We returned to Allihies for the Festival again this year. Although it wasn’t as big as last year’s centenary celebrations (no pig racing this year) there was still plenty going on.
With the kids a bit older we broke the family record on how far we got up the hill behind the Copper Mines and with Nana’s help we even got out for a late pint in the O’Brien’s this year!
Regular readers will know I like to ‘go analogue’ on my hols and so it’s taken longer than I’d like to get the pics up!
I climbed the hill after tea to try to get a few shots of the Copper Mines before the sun went down. It wasn’t working out for me but I noticed the evening light hitting the hills across the valley and took a few shots of that before I realised that there must be something creating that gorgeous light and turned around.
Photography takes me out of things to concentrate on what’s in the viewfinder. It is important to ‘feel’ these moments of incredible natural beauty as well as photograph them. So I took the shot and forced myself to put the camera away and just watched the sun set. Ahhhh. These moments are rare enough.
I finally got some time this morning to work on this picture. I wanted to balance sunset and coastline so I effectively double-exposed the original RAW file and blended them to back together maximise the impact of the sun but keep some detail in the hills (I know it is hard to tell from the small version).
Our busy ‘summer’ continues with a weekend away in Allihies. After a foggy start, Saturday broke into the most wonderful afternoon just in time for the start of the 99th Allihies Festival.
OMG, great craic. International running races for all ages (and all-comers) interspersed with horse racing (not for the feint-hearted), ICA Cake stand, Bouncy Castles, Candy Floss, the Works. The going was a little ‘heavy’ which bothered some of the inexperienced horses more than the foot runners – although everyone who raced got pretty evenly covered in mud.
Allihies is a lovely spot on an amazing part of Ireland and the festival (and that bit of afternoon sun) topped it off for the weekend. I think we’ll be back in for the Centenary Festival next year!
