Ireland with the Olympus E-M1. A Photographic Journey by Tom Ohle

September 16, 2015 Guest Post, Micro 4/3, Mirrorless, News, Olympus, Panasonic, Street Photography, Travel, User Reports 37

Ireland with the Olympus E-M1. A Photographic Journey

by Tom Ohle

My name is Tom and I’m from Ireland. A few years back while visiting my beautiful fiance in Canada I kicked my love for photography into over drive!

Your site is fantastic and largely responsible for fuelling my love for photography. For me it’s the equivalent of a great cup of coffee first thing in the morning.

These next two images are from my favourite place of all. The west coast of Ireland in Co. Kerry just off of the Dingle peninsula at a little place called ‘Inch Strand’. It’s a spectacular part of the world with huge wide beaches as far as the eye can see.

EM1 + Nocticron
“The Kite”

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EM1 + Nocticron
“Misty Beach”

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The west coast of Ireland (particularly Co. Kerry) is known around the world for its spectacular cliffs. If you ever make it to this part of the world check out Sleigh Head.
This next one was shot overlooking the peninsula. I set out not knowing what to expect and stumbled across this huge hill that overlooked the main peninsula providing a stunning view. I improvised a quick fashion shoot – lighting was very overcast – perfect natural soft box!

EM1 + Nocticron
“He left me in Ireland”

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For the most part I like street photography and travel portraiture but I try not to pidgeon-hole myself into a particular genre. I’ve taken my camera and lenses around Ireland and the great white North in Canada. From portraits of random people on the street to portraits of wolves and wolf dogs I generally always have a camera in my hand.

EM1 + Oly 45 1.8
“We need to talk”

Neringa

I find that the images that I am most drawn to from your other writers tend to have people in them. Either obvious images of people directly or may not so obvious images of landscapes that show the mark of peoples involvement. In more recent times having read some of Neil Buchanan Grants posts here I’ve been inspired to approach my subjects and subject matter from the perspective of a travel photographer. Even in my home town I try to ask ‘ what would be really cool and interesting about this place that I could show somebody in a completely different part of the world ‘.

EM1 + Oly 45
“Who are you lookin at?”

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Em1 + PanaLeica 25 1.4
“Violinist on the street”

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Busking and street performing are very popular and a large part of Irish city culture. A walk down Dublin’s Grafton street on a Saturday afternoon is an explosion for the senses. Stilt walkers, dancers, acrobats doing back flips, fire breathers – it’s got it all. The shot of the busker was taken in Co. Cork – many of these performers are very street photo friendly and do not mind you taking their photo once you acknowledge them. No better way than by throwing them a few euro 🙂

“Rebel without a cause”

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Dublin has a bunch of really cool locally owned coffee shops. Unfortunately we are seeing more and more big chain coffee shops pop up about the place but thankfully the locals still support the local businesses. Many of these coffee shops make a cool studio for european style impromptu photoshoots!

Sunset in (not on) the Liffey!

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For me, a photo has not completed it’s journey until it has been developed and printed. The printing aspect is a recent discovery and I have very much fallen in love with this aspect of the creative process. I now shoot for the print.

Fine art giclee prints on fiber paper are gorgeous. I spend hours trying to get the balance between the choice of edit, the type of paper, texture, color calibration etc… holding a finished product in my hand is immensely satisfying.

I’m very much a learner with a lot yet to learn but I’d hope to have my first article published and open to constructive criticism and feedback from the community. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to look at my photos and I hope that you enjoyed them.

My flickr is : https://www.flickr.com/photos/24434110@N05/

Thanks,

Tom.

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37 Comments

  1. Hello.

    You have made one fatal error IMHO.

    When, for example, the National Geographic team sit down with the photographer from any given photoshoot, there is a vital stage which you are omitting, and it’s absolutely vital when editing ones’ work properly.

    I think we can all safely attest to the edit being the single most complex and difficult task in the photography process, of that I think we’re all in agreement.

    So, what you do is sit around a table with all the interested parties and you project each image onto a screen / wall. Once you do this, I promise you, images simply drop away quite naturally. Typically this will happen more than once in the selection process, likely three times.

    After that, then you print up images as 5×7 and then you lay them out as you want them to appear, along with other editors and interested parties.

    That, then is the Full Edit. To really do it properly, you require a projector, and promise me, having been part of the process more than once it really does work, images you think work, don’t, any duplicates are removed, the “whole” becomes a far more cohesive body of work.

  3. Nice work, Tom! All of these photos are wonderful and I like that you emphasize that you shoot for the print! Your photos make me want to visit Ireland.

  4. Hi Tom I’m from Ireland as well, Dublin to be precise. Lovely images and I fully agree with you about the importance of the Print.

    Thanks for posting

    • Thanks mikelim2000 for the kind words – I think that I got VERY lucky with that one and happened to be in the right place at the right time. Inch strand is so gorgeous it’s hard not to get a nice photo 🙂

  7. lovely images … I am really please with my EM1 especially with the nocticron … your kite image and the beach scene are real quality …

    • Thanks for your kind words Jonathan. Glad you liked them 🙂
      The EM1 is a fantastic camera. The nocticron is a very special lens as are the voigtlanders and especially the PanaLeica for me.

  8. Very, very beautiful shots!
    BTW I, too, like to print my most beloved shots. I can’t afford a “more proper” printer for me, so I bought a lowly Canon MG5550, and I was surprised on how much beautiful b/w or color prints you can do if you use A4 Hahnemühle Fine Arts paper!!!

    • Thanks blaufeld66 🙂 You will be surprised what you can do with that printer. There really is nothing like holding the finished article in your hand 🙂

  10. I enjoyed all these but particularly number 1 and the gorgeous colour portrait (No. 3). I also very much appreciate your trouble in replying to comments: I think it would be good if that were a more wide-spread etiquette on this site. So I take the liberty of asking: what are “fine art giclee prints on fiber paper”? I have an Epson 3000 and have lately been enjoying using matte instead of lustre, also for colour photos. Quite a discovery!

    • Thanks John for the kind words and taking the time out of your day to have a look at my pictures.
      I suppose the term ‘ fine art giclee prints’ is really just a fancy term for high quality ink jet prints. I believe the term was originally coined by Jack Duganne as a way to differentiate high quality , high resolution ink jet prints made with the IRIS printer. These days people tend to use it to describe very high quality, high resolution prints that are gallery quality in terms of both the paper and print itself. Both water based and pigment based inks are used. The problem is that there can sometimes be negative connotations associated with the term ‘ink jet printing’ where the assumption is that the print itself requires little work beyond clicking ‘print’! For this reason it is most often used as a way of describing the quality of the print.

  13. What printer are you using. I have an Epson P 600 I really like. Never turn it off and not to bad on ink. Love luster paper and Advanced B&W.
    WELL I LIKED ALL OF YOUR PICS! Kite pic is special.
    Bob in chicago

    • Hi Bob,

      Thanks for the kind words. That Epson P600 is a beautiful printer capable of amazing prints. I’m using a Canon Pixma Pro 1 myself and I’m very happy with it.

      Tom.

    • Thanks Huss – he was a really cool character alright. He was working in a coffee shop in Dublin. I thought he had a really cool haircut like Mario Balotelli the Italian footballer. I took his shot. He noticed just as I was taking the shot , but I explained that I was doing street photography and he was cool with it.

  18. HI Tom! Really great pictures! I’m totally in love with your country. My wife and I went there four years ago on holiday and the next two years followed suit! Ireland is absolutely beautiful and you irish people are some of the finest and most gentle people I got to know!

    • Thanks for the kind words Moritz. It’s a great place alright and glad you enjoyed your visit. You should share some images from your trip here.

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