Dunmore East Harbour Photo Experience
I absolutely love when I can escape in the morning for a photo walk before I get started with work. On this beautiful sunny, but very windy spring morning I headed out to capture Dunmore East Harbour, County Waterford, Ireland. I had hoped to get out a bit earlier to catch more fishing activity around the harbour, but I am not a morning person. That said, I don’t think there was much activity that morning. There were plenty of the boats tied up pier side.
I had really hoped to get some photographs of fisherman working on their boats, but while I heard one or two engines running, there was nobody to be found topside. It was mostly quiet and quite peaceful walking around the harbour. A few people who worked around the docks, and a couple of older men chatting. That and the sound of waves, wind, and seagulls. In other words a very pleasant morning to be out for a walk.
I was out for some photos, and to film some video with my new DJI Osmo Pocket 4, sharing behind the scenes (BTS) of my creative thought process with making photographs. Unfortunately, my plan to mount the Pocket 4 on a monopod to film me while taking photos wasn’t going to pan out as the wind was too gusty, and I was sure the monopod and Pocket 4 would be blown over. Not a good way to start my first time using the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. That dramatically reduced the amount of video footage I took that day.
I wandered around the harbour, looking for opportunities to make a photograph. Most of what caught my attention was either colour or texture oriented. I took opportunities to chat with people around the docks, looking for a subject or moment to take a portrait. There were so few people about, and those who were were busy working and it didn’t seem like a good time to interrupt them. I did chat with the two older men talking while over looking the harbour, but other than the candid photograph I took, they weren’t interested in having their portrait taken.
Here is the video from the photo walk:
Dunmore East Photo Walk Experience - A mid-week morning walk around the harbour to create photographs.
Even though it was windy, I decided to launch my DJI Air 3 drone, which has proven very capable in strong winds. With the wind coming on shore, I knew if I could get it out past the break water, that I would have no problem getting back to shore. The real problem turned out to be the seagulls. I have learned that seagulls are very aggressive towards drones, especially in the Spring (go figure). When I launched, a flock of seagulls immediately swarmed the drone, and “I Ran”. See what I did there … cheesy I know. Seriously though, I had just took off and I had to immediately descend the drone to just in front of me to get the seagulls to stop. I had to wait them out, waiting for them to get bored with the drone. When they did, I took off and flew the drone as fast as I safely could out past the break water. That seemed to evade them, that is until the return flight. I have never had so many seagulls chasing and lining up my drone. I felt like I was flying a combat mission (and I have actually flown combat missions - another story for another time). I was diving, climbing, weaving. They chased the drone right up until it was about 3 meters in front and above me.
Drone safely recovered, and some photographs taken, nothing necessarily portfolio worthy, but a nice day out taking photos either way. Here is what I captured that I like from the photo walk.
The Days Catch:
