[Leica] IMGs: Wedding

[imra at iol.ie (Douglas Barry)]

Haven't been on here for a while as my middle son got married last 
weekend, and things had to be done both before and after the wedding 
which was up at the Loughcrew estate in Co. Meath. As this was the first 
wedding of any of my children, I certainly learned the hard way not to 
expect anything worthwhile photographically from myself! It's definitely 
best left to the professionals who aren't emotionally involved in the 
whole procedure. Even though I stayed way in the background and only 
took the odd shot, I still made a series of very amateur balls ups - too 
many to detail.

We were blessed with a very sunny day , but the resulting harshly 
contrasting light was terribly hard to manage, especially as the wedding 
was held in the roofless and ruined old family church of St. Oliver 
Plunkett in the estate. However, it was a non religious service which 
meant we were pulled in to do various add-ons, like candle lighting 
(with unfortunate wind accompaniment), tieing the couple together with a 
crios, etc. - all of which were quite involving and didn't exactly mesh 
with photographic concentration. I should have just relied on my iPhone 
for the odd shot, but instead brought my Fuji X100S and Sony A7ii and a 
few lenses.

We stayed at the estate which has been in the hands of the Naper family 
since the 17th century when Oliver Cromwell dispossessed the original 
owners the Plunketts. Slightly later, the English had the Plunkett's son 
Oliver - a catholic bishop - hung, drawn, and quartered following Titus 
Oates's imaginary Popish Plot: he was the last catholic martyr in 
England. While the estate is interesting enough, it also lies at the 
foot of the Sliabh na Caillaigh mountains which are crowned with a 
number of fascinating megalithic remains, including Cairn T on Carrnbane 
East, which go back over 5,000 years. Cairn T is a passage tomb and the 
passage is aligned so that light strikes the decorated backstone through 
the narrow passage at sunrise on the spring and autumn equinoxes. 
Builders were astronomers back then.

Anyway, I climbed Carnbane East the day after the wedding, and here's a 
picture of Cairn T with my new daughter in law and some of her visiting 
French relatives - her mother is French - standing on top of the massive 
tumulus. The top of the tomb is the highest point in Co. Meath but that 
didn't deter her 80 year old grandmother. It was taken with the Sony and 
a f1.8 55mm Zeiss and the large size posted is very large to show 
detail. BTW the climb and the descent proved I definitely need new 
knees, but my French improved as her relatives have little English.

http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/Cairn+T+DSC04262.jpg.html

Au revoir

Douglas