Well, I never made the final round of the irish blog awards but after seeing those that did – frankly i’m not surprised – the shortlisted blogs there are fantastic and very very inspiring – well done to all involved and good luck.

I did have rather a funny moment in NY last week though when I got the latest issue of new travel magazine ‘everywhere‘ and saw my pictures staring back at me!

I had submitted the post on there a while back, but i am very self conscious of what i write, i can barely spell never mind construct a sentence, so after several proof reads and a lot of help from the sub-editor i finally got an article together and submitted – the whole thing is basically a re-hash of a blog post i did on here some time back.

And finally I got contacted by someone at a site i have never heard off, schmap, which looks like an interesting idea, they wanted to use a photo they found of mine on flickr on their site - which is nice (in case you are wondering, Josh Rogan is an old pseudonym of mine)

which is all very nice, but i really should be out taking more pictures.

Is there a way of illustrating just how cold a place is through a photograph? I’m sure the masters of photography could do it, but for me, i’ll just have to get a picture of a brass monkey crying but believe me when i say New York 5.30am in the snow is a cold cold place

first time to leave Manhatten (the last time i was in NY i don’t think i left Brooklyn) to go over to Jersey to try to capture the sunset on the skyline….. like an absolute eidgit I left the adapter for my tripod in the hotel room so not able to get a real good panorama – beautiful spot, Hoboken, though.

It was particularly nice in the sunset because it seemed to give the skyline that yellowy 70s kodak feel – and if any city looks good in a 70s feel its this one. It is late now and that might not make sense.

and when the light finally fell – the lights were pretty great as well.

I have been pretty excited about the Museum of Modern Art, and it is pretty great – the chance to see these Warhols, Pollocks, Ansel Adams and Monet pieces to name but a handful, is amazing.

Close up of Jasper Johns ‘ Flag’

Interesting as well there are some pieces I really wanted to see for myself that didn’t disapoint – Jackson Pollocks stuff has such deep layers that you can never really appreciate in photograph form (interestingly I find it very hard to look at a Jackson Pollock without humming some Stone Roses songs) – and some is disapointing…. i think that too many prints on the walls of student flats has probably ruined Pablo Picasso for me.

And, there is some stuff I just do not get

Robert Ryman – ‘Twin’

McEldowney, Thomas ‘Wall of MOMA’ 2008

Top of the Rock – Click for huge

Ok, i caved in – i like to think I am not a particularly consumerist person – but you try having a 5 year old craptop with a busted screen and  living around the corner from a 24hr Apple store without caving in… so this is my first post from a shiny new macbook – and its a thing of beauty.

Thing is… and this is a little embarassing… i’m not completely sure how to use it – this morning it told me that I had filled the hard drive already… not good – turns out that iphoto and aperture love to fill the HD – so i’m not too sure how to use it – i’ve been trying to download a trial version of photoshop until i get home but thats proving unsuccessful as well – so it will have to be un-manipulated photies for a couple of days.

One of the difficulties, if you can call it that, about New York is that there is so much ‘obvious’ photography, landmarks, streets, statues and bridges that are photographed from every conceivable angle — Brooklyn Bridge (above), the Flat Iron Building, Grand Central (both below) photographed by everyone to the point where you wonder if there is any point – but its impossible not to photograph them…. a million people have probably taken the image above, and a million more will probably take it in the future – people with bleeding edge digital cameras, with disposable cameras, home-made pinhole cameras, all were out today trying to put their own slant on the same familiar lines of Brooklyn Bridge.

Speaking of impossible the screen on my laptop is truly goosed – 1/8 of the screen is a solid white bar, reducing further the resolution of my already battered old laptop. There is an apple store around the corner from my hotel.. i think i know where this one is going, i have seen Vista, i don’t like it. Photoshop CS3 doesn’t run under Linux – another acolyte for apple-fandom awaits.

direct flight from Manchester to JFK – 36 hours… about 56 for my bag – there is a whole herd of ranting that could go into a blog post about this, but i’m here now, the most photogenic city on earth… Straight to the camera store and a nice new wide angle 12-24mm and a new tripod and now i’m set..

So, i have been nominated for an Irish Blog Award…. truth be told i think everyone who has an ‘o’ or a ‘mc’ in their name who held a camera has been nominated, but its nice to be recognised every once in a while. If any judges are coming by, you’re looking awful well so you are.
I am Irish living in Manchester, so not a lot of my photos have been from Ireland so for those (like Sam) who are coming by Irish Blog awards or from Manuels rather brilliant and scarily regularly updated blog (who nominated me) – welcome and here are some pictures of ‘the oul sod’ (not levenshulme) for you all

These are all pretty old photographs that I have gone back to and tried to hone my photoshop on – i am currently without a monitor for my laptop to it may be that I have blown the colours on these – i’ll know tomorrow when i see these in work! Photography fans may also like to marvel at the lack of adherence to the rule of thirds, the lack of foreground interest in the landscapes and a hundred and one other things wrong with the pics.. meh, i liked them.

Mussenden Temple, Co Derry

Dominican Convent, Portstewart

Poisoned Glen, Donegal
(not sure about the clouds here but the exposure was blown in the original photo
clicky for hugey)

The view from Errigal, Donegal

And the view from the Summit of Croagh Patrick