Sorrento Terrace

I follow a lot of interesting and talented photographers on Twitter, many of them Irish, and it’s interesting to track what they are up to photographically via their tweets.  Very often it’s a case of “great minds think alike” when it comes to this community of photographers, especially when we are treated to the sort of sunny weather and blue skies that we had in Dublin yesterday.  Looking back last night over some of the days earlier tweets, it was interesting to see many of my fellow photographers heading off to various parts of Dublin to capture some photographs, all citing the good weather as an excuse.  As it happens I did much the same yesterday, as Aoife and I headed towards Killiney for a stroll around some of the posher parts of Dublin, and a glimpse at how the other half lives.

I had been to Killiney Hill once before, but had forgotten about the views of Dublin city and the coastline that you get from the top of the hill.  Bringing a camera was an after-thought because it really was almost too bright for decent photographs (at least, in my experience – but then again if I owned some filters I might have relished the chance for some photography).  Nevertheless I did sling the D700 and 24-70mm lens over my shoulder (my version of travelling light) and carried it on our Sunday stroll.  I was glad I did as each new view of Dublin opened up in front of me.

The photograph above was taken around about the half-way point of the circuit of Killiney Hill, and is of one of Dublin’s most sought-after (allegedly) addresses – Sorrento Terrace – dubbed “Millionaire’s Row”.  Home to the rich, and sometimes famous (Neil Jordan was, and perhaps still is, a resident), it boasts spectacular uninterrupted views of the sea, and must be a world apart from the urban jungle that most Dubliner’s find themselves living in.

As I had equipped myself only with a 24-70mm lens, this image is a crop of the photo I took, and probably represents a focal length of about 120mm.

You can see what I mean about it being too bright for photographs by the difficulty I had in controlling the highlights in the shot, despite shooting in RAW, and the facade of the houses and the boat in the background are both blown out – a psuedo-HDR treatment would do something to recover detail here.