The Mourne mountains revisited

This weekend I took myself off to the Mourne mountains again. It is such a photogenic place and is only around an hour's drive from where I live it's hard to resist, especially when the weather looks so promising.

I truly love this place, it has beauty in a very dramatic and desolate sense. In some parts it almost feels like and looks prehistoric, and it is very easy to forget that civilization surrounds it and is only just around the corner.

The brandy pad is a route I have never taken before. This starts at the foot of Slieve Meelmore and leads up past the hare's gap and up past Slieve Bearnagh. The track was created by smugglers and their heavily laden ponies as they transported illegal goods such as tobacco, spirits and leather inland from the east coast in the 18th and 19 centuries. It was so popular by 1835 that almost half the houses in Hilltown were pubs!




Once at the top of the path you climb over the Mourne wall and are then faced with the most amazing plateau that contains Doan and Slievelamagan. The view the stretches all the way down through and past the silent valley reservior to the sea. This is perfect for panoramic shots.



This area is very popular with hikers and climbers so if you don't want them in your images then you may need to be patient to get a clear uninterrupted view.

I will be returning here again in the near future as I didn't have the time (or the energy!) to explore the hares gap.

All the images are in the Kingdom of Mourne gallery.

Bye for now.

The Mourne mountains (and B&W conversions)

I went back to one of my favorite photographic haunts this weekend, the Mourne mountain range in Northern Ireland! I have been there many times in the past but it has actually been a year since my last visit. I've had several ideas for pictures in the past but on every visit the weather just hasn't played ball! (does ever in the UK?)



The weather forecast looked like it could be promising with the chance of some of that type of weather that produces excellent conditions for 'god rays'. But unfortunately it wasn't to be. It stayed overcast so I put my B&W head on for the evening!

It's true that most good color pictures make good B&W ones, but overcast conditions make excellent B&W one's and poor color ones!

B&W Conversions
How do you do your B&W conversions? As we all know B&W is all about contrast so after you have added your B&W adjustment layer how do you adjust contrast locally?



There are no right or wrong ways here but some methods are 'cleaner' than others. I used to always have a separate layer for dodge and burn, but I found this time consuming and can sometimes produce a 'patchy' result.
I don't use these tools at all now, not since I realized that these tools are just contrast adjustments in the same way that the curves tool is. Dodging and burning with curves is far easier, quicker and cleaner than the said dedicated tools. The best method I have found is to break your photo into sections such as sky, foreground, background etc, then apply different curves adjustment layers to each. To dodge, simply boost the highlights at the top end of the curve until you get the effect your after, then do the same for the shadows by attenuating the curve at the bottom end.

A variety of black and white / monochrome conversions can be seen in the Mournes in monochrome gallery and the Monochrome landscape and macro gallery.

Bye for now!