Click here for Part I.
Killarney National Park has a lot of the same great things I'm used to from national parks in the States -- picturesque lakes, majestic mountains and
charismatic megafauna. One other thing it has that I'm fairly certain none of our parks do is a castle -- Ross Castle, to be specific.
The castle comes into view across
Lough Leane while you're still a fairly good distance away. With this sort of view, it's easy to understand why someone would choose to build a castle here from both an aesthetic and defensive perspective.
I often like having foreground branches in a shot to provide some framing, but then I end up not caring for them later. I think I just need to get more precise in how I place them in the image.
According to Wikipedia, Ross Castle was built in the late 15th century by local ruling clan the O'Donoghues Mor, and was amongst the last to surrender to Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads during the Irish Confederate Wars.
I'm glad that I was able to maintain good focus from the bottom to the top of this shot of all five stories of the main keep.
I'm learning that more contrast is important in black-and-white shots to provide drama and distinguish between elements when you can't do with with different colors.
It looks almost like this rowboat is racing to beat an approaching storm. The clouds never dropped a really drenching rain, though. And the boat seemed to just be providing a water tour to a couple of park visitors.
On my return walk a jaunting car driver saw my cameras and alerted me to the presence of a red deer stag off the trail. Sure enough, he was right where I'd been told. Thanks, friendly jaunting car driver!
These ferns looked like bright green fireworks to me up close. I like the general chaos with the hint of order provided by the central stalks.
The walk was just what I needed after spending so much time on the bus over the previous three days. A great use of a free afternoon!
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