Kinard

I am an admirer of the photography of John Hooton and Brid Coakley and some of their finest work has been done in the Dingle Peninsula and particularly in Kinard Beach.

See: http://john-hooton.com and http://www.bridcoakley.com 

I had never been in Kinard. In fact, I wasn’t sure exactly where it was until a couple of weeks ago when I looked it up on Google Earth. (It’s about 3 miles East of Dingle: as you approach the town from the East turn left at the Seal Sanctuary on the main road – there’s a small sign saying Cinn Aird. Drive due south on the narrow winding road until you come to the sea).  Last Saturday I decided to check it out.

It is a beautiful place. To the East is the sea-stack called An Searrach. South across Dingle Bay are the mountains of the Iveragh Peninsula and to the West is the high ground around the entrance to Dingle Harbour. The beach is sandy and there are plenty of rocks and boulders to delight the photographer of coast and sea. I could see why it is a favourite with John and Brid.

I climbed up the hill to the East heading for An Searrach, about three quarters of a mile away. When I arrived at the tip of the headland overlooking the sea-stack I set up my tripod, placed the 5D2 with the 17-40 attached on it, inserted the remote trigger cord, screwed in the Lee filter holder and slotted in an ND grad. I checked the scene, composed, and fired the shutter. Nothing. Looked at the LCD screen – “No CF card”. Blast. Rummaged in bag for card. None there. I uttered the unabbreviated version of “FFS” in a loud voice. Nothing for it but to traipse back to the car where I knew I had plenty of cards in my main camera bag and come back again. Which I did. Memo to self: make out a checklist before hiking across country to do photography – at your age you can’t rely on your memory anymore.

I mooched around the Kinard area for a few hours but it is a place that needs to be visited several times for it to offer up its full photographic potential. As in any form of landscape photography time of day is a major factor and I know that John and Brid are often here around dawn. It’s definitely a location that would be worth getting up early for.

These are some of the snaps I took:

I like the figures of the people in the foreground rendered ghost-like by the 10 seconds exposure.