This is probably the picture that started it off.
I used to spend a lot of time walking in Howth County Dublin and could always see this thing sticking up out of the water. I think it’s gone now – I haven’t seen it in ages and ages. I think it’s the remnants of a trawler that ran aground years and years ago.
The photograph is an old one – I think I took it about 6 years ago and for a long time, it was one of my favourites. I like the reflections quite a lot.It was take with a film camera and lately scanned. For me it’s amazing how much noise you can see in film photographs now – they tend to be a good bit softer than some of the digital stuff. I don’t know if that’s really good or not.
Anyway, when I started the project, I especially want this to go into it.
Until a few days ago I had never heard of the Peter Iredale. It just turned up when I started looking at how other people had shot wrecks and I came across two interesting photographs. As I spend most of my time doing sports photography, my night photography skills are somewhat negligible. One day last year, we did some night kite photographs and that’s been about it really.
These two photographs caught my interest. I’m looking at both of them and I am trying to figure out how I might reduce them. I guess I’ll be looking for a place with a minimal amount of light pollution and from what I can see, the flashes were placed inside the wreck on at least one of the shots. I like the effect of playing with the different coloured gels as well. I have a rough idea of how to do this and I have a full set of gels apart from the one which is part melted onto my flash.
Anyway this one is from PhotoInference and this one is from victorvonsalza. The ship itself is located in Oregon from what I can see.
One of the points which has been made to me is that there are a lot of ugly wrecked boats out there. I’m looking for a way to make them look beautiful as far as possible.
JHetfield via kitesurfing.ie
Treasa, if you get time head down to Bantry bay and Castletownbere, there are 4 good wrecks that I can think of just off the top of my head. There is a spanish trawler on a small island with a ligthouse called Roncarrigicmor, then on the way into Castletownbere (CTB) on left before the golf course there is another old wooden trawler in a small harbour which rotten down to its ribs. Then across the bay on the Bere Island side there is a half submerged industrial trawler called the Bardinea Reefer which caught fire in the late 70’s, plenty of it exposed on a low tide. Carry on to the far side of CTB, out to Dunboy Castle and there is another rotten trawler in the small harbour. Worth the trip.
via Grizzly Man on the property pin
They’re only properly visible at low tide and the train line blocks the view from Great Island. It IS possible to get out there on foot – if you’re adventurous! The circular building just to the right is a Martello Tower, apparently of some note:
There are seven Martello Towers in the vicinity of Cork Harbour. During the 19th century Fenian uprising, the famous Captain Mackey briefly captured and held the Monning Martello tower near Fota island in Cork Harbour; this tower is believed to have been the only one ever captured.
Why are we here?
A lot of people have influenced me over the years of whom a key one is Philippe Plisson. He took some photographs of the boat graveyards in Brittany that I found particularly interesting – I wanted to say inspiring there but it’s a bit kitsch at this stage. Boats tend to catch my eye anyway.
This photograph was taken in Skerries, north County Dublin some years ago. The harbour has since been cleaned up a lot – it’s a working harbour anyway, in the same way that Howth is. But I am sure it is not the only harbour with abandoned boats on it.
While looking for something to do of a long weekend I decided to see if I could find another abandoned boat that I knew about, on a beach in Donegal somewhere. While looking for information on it, it occurred to me that there might be quite a few old, dead and abandoned boats around the place.
I have a lot of projects, of which another involves lighthouses. I grew up away from the sea, so I don’t understand why I have some affinity for it.
A lot of people have started helping me with this; the people on boards.ie photography, the people on kitesurfing.ie and the people on thepropertypin.com. A few of my friends are also coming in with information. I hope to get a lot of this done through the summer, as far as possible.
