Annnnd the Wicklow Mountains go to…

I’m excited to announce the winner of the Irish Landscape contest! Dozens of friends were incredibly supportive and shared my posts. I want to express a big thank you for this. In the industry I’m in, getting the word out is really the way to obtain projects and make a living. So again, thanks!

Having said that, I went back through all the shares and tweets and created a list of names. People who shared more than once were entered the number of times they shared!

It took me a little while, but I found an online program which would randomly select a line of text from an inputted list. I put in all the names and…The winner is…

Nathan Woods!

Nathan and I toured together back in the day. Nathan was lead vocals and guitar for a band called Sunday Night Cruise, and I played bass, wore tight jeans, and ate junior bacon cheese burgers in a band called Worthless Without. Fond memories. I was happy to see his name come up on the digital fruit spinner.

Here’s the one Nathan decided to print:

Nathan said that this pic just summed up how he pictured Ireland. He said something about the winding road…

Nathan. That’s not a road, that’s a river! Which kind of reminds me of the kid who draws a picture of his mom and she says “aw, that’s beautiful Johnny, it’s…a…dinosaur?”

Oh well. He liked the picture, so it’s all good : )

All of the images from my travels are available for purchase. Please drop me a line if there is one you are interested in. We’ve got a lot of options for printing and framing, if you think it’s something you’d like.

Thanks for reading my blog and being a part of what I do. And if you haven’t done it yet, plan a road trip in Ireland!

Tags: Art Print, Ireland, Landscape, Nathan Woods, Photographer, Wicklow Mountains

Orillia’s new Record Label: Sleeper Records

A year ago I wrote and filmed a music video for my friend Aaron Mangoff, who lives here in Orillia. We used a track from his first album that was recorded by my brother Luke, here in Orillia. And a few short weeks ago we created a short Rocket Hub video for Sleeper Records, a new record label…in Orillia.

If you’d like to find out how you can be a part of the record production, get tickets to Sleeper’s official launch party on June 16th, and own an album from two talented young musicians from my home town, check out the material below. Don’t just watch the video though – you gotta head to the Rocket Hub page to get info on how you can be a part of it. It’s a pretty cool process too!

Huge thanks to my brother, Luke for providing top notch audio. My wife, Lydia for helping with direction and production, and extra thanks to Jeff Andrews for coming out as second camera, and for providing his quality editing skills!

Click here to go to the Rocket Hub Page for Sleeper Records!

Tags: Film Production, Orillia, Sleeper Records, Video

Landscape of Ireland: Inland to Coast!

This past week has been an incredible road trip. We’ve put nearly 2,000 km’s on the rental car. Lydia and I looked at a wall map in the hostel we’re at tonight and summarized where we’ve been since landing in Dublin. We’ve seen a lot of the country across those 2,000 km’s. Having taken a little over a week to drive (and stop and enjoy) roughly the circumference of Ireland, along with some inland locations, we’re now in Belfast – only two hours drive from being back in Dublin! Coming from Ontario, this still blows my mind.

Giants Causeway. Natural Volcanic Rock Formations.

And there’s still so much to be seen here. We drove down a small road at random today, and it brought us to some caves which almost convinced me to believe in goblins. The nearby café kind of shot that one down. But it’s fun to imagine. And something about the landscape here encourages the imagination to run wild. The most popular other worldly location is the Giants Causeway, which the Irish used to believe was built by giants, before science came and wrecked it by explaining it was caused by volcanic eruptions. Not that it makes it any less awe inspiring.

Mussenden Temple

Road to Castletown

Dingle

Dingle

Along the Coastal Causeway

Giants Causeway. Natural Volcanic Rock Formations.

Giants Causeway. Natural Volcanic Rock Formations.

If you’d like to win a custom print of one of my landscape photos from Ireland, share my blog post on Facebook, and ‘mention’ my name in the post (so I can keep track of who’s shared it.) If we’re not friends on Facebook, please do add me! Tweet it in the same fashion, and that’ll get your name in the draw a 2nd time!

Thanks so much to everyone who shared my last two blog posts! The winner will be announced by end of May.

Tags: Giants Causeway, Ireland, Ireland Backpacking, Ireland Coastline, Ireland Landscapes, Photo, Travel

I Drive too slow; Irish Castles, Cliffs and Churches

So, two days ago I’m confidently driving down a winding Irish road. And I’m congratulating myself on driving as dangerously fast as I am. And I’m not just saying it was fast because I’m on the opposite side of the road as I would be Canada, driving stick shift on the opposite side I’m used to. I’m saying it was uncomfortably fast for a road that’s big enough for one and a half cars. And as I’m responsibly thinking “Wow, maybe this is a little too fast”, I look to my right as a mid sized vehicle with a seventy year old man driving with his wife passes me.

I mean, I’m not a slow driver in Canada. I like driving quickly… I only saw the back of his head… He could have been younger…

Either way, my driving has brought Lydia and I to some really stunning locations across Ireland. Ancient churches and monasteries, castles built by Vikings, vast cliffs and mountains and Oceanside. And as we head northward from Galway tomorrow morning, I leave you with a small taste from each.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

If you’d like to win a custom Landscape print from Ireland, share this post on Facebook. Be sure to ‘mention’ my name in the post so I know to add you to the draw!

You can do the same on Twitter! More shares mean more entries to the draw for the print.

Tags: Aran Islands, Dingle, Ireland, Kilarney, Monastic Ruins, Photography, Travel

5 things I didn’t know about Dublin, with iPhone-ography

On our first day of adventuring in Dublin, feeling the tiredness of jet-lag, I decided to leave my camera at the hotel. However, within half an hour I was snapping pics with my iPhone. With the in-phone apps such as Instagram, the iPhone offers yet a quicker and simpler approach to digital photography. It has a kind of disposable feel to it – there’s no pressure to get ‘the perfect shot’. It’s simply the enjoyment of composition and lighting.

We’ve been in Dublin for under 48 hours, and have already learned all kinds of interesting facts about this city and it’s history. And so, without further adieu, I offer you 5 things I didn’t know about Dublin, with some iPhone images to illustrate!

If you know some facts about Dublin that you think I should have learned by now (in the last 48 hours) post it in the comments below!

1) Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease on 62 acres of property when he started the brewery in 1759. The lease agreement was 45£ per year, and had no stipulation accounting for inflation. 243 years later, Guinness responsibly pays 45£ per year for their 62 acres in the heart of Dublin.

2)You can find a mummified cat and rat at Christ’s Church in Dublin. Both were stuck in the organ in the 1850′s, presumably whilst the cat chased its prey. Someone thought it was worth putting them in a glass case.

3) During the Great Famine in Ireland, from 1845 to 1852, hundreds of people deliberately committed petty crime in order to be incarcerated at Kilmainham Gaol in the county of Dublin, as the State acknowledged responsibility in feeding their prisoners. The youngest person to serve time at Kilmainham was a five year old boy, who was sentenced to 12 days time for ‘stealing a piece of chain.’

Kilmainham was decommissioned in 1924, and is now a museum. Because of the age and condition of the prison, it’s been used for filming several movies, including the original Italian Job, and one Lydia and I really enjoyed, The Escapist.

4) The tallest sculpture in the world stands in Dublin, on O’Connell street

5) Umbrellas in Dublin are disposable. I saw two umbrellas in a garbage can, and more than one person struggling with an umbrella whose frame had forfeited to the wind and rain we had today. Not to worry, spirits are high!

Tags: Dublin, Instagram, iPhone, Ireland, Photography, Travel

A Hundred Years Ago, Orillia’s Sunshine City Festival!

A few blog posts ago I created some reenactment photos of Stephen Leacock, for the Leacock Museum in Orillia, and Orillia’s Culture and Heritage Department.

I was recently called on by the same team to create some images that represent 1912, for Orillia’s annual Sunshine City Festival coming up in August. Darcy Hoover of Orillia’s Culture and Heritage Department, Fred Addis, the curator of the Stephen Leacock Museum, and Laurie Ann Goodwin, our gracious model pulled together with the talented Jenny Martynshyn, our make up artist to create the final images that will be used for this promotion. I’d also like to give a big thanks to Jeff Andrews, who came out and lent a hand with setting up lighting for the shoot.

It was fun, looking up some images from around 1912 to get an idea of the final black and white look they had. I tried to keep the warm tones found in aged photographs, but I think the use of flash units and light modifiers introduced a kind of modern, dramatic touch.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. If you like what you see, consider subscribing via email! If all goes according to planned, my next few posts will be from Ireland. I’m giving away a custom landscape print from our travels. Click here for the deets

All the best!

- Cole

Win a Custom Landscape Print from Ireland! (We’re going to Ireland.)

Here’s the Back Story

I get home on Saturday afternoon. Lydia suggests we book some flights to Ireland. Flights that would leave in 9 days. “We can backpack, maybe rent a car. It’ll be fun. Ireland is beautiful!”

An hour later we had booked the tickets.

Ever since one of the first bus rides while in Ecuador, half sitting, half standing – fearing accepting that the bus may careen off the side of a precipice any minute, I’ve had a real sense of awe at the beautiful world God has given us. And, I’ve decided that I’d like to see more of it. Lydia decided this way back when she was sixteen, living in France on exchange. So, we’re headed to Ireland. Land of Guinness, and Potatoes and Leprechauns.

Yeah, and Canada is the land of the Beaver and Igloos.

Anyway, my plan is to spend some time focussing on landscape photography. I get the feeling Ireland is going to give me no choice, what with the beautiful cliffs, castles, fields, sheep – you know.

If you would like to win an 18″x 24″ custom print of somethin’ beautiful in Ireland- here’s what to do:

If you aren’t already subscribed, sign up to get an email when I make a blog post – this will give you a leg up for the contest.

Here’s the Contest

Every time you see one of my blog posts from Ireland, do one or more of the following to get your name added to the contest:

Facebook: Share the blog post on Facebook, and ‘mention’ me in the post. If we aren’t friends, why not add me!

Twitter: Share the blog post on Twitter, and ‘mention’ me in the Tweet. Here’s a link to my Twitter profile

Pretty Straight Forward. You can start by sharing THIS post! 

As I make blog posts throughout the trip, you will see my photos and hear stories of where we’ve visited. Keep your eyes open for a print you would like to have in your office, or in your living room, because if you win, you win a print of your choice from my blog posts while there!

And don’t worry if you live somewhere across the globe someplace – we’ll ship the final print to you, wherever you are.