustrating was that all the time I was tracking and hiking up in the mountain forests, when I looked down into the valleys I could see hundreds of Deer prancing about in the fields far below me. I did catch sight of a beautiful big red deer stag, but he was too far away for a decent shot  . Anyway, eventually I caught up with a Sika doe and fawn. Click on any of the images for details on the shots.


Moon Forest by John C. Murphy, on Flickr


Wild Sika by John C. Murphy, on Flickr


Wild Sika Doe by John C. Murphy, on Flickr


Deliverance by John C. Murphy, on Flickr


Winter Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) by John C. Murphy, on Flickr

Cracking shots John C. I love the squirrel shot - what a pose.
Thats a Dunnock (Hedge Sparrow) in two and four.
Number one looks like a juvenile chaffinch judging by the markings on the wing and the shape off the bill - could be wrong, but I'm fairly sure.

John - thanks for the moiré info.
Moiré can be caused by a number of things. Sensor resolution is one (not the case here as I'm at 15Mp). Lighting and repetitive patterns (In this case it is a contributory factor). The main reason for Moiré here I think is a combination of the background pattern and the blades on the Iris of the lens. The best lenses will have lots of circular blades and produce an almost circular opening. The Canon L series 70-200 has 8 circular blades. My (relatively) cheap Sigma 150-500 has 9 diaphragm blades so it shouldn't be such a problem. Therefore the main reason must be the patterns caused by the lighting conditions in the background. Its not too often you run up against this one, so I'm not going to worry about it for now.

B.T.W. hold down CTRL and ALT then press the letter to get an acute. e.g. áéíóú 

Lovely images Conor - very evocative.

Mark - the glass is a Sigma 150-500 F5-6.3 APO DG OS (its welded on at this stage).

JohnC - The shots were taken in the Dublin/Wicklow Mountains.

I'm not happy with the deer shots - lighting was very difficult (bright light and deep shade), and there is a lot of moiré, caused by the background and the lighting conditions I think (a gaussian blur would relieve it but the shots not worth the effort). Most importantly they are not pin sharp.

A couple of shots from this weekend. On Saturday I went down to Ballsbridge to pick up my son who was at a music fair. I cut through Herbert Park and was surprised to see a collection of Mandarin Ducks - about five pairs and juveniles. On Sunday I escaped for a few hours up the Wicklow Mountains tracking a Sika Stag.

Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) by John C. Murphy, on Flickr

Wild Sika Stag 1 by John C. Murphy, on Flickr

Wild Sika Stag 3 by John C. Murphy, on Flickr

Beautiful shots Richard. Really is the BIG country, awesome sense of the scale of the place.

Fabulous shots John. Well done. Looks like it was a great day out too. Hard to pick a favourite, I think number 7 is very natural looking and I love the one of the little owl in the hole.

Wow - amazing shot. Never seen a lightning strike like that before. I'd love a chance to try photographing something as extreme.

Some very nice work there John.
That old church in the first two is very photogenic and Blagdon Church looks like an epic location.