Some from my trip to Ireland & Scotland

[BigBlueDodge]

Spent 3 1/2 weeks touring Scotland and Ireland by car in July, and encountered some amazing sights. I haven't done much with the photo's since I got back, but wanted to post a couple from the trip.

This is a picture of Stirling Castle. It's been taken millions of times, so I'm quite sure that everyone is familiar with it. We stayed at a B&B literally at the feet of that hill, on what used to be the grounds used for the kings stables.

The second is a picture of the William Wallace monument, which sits within a couple of miles from Stirling Castle. There are 240 somethings steps to get from the bottom to the top. It was a VERY tight fit, as there is only one set of steps, so people going up had to make room for those going down, in about a 3 1/2 - 4foot wide space.

[BigBlueDodge]

The first picture is of the mighty Cliffs of Moher. They were very pretty. it was a bit hazy that day, as we got a break in the rain, so the pictures came out flat. But its a very majestic site. I was a bit dissappointed by how far back the wall are from the actual cliffs. You really can't appreciate the full beauty of the cliffs just by looking from the walls. So yes, I followed the masses and jumped the small wall at the end, and headed down the path that thousands others were doing to get this shot.

The second picture is of the tower located in Glendalough. Glendalough was probably my favorite spot in all of Ireland/Scotland. I wish we had more time spent, but as you can see, there was some heavy rain coming in and we got rained out for most of the day

[BigBlueDodge]

The first picture is a shot of St. Kevin's Bed. St. Kevin literally chiseled a room out of stone and lived there. It's amazing because it's across a lake and the only access to it is via boat. St. Kevin's bed is located in Glendalough.

The second picture is of Dunmore Head on Slea Head on the Dingle Peninsula. We spent the day driving Dingle, and it turned out to be an absolute gorgeous day (as witnessed by no clouds). I was a little scared, because while driving to Dingle, we encountered some of our heaviest rain. But for whatever reason, the rain just stopped, and the sun came out.

[BigBlueDodge]

Here are some shots from Scotland. The first is a shot of Dunbeg Fort, which lies right on the cliffs. You can barely see it. It's the white blob on the left center side of the picture.

The next shot is of the coast line by Kilt Rock, in the Isle of Skey. It was VERY gray/gloomy during our visit to sky, so most of the shots are very low contrast.

[BigBlueDodge]

The last two shot's I'll share (because I think I'm over the limit) is of Ben Nevis, located in Ft. William. We took the cable car's up to the top of Aoach Moar and got some great views of the countryside. We were in a laundry mat ni Caol, and I had to drive back to the B&B to get something. For the most part you couldn't see the tops of Ben Nevis because the clouds kept it covered. However. during my drive to the B&B, the clouds briefly opened up, so I stopped the car, got out in a field, and snapped some pictures. I had my Polorizer on the lens, rich resulted in some really rich blue's and greens.


The last shot is of my family on the infamous Loch Ness.

[BigBlueDodge]

I've got thousands of pictures from the trip. We saw alot of Ireland & Scotland in 3 1/2 weeks. We literally did something (ie went and visited a site) every day. Ireland & Scotland are both incredible places to visit. There was so much more that we wanted to go see, but couldn't because we ran out of time. I highly recommend visiting these two great countries to anyone. The sites were amazing, but the people were just so friendly. We stayed in B&B the whole trip and met some really nice people.

Note, most of the pictures taken with my 20D and 17-55 f/2.8 IS and 10-22 f/3.5 that I recently sold. Those 2 lens were the perfect travel combo. Yes, I know I broke the cardinal rules of centering the horizon in the middle of the frame. I was using the Center AF most of the time, and it just naturally happened. I didn't realize how often I did it until I started reviewing pictures when I got home.

[tmonatr]

Love the Cliffs of Moher. Looks like you had a great trip.

[Jim G]

Those are so darn cool... A trip to the UK is quite high on my priority list. Looks just awesome.

[grimreaper]

been meaning to go travling round the highlands for quite a while , still not got round to it yet , maybe next year now

[BigBlueDodge]

Sorry for the late delays on this, as I went on a camping trip for a couple of days. We had an absolute blast. I highly recommend the trip to anyone. I was actually quite surprised that rain was never much of a factor. We only had one day where rain became a burden, and prevented us from doing what we wanted. Other than that, it rained, but we were always able to work around it.

[jtull01]

Nice photo journalism. Shots are good clear examples of some beautiful scenery. well done! Nice crew shot too!.

[AlphaChicken]

Really love the last one on the third post. The way that the geometric farm areas contrast and form a lattice over the rolling landscape is great. Its the same impressing effect to me that the stepped farming in Peru has.