18th Century Glass Phial, Hammond Lane Excavations, Dublin City.

It's just incredible that this delicate hand blown glass phial survived deep in the ground under our feet, compressed under almost 300 years of habitation right in the center of Dublin city. It may have contained some medicine of some kind or another. Sealed with a tiny cork, it was probably kept and re-used many times, as recycling occurred in the Post-Medieval world too!

Bottle Selection, Hammond Lane Excavations, Dublin City.

These beautiful bottles were excavated on Hammond Lane in Dublin. After a time in the ground a chemical reaction occurs and the glass changes, developing this wonderful effervescent quality. The larger bottles would probably have been imported containing wine from France. The smaller phial, would've held something more medicinal perhaps. They were all hand blown and date from the 18th Century.

'I look into the camera and take pictures. My photographs are the tiniest part of what I see...fragments of endless possibilities' Saul Leiter

Saul Leiter was one of the first so-called Street Photographers of the famous New York School in the 1950s and 60s to use colour. To me, Leiter comes across as a highly instinctive photographer with an ability to capture seemingly mundane moments and make them beautiful. He doesn't appear to have set up his shots; he just walked, observed and captured. In interviews, his dry and self-deprecating sense of humour makes him all the more accessible:

'Sometimes I worked with a lens that I had when I might have preferred another lens. I think Picasso once said that he wanted to use green in a painting but since he didn't have it he used red instead. Perfection is not something I admire. A touch of confusion is a desirable ingredient'

This photo (below right), taken on a rainy day in New York in 1956, captures a fleeting moment. Unsurprisingly, at this time Saul Leiter collected film stills from a number of famous early Italian movies. The title 'Yellow Scarf' and the dashes of complimentary pigments illustrate his attraction to colour. This was at a time when everyone else was using black and white. For us, perhaps the use of colour brings this image into today; black and white photography can sometimes create a nostalgic view distancing the past from our daily lives. Often, he liked to use out of date film for it's unpredictable effects. This is just one of the many images that illustrate Leiter's talent for creatively capturing the mundane.

His street photographs from this period appear to have fed a need in Leiter to observe and record. His colour images went unrecognised for a long time. It's not surprising that after a long career working as a commercial fashion photographer he is now a painter of colourfully charged abstract art.

Journey Home: Headlight Leaves

I am currently working solely in black and white film for my college projects. At first I assumed that this was a purely practical decision as I'll only be able to process black and white films myself. But I am beginning to be seduced by the atmosphere and sensitivity of black and white images. Everyday I am attracted to colours and it's really refreshing not to be distracted by them and instead, focus on other important factors like light, contrast, texture, mood and form. On my journey home this evening, I took out my digital camera, set it to 400 ISO, the same as the roll in my film camera and sought the instant gratification of the digital image to encourage me on with my seemingly prehistoric film. Looking forward to seeing what happens in the dark room. Will keep you posted!

Journey Home: The Slopes

Journey Home: Victorian Lamp Post

Journey Home: Train Window Reflections

Cloudy Sunset

Sometimes the clouds can hide a sunset, we suppose a clear sky is the only way to view the fading light. However, as I found one evening while walking towards the sea from my house. Just the right amount of clouds can add drama. These clouds were lit from below which almost set them alight andThe trees below became a striking silhuoette.

Sparks Might Fly

Sparks Might Fly

I am particularly fond of night time photography and the atmosphere it creates. I prefer not to use flash and open my aperture and simply see what happens. Sometimes, you create a painterly effect. Fires are great to capture in long exposures as the sparks dance upwards like lost stars. This was taken in July 2009 in my garden.

Leopard Sunset

A self-portrait. My car broke down while taking a de-tour in the Dublin mountains to catch the sunset on a clear midsummer evening. So while waiting to be rescued I placed my camera on the roof of my car and set it on self-timer. I used some flash to fill in the facial details but wanted to capture the sunset at the same time. After a few tries (I had plenty of time to wait, except the sunset was quickly disappearing), this happened.

Scent

I took this photo last February one evening when walking my dog, Fred by the sea. He just couldn't get enough of the smells from the fishing ropes. I set the camera on a 1 second shutter speed to capture the movement and the moonlight.