Global Warming in Dublin

It is now my busy season for family portraits, but to keep my mind fresh, I'm working on a number of personal projects. These challenge me in different directions and the more I learn to be creative, the more I find I can bring to my professional work.

One of these projects deals with the changing aspects of life in Dublin as a result of global warming. As an example, here are some recent views of Bullock Harbour in Dalkey.

This image shot at low tide, feels more Mediterranean than Irish. A sign of things to come with our warmer and more humid summers. It was taken 9.00pm at the end of June, just before sunset.

While most of my professional images are produced during the working day, the image above was taken just after 10.30pm at the harbour, on a beautiful still and warm, mid summers night a few weeks back. Sitting outside in short sleeves is a new experience for me in Ireland, at that time of night. The green patch in the water is actually seaweed on the outer harbour wall and can be seen again at low tide in the next image.

Ever present in the waters around the harbour are members of the expanding grey seal colony from Dalkey island.

Seals can be quite large, as you can see and make their presence felt climbing up onto the harbour wall when they smell fish in the air! For anyone visiting Bullock harbour, it should be remembered that these are wild animals and best enjoyed from a distance. They shouldn't be approached or fed as they can give a nasty nip.

This project is on going and has proved to be really satisfying. It was a nice surprise however when I heard that the first two images picked up silver awards in the landscape and pictoral categories, from the SWPP in June.