HX Report
Irishman in the Middle East
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Over The Hill
Posted on September 24, 2022
Thanks to Donna for this week’s post whose blog site can be accessed HERE.
MB harks (or harps!) back to an old post to take up this week’s photo challenge – Over The Hill, and he includes a link to that post below for those interested in reading the full story/post.
In St. John’s Church graveyard in the village of Knockainey, mere spitting distance from MB’s HX locality back home, lies a most intriguing gravestone. The gravestone inscription tells the tale of one John Murphy, who was well over the hill – more than 100 years before he actually died!
Read MoreLens-Artists Photo Challenge – Opposites
Posted on September 17, 2022
Thanks to Tina for this week’s challenge. Tina’s great post (and pics) are available HERE.
In September 2017, MB attended the wedding of a Lebanese friend in one of the oldest towns in the region, Byblos, on Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast. The wedding venue was the Saint Jean-Marc Cathedral, built by the Crusaders in 1,115 AD, a few hundred meters from the Crusader Castle of the same era. i
The church was originally built in honour of St John the Baptist, but a name change followed in later years to honour the Saint who introduced Christianity to the Byblos/Jbail region.MB made a post of that wedding trip which can be viewed HERE if followers wish to see more of the church and ceremony.
MB has chosen a shot from that wedding to try to meet Tina’s ‘Opposites’ theme. The shot shows the bride disappearing into the church where the groom awaits.
And so begins their married lives, leaving their opposite, so to speak, ‘single’ lives behind.
Lens-Atrists Photo challenge – Street Art
Posted on October 19, 2021
Lens-Artist’s Photo Challenge – Cropping the Shot
Posted on May 11, 2020
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Change your perspective
Posted on March 1, 2020
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Your Choice
Posted on July 6, 2019
Go raibh míle maith agaibh (‘a thousand thanks’ in Irish Gaelic) to the four ladies who administer and set the weekly photo challenges. They are angels all!
One year of challenges has now just past and Patti has offered us a blank canvas this week with her Your Choice challenge. Read More
Malta Miscellany
Posted on May 20, 2019
MB had previously travelled to Malta in November 1989 to watch the (Italia 1990) World Cup football qualifier game between Ireland and the home nation. Ireland needed to win to qualify and did so 0-2, compliments of two John Aldridge goals. Read More
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Street Art
Posted on May 14, 2019
Thanks to Patti for this week’s Street Art challenge.
MB was up at 5am this morning on the island of Malta for a photo tour with a local guide. Amongst the many great locations visited was the colourful fishing village of Marsaxlokk where the local Municipality are doing their bit to add to the local colourful culture.
The below shot Nr 1 shows the public seating along the quay painted in the same colours as the traditional Maltese fishing boats sitting in the adjacent water.
And what exactly are you doing in Malta MB???
Another time lads!
Regards.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Around the Neighbourhood
Posted on March 11, 2019
Thanks to Tina for this week’s ‘neighbourhood‘ challenge. MB certainly has his work cut out to match Tina’s shots from her spectacular Kiawah Island home!
Below are ten shots MB took when he was home a few months ago for Christmas break. The lake, located in MB’s Irish HX neighbourhood and around which the shots were taken, is called Lough Gur. Followers can check out loughgur.com if they are of a mind to do so. MB readily admits that it’s hard to take a bad shot in his neighbourhood, given nature’s spectacular canvas.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Cityscapes
Posted on January 20, 2019
Thanks to Patti for this weeks photo challenge.
MB took a 3-hour photo tour around Amsterdam some 2 years back in the company of a local professional photographer. He was a tad embarrassed at the end of the tour and somewhat reluctant to take his fat fee, having learnt so much from Irish/Arab shooter MB. In the end, however, he got over his embarrassment, grabbed the cash from the outstretched hand of MB and stuffed it gleefully into his pocket, education and cash at the same time!
More seriously, if you are into photography, and find yourself in unfamiliar territory, it’s well worthwhile to release the purse strings a little and get a local to show you the sights. MB would never have captured some of the shots he took that morning without the knowledge of the local photo lad, whose name now escapes MB.
MB took this one from the rooftop cafe of a tall building close to Amsterdam’s main train station. The sun was still illuminating most of the city but dark clouds were looming. Five minutes later the heavens opened, and the city was drenched.
Scenes from the homeland – 2
Posted on September 26, 2018
There’s a relatively little-visited hill next to the lake in MB’s HX homeland called Carraig Aile. Read More
Romania – 6/7 – Sundry
Posted on August 31, 2018
For MB’s next-to-last Romania post, he is giving followers some sundry shots taken in various locations inside Bucharest and out, with a little commentary on some. Read More
Foto Friday
Posted on September 22, 2017
The Geneva waterfront is a hive of activity, in the evenings especially but also i the early morning. MB caught these two ladies relaxing and chatting at 7am in the morning, clearing the heads before the day ahead no doubt. And why were you out at 7am in the morning shooting photos MB? Well lads, it’s just the kind of thing MB does.
Foto Friday – Irish Scene
Posted on June 9, 2017
The Foto Friday selection this week is an MB shot from his trip home of a few weeks back. And it doesn’t come more Irish than this.
Two guys do a spot of fishing from a boat on Lough Derg lake, to the backdrop of a stone-built Round Tower, and an emerald green hill.
HX Report 