The main party met at the Midleton Park Hotel at 5.30am and carpooled before proceeding to the pier at Ballycotton where we were joined by the remainder of the party at 6am.
The sun did not oblige on the day but we took a few shots around the lighthouse. As the light did not look like improving we called off the shoot at about 7.30am.
– Bill Sisk
Mouse over the image below to activate the slideshow controls and see photographers’ details.
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A little bit of history was made locally over last weekend when the illustrious Royal National Lifeboat, Mary Stanford, arrived in Midleton on its journey home to nearby Ballycotton.
The boat’s own website tells the story best:
“She was the Ballycotton Lifeboat from 1930 to 1959 and was called out on 41 ‘shouts’ saving 122 lives. The most famous rescue being The Daunt Lightship rescue on 11th February 1936, as a result of this heroic rescue she was the first and remains the only lifeboat in RNLI history to be awarded a gold medal for gallantry (boat as well as crew).”
“She now sadly languishes in a backwater of Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock almost certainly heading towards being scuttled unless she is rescued soon!”
“As this is a very important part of Ballycotton and RNLI history, members of the community including relatives of the heroic Mary Stanford Coxswain Patrick (Patsy) Sliney, are teaming up to endeavor to bring The Mary Stanford home.”
The good news is that the Mary Stanford has been lifted from its moorings in Dublin and is currently in Midleton. She will soon head home to Ballycotton where she will be placed on a plinth overlooking the seas on which she carved out her reputation. It is intended to restore her over the coming year and many fundraising activities will be held to support it. We look forward to seeing the images of the restoration project and no doubt the finished project will feature in many an image of Ballycotton from here on in.
Connect with The Mary Stanford Facebook page here
Irish Examiner Article on the Mary Stanford
Anthony O’Connor won our recent ‘Reflections‘ competition with his wonderful night shot of Ballycotton Bay.
Here’s how it came about:
“The image was taken from Silver Strand. I had this image in my mind for a while since I had seen a similar shot on the ECCG website in the 2009 calendar. The conditions were perfect on the night so I hung around for a while and took several shots at different settings”.
Camera:Canon 400D
Lens: 18-55mm Kit lens
Focal Length: 18mm
F5.6, shutter speed 13 secs, ISO 400.
Lens flare: I normally have a UV filter on the lens all the time but I took it off on the night. Also the moon was well up in the sky and well above the frame of the image so flare wasn’t really an issue. The clouds probably helped reduce the brightness of the moon also.
I later adjusted the contrast (-1), saturation (+1) and colour tone (-1).”
See more from Anthony here.
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