Last week I was in Benalmadena and decided to take a walk through the gardens which surround the local library.
This is a stunning place full of all sorts of tree, cacti and animals so I thought I would show you some of the snaps I took. These are really only my holiday snaps and I don’t think I’ll be turning them into wall prints (unless requested!).

Arguably, one of Warhol’s most famous pieces was of a tin of soup…..that’s right, soup.

I remember the first time I saw the picture, I was in my high school art class and my first thoughts were “how easy is that! I could do better!”. However, as we all know, it’s not that simple. That image became an Icon and will always be an instantly recognisable piece by the famous artist.

Fast forward to the present day and another Warhol print has just gone under the hammer. Titled “Skulls” and made in 1976, it’s a collection of 10 canvases in acrylic and silkscreen ink.

I have to admit, it instantly took me back to my high school art class as, in his unique style, it’s almost exactly the same as that iconic image! Obviously this is just my opinion, but I would love to hear your comments on this matter. Having very little knowledge of modern or contemporary art I would love to know what (in your opinion) makes these images the icons they are, and not just Warhol.

I personally love both the images mentioned, but I certainly wouldn’t be found bidding £4mil even if I did have it lying around.

Full Story from BBC

Whoo! Finally I get a Holiday!

Me and the family are heading to Benalmadina on the Costa Del Sol in a few weeks for a well earned rest! I’ll be taking my camera with me, so if anyone knows any good views or landmarks I might shoot, please let me know.

Only one thing remains, better brush up on my beginners Spanish!

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while, I’m working on a project at the moment that I hope to able to show you soon. In the meantime, some people have asked me to explain my shop page a little so here’s a brief look at it:

The shop is hosted by RedBubble.com who provide printed modern art prints for 1000s of artists worldwide.

Had a little play around with Photoshop this week, this particular shot is currently giving my girlfriend nightmares!

Might have a few more fun pics to put up soon, this one seems to have attracted interest as well as insighted fear!!

Speak soon,

Kieran.

[edit]

“Oops! I didn’t see me there!”

it is being brought to my attention that I have been neglecting people.  I know I’m as surprised as you! I currently have most of my artwork available as framed and canvas prints. However many people have contacted me saying that although they would like to own a piece of my artwork they simply can’t afford the price of a framed print.

And so I have decided to publish some of my artwork as posters.  These are available in my shop as always and cost around £15.

Below is a list of those artworks available as posters, simply click the picture to get a better view on my shop page.  Please remember to press the poster icon near the top of the page to view and customize any poster.

From now on, I will do my best to make sure all my artwork I put on the shelf is available as a poster.

Thanks for reading and enjoy,

Kieran

Recently , a lot of people asking me one of two questions: “How did you go from taking photos to taking good photos?” and “How did you start making money from them?!?”

So I have decided I shall do my best to answer them here. But first let me tell you how it all began…

…A few years ago I started a small design company here in Northern Ireland. I had funding and a little money I had set aside myself, so I wanted to do it right. I knew I would need a camera as I do a lot of small business websites and they always want a picture or two on there, and having the money at the time I thought I’d get a good one.

So, when it arrived, I found myself looking at a very expensive camera and having absolutely no idea what all the little buttons and switches did. At this point the guilt set in! I thought to myself: “how am I going to look my bank manager in the face again, knowing I have squandered her money on something I haven’t a clue how to use, let alone have a need for!”

And that’s what pushed me to find out what ALL the little buttons were. From there it was just a case of reading…and reading more…

Amy Renfrey

One of the best books I read was “Digital Photography Success” by Amy Renfrey. This is a great book which is now available as an E-Book. It’s full of tips and tricks but what got me was that it was tailored to those wanting to make the leap from taking photos to taking GOOD photos and doesn’t yet have the confidence.

Because confidence was my big issue, especially as at the time I was only really doing this to lessen my guilt over wasting money that technically wasn’t mine.

I looked around for the E-Book and found that you can now have a sneak peak before you buy it. You can see Amy’s page Here!

After reading books it was time to go out and TRY! So as you can imagine I took a lot of really bad shots!  But as always, practice makes perfect. I spent a lot of time reading about things like compositional techniques only to realize that if you stick to a couple of rules, the rest is just imagination. Then what I needed to do was learn to process my digital photos…

I’ll do my best to finish this before the weekend.

Yesterday myself and the family went for a day out to try and get our moneys worth from our National Trust membership and went to visit Mussenden Temple on the north coast near Castlerock. Typically the weather wasn’t really with us but it was still an interesting walk which we really should have done years ago.

Mussenden Temple

Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Mussenden Temple is a small circular building located on cliffs near Castlerock in County Londonderry, high above the Atlantic Ocean on the north-western coast of Northern Ireland.

It was built in 1785 and forms part of the estate of Frederick Augustus Hervey, the 4th Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Derry. Built as a library and modeled on the Temple of Vesta in Italy, it is dedicated to the memory of Hervey’s cousin Frideswide Mussenden.

Over the years the erosion of the cliff face at Downhill has brought Mussenden Temple ever closer to the edge, and in 1997 the National Trust carried out cliff stabilisation work to prevent the loss of the building.

The inscription around the building reads, “Tis pleasant, safely to behold from shore/ The rolling ship, and hear the tempest roar.” The quotation is from Lucretius.

Now part of the National Trust property of Downhill Estate & Mussenden Temple, the grounds encompassing Mussenden Temple, and its manor house (Downhill Castle) are open to the public all year, dawn to dusk. The temple itself is open on certain days, and admission is free. The Temple offers magnificent views westwards over Downhill Strand towards Magilligan Point and County Donegal and to the east Castlerock beach towards Portstewart, Portrush and [Fairhead].

The dovecote

All in all a good day but I think we’ll return in better weather for another look round.

As you may have already guessed from looking at my photos, I like to walk with my camera! In fact I like to walk without it too but I rarely let myself So when my most mobile tripod took a tumble and I saw the panning arm shoot across the room, my other half could barley contain her joy, as she had finally thought of something to get me for my birthday!

So, with a bit of discussion and light persuasion, I managed to order a Manfrotto! I have used Manfrotto tripods at work for years but had never had the money lying around for one myself. I decided on the Digi series as they seemed to have the best balance of size and stability. As I said the whole purpose of this tripod was for walking so I wanted as compact as possible but still a full size tripod tall enough for looking over high hedgerows etc, so I went for the 715B.

Not only did it have all the usual Manfrotto traits such as anti-torsion D shaped legs and quick release leg locks, but it had a couple of things I think are simply genius! Firstly there’s the head, as I said my reason for replacing was that the panning arm had broken on my previous tripod so I simply love the fact that this doesn’t have one!! It has a permanent friction ball head! The ball allows 360 degree movement and all you need to do is set the friction with the knob provided and then forget about it, you just point and shoot and the camera stays exactly where it should!

Another handy thing about having the ball head is that there are no arms or knobs to clutter the thing up so the head is designed in such a way that it can recede into the tripod in transit making it an amazing 45cm long. Coupled with the free rucksack style bag make this the best tripod I can imagine for hiking/walking.

And if you want one of your own, Calumet have a huge range and as I’m an affiliate you can get a discount on shipping if you use the code below: