Peter Cox Photo Courses, Ireland

New Gallery Opening Hours

Until May 1st, the gallery will be open five days a week from 10.30am until 5pm. Opening days will be Tuesday – Saturday.

After May 1st, we’ll go back to summer hours which will be 10am until 10pm, seven days a week.

Want to protect the Internet?

SOPA is new legislation which is being considered in the US at the moment. If successful it would mean effective censorship of the Internet. Sites can be shut down summarily with no due process if copyright infringement is suspected.

As a creative content owner myself, copyright protection is important. However, this goes too far and would turn the Internet into a shadow of its former self. Creativity and self-expression would be at serious risk.

f-stop Sponsorship

I’m delighted to announce that f-stop, makers of high-end camera bags and backpacks have added me to their Staff Pro “Rogue” programme.

As a result of this I’ve received a one of their packs, a Satori EXP with an XL ICU. This is an internal frame, “proper” backpack, and the ICU is a semi-rigid container which houses the camera gear itself. The ICU then slides into the pack and is easily accessible by opening a flap.

Previously I was using a LowePro bag for my medium format gear and had been frustrated by it when walking any distance. Since receiving the new pack, I’m absolutely delighted with it and I can honestly say that if I had received it only as an evaluation unit, I’d definitely be buying it now.

In fact, it’s my plan to order other ICUs to hold my Canon system and my Phase One SLR and lenses as well. That way I can slip whichever it is I’m using into the Satori when I need to hike, and if I need to carry two systems a short distance, it’s much easier to have the bag with one ICU on my back and carry another ICU by its handle. That way I’m not carrying another backpack with associated straps and dangly bits, plus unnecessary weight.

If you haven’t seen these products, I do recommend checking them out, especially if you do any sort of hiking or trekking with your camera.

Spitsbergen Polar Bear Photography Workshop

I’m delighted to announce that in conjunction with two world-renowned nature photographers (Iceland’s Daníel Bergmann and the USA’s Charles Glatzer), I’m offering a once-in-a-lifetime workshop to the Arctic Svalbard archipelago and its main island, Spitsbergen.

Polar bears, walrus, dramatic landscapes aplenty. For more details, check out the workshop page here!

Circle of Confusion Episode 12

Neil McShane, Roger Overall and myself have just released episode 12 of the Circle of Confusion podcast. In this episode of the companion series to our Dynamic Range video series, we discuss what’s happened in our careers in 2011 and what we plan to accomplish in 2012.

Circle of Confusion Podcast Reincarnated

As part of the Dynamic Range production process, Roger, Neil and myself are going to do a weekly 20 minute podcast.

We just put out the first one this afternoon to coincide with the launch of the video series. You can listen to it on this page, as well as seeing details of how you can buy the video.

Dynamic Range, the Video Series

After a long time in production and post-production, I’m pleased to announce that the first episode of the landscape photography tutorial/travelogue series I’ve created with Neil McShane and Roger Overall has finally been released!

Have some fun, see some stunning locations and learn how to improve your photography, all in a one hour, full HD downloadable video. And the price? A mere €9.95.

To learn more, and to buy – visit the Dynamic Range online store

My Five Best Photographs of 2011

As has become a yearly tradition (again, kudos to Jim Goldstein for the idea), here are what I consider to be my five best photographs of 2011. This has been a big year for me, seeing the opening of my gallery and the first year of my son’s life as well. Oh yeah, and the first year in a new house. Three of the most stressful events in anyone’s life, all more or less at once. But I’ve loved it!

If you’d like to travel with me and learn how to make excellent landscape photographs, be sure and check out my workshops for this year, including a trip to Iceland to photograph the northern lights and to Svalbard to photograph polar bears in 2013!

Anyway, on to the photographs, in descending order.

5.

This image was made on my August southwest Ireland workshop and was a quickly seen and executed image. It was one of the first images I’d made with the Phase One IQ180 that I was really happy with. I used a 10-stop neutral density filter to lengthen the exposure which was made in the middle of the day.

4.

This photograph was made on a shoot with my friend Ronan Kirby – I call him my rabbit’s foot as it seems every time we go out shooting there’s some dramatic light! We went into the Hag’s Glen with a view to photographing Carrauntoohil, Ireland’s highest mountain. Unfortunately the light wasn’t right for that, but later on there was a break in the clouds that allowed the Eastern ridge of the Reeks to be lit by the setting sun. A passing rain shower provided the raw materials for the rainbow and the result is this image.

3.

This is the newest photograph in this list, having been made only a few days ago. As such it holds the risk of being included simply because it’s new, but I think it has lasting value. One of the most haunted ruins in Ireland, this castle will be familiar to anyone who drives the Cork to Killarney road with regularity. On this particular morning the conditions were ideal and I couldn’t but stop and make my first photograph of it.

The challenge with this image was to photograph the castle without distortion, and with dramatic perspective. This required the use of my 23mm lens (about 15mm on a small format camera). If I had framed the image with the castle to one side or the other then wide angle distortion would have stretched it into an unnatural shape. I also needed to use about 10mm of rear fall to drop the horizon without tilting the camera up.

The centered composition, while it would appear to break many rules of composition works very well. largely because the fence on the right of the frame balances out the bright area on the left.

2.

Another new image, this is one I’ve been after for some time. A photograph of Slea Head in stormy conditions with dramatic light. This image was made just after sunset during a northwesterly storm – which meant that the spot I was standing in was sheltered from the wind by Dunmore Head to the right of frame. This meant I could photograph with a nice stable camera and without salt spray being driven onto the lens. The lateness of the hour also meant that I could use a slightly longer shutter speed of just over a second – this gives a sense of movement to the waves without smoothing them completely.

1.

This is what I consider my best image of the year. Another one made with the Phase One IQ180, the clarity and detail in a large print are second-to-none. I had spent quite a long time waiting for conditions to be just right at this vantage point of Ross Castle and this morning delivered in spades. A perfectly calm lake, good light on the castle and mountains and good clouds in the sky all work together with the careful composition to really invite the viewer into the frame.

Remember that all my images are for sale as fine art prints in my Killarney gallery and online here.

To see my best images of 2010, check out the blog post here.

Framed Print Shipping Costs

Here are the costs to ship framed photographs. Do remember that unframed prints are free to ship anywhere in the world. What follows only applies to framed prints.

All framed pieces are packed very well and shipped in sturdy containers to be sure they arrive safely. Tracking numbers will be emailed to you upon shipment.

Discount of 10% on orders placed before November 30th

To help you organize your Christmas shopping in plenty of time, we’re offering a 10% discount on all print orders placed before November 30th.

This will ensure that you have plenty of time to actually enjoy the Christmas season instead of stressing about last minute shopping.

To avail of this discount, just enter the discount code XMAS2011 when checking out.

Also, if you want your print to arrive in time for Christmas, make sure and place your order early!