Saint Finbarr's Oratory, Gougane Barra Forest Park

[Enda Cavanagh]

Howdy folks.

Apologies for the posterization on the jpg image!

I just spent a couple of days shooting in the stunning Gougane Barra Forest park in County Cork. Before you enter the forest Park you are presented with this amazing location on the shores of Gougane Barra Lake. It is located just a couple of hundred meters from the lovely Gougane Barra Hotel, where I stayed. You really have all the ingredients for a lovely experience. Great food, wine and landscape ).  I wanted to take a night photo of Saint Finbarr's oratory. I had checked the best location earlier in the day. There was absolutely no wind that evening. I checked the satellite imagery. The sky was clear for the entire south west of the country. Perfect. So off I went to shoot the scene. I had planned to shoot the Milky Way, which I knew would be located just above the roof of the oratory. I spent a bit of time setting up the shot. (It always takes a while in the dark!) I started shooting and suddenly this mist came from nowhere! It was moving at quite a speed but there was no wind. The photo was 4 minutes long and the branches are pin sharp. So weird. However I love the shot. The mist created amazing affects from the lights around the Oratory

Shot on a Sony a7r and Canon 24mm Mark ii TS lens 100 ISO.

[Rajan Parrikar]

Enchanting mood, lovely image.

[Jeremy Roussak]

It's stunning. I'm uneasy about the shadow in the sky, though.

Jeremy

[Enda Cavanagh]

It's stunning. I'm uneasy about the shadow in the sky, though.

Jeremy

Thanks Jeremy.
That was a lighting affect as the light from the lamp shone through the mist. The subtitles are lost a bit at this size

[sdwilsonsct]

Really nice.
Maybe it's the shadow, but the whole thing feels to me like it's leaning right.
Also: could you really get the Milky Way with those lights on?

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Enchanting mood, lovely image.

+1.

[Jeremy Roussak]

Thanks Jeremy.
That was a lighting affect as the light from the lamp shone through the mist. The subtitles are lost a bit at this size

Yes, I realised what it was. I just wondered if you could diminish it a little: it's quite harsh and I find it distracts from the rather ethereal beauty of the place.

I assume you meant "subtleties". Auto-correct strikes again!

Jeremy

[Paulo Bizarro]

Wonderful. I wonder how it would work in B&W? The tonality looks a bit too much yellow-green and "muddy".

[Enda Cavanagh]

Really nice.

Also: could you really get the Milky Way with those lights on?

Thanks Scott. I would use a separate exposure for the Milky Way. The image already consists of 2 sets of images. One with fall and one with rise. If need be I would have adjusted the comp so that the foreground tree wouldn't complicate the stitch. I would also have done a long exposure for the stars, which can look great too. Loads of ways to shoot it.

The scene looked completely different 30 minutes earlier. The mist is reflecting loads of light back into the scene. So my approach was different

[Enda Cavanagh]

I assume you meant "subtleties". Auto-correct strikes again!

Jeremy

Aaaargh. Auto correct. At times a dyslexic's Godsend... and at times my worst nightmare  

[Enda Cavanagh]

Wonderful. I wonder how it would work in B&W? The tonality looks a bit too much yellow-green and "muddy".

Thanks Paulo.
I was conscious of the yellow. I want to keep some of that cast. Otherwise it looks unnatural. It's how you read it when you're there but I think you're right that it needed a bit more removed. Here's the result. The muddy look is from the heavy mist. I tried the black and white but I do prefer the muted colours.

The subtleties of the mist is lost a bit at this scale. The 100 iso really makes a difference when shooting such a  scene

[Bob_B]

Beautiful, moody photo.