Sofia in Dublin

I have always suggested my cousin in Manchester visiting me over the weekend some time, but it was until the last moment before I decided to leave Dublin that she took the decision, picked up a good Ryanair offer and visited me over.

So I thought I should make it special for her and really give her a chance to see Dublin and its surroundings. But to do that you need a car, I believe. So, there goes Argus car rental and our 4 days holidays in Dublin begins!!

Because I must confess that I felt like a tourist as well...She even brought my little Canon EOS 350D camera over from UK, which by the way I may from now on call Iris (deriving from the Greek goddess). Our trip included:

• Dun Laoghaire
• Bray Co. Wicklow,
• Glen Da Logh
• Dublin 2 City Centre,
• Dundalk Party at Catrionas and Michaels
• Dublin 1 City Centre
• North Bull Island
• Howth

Equipped with a Fiat Punto latest version and Iris we managed to see the harbour, the beach, the lake, Grafton street, halfway through Belfast and have a nice Irish history discussion with my dear Irish friends, drink, play pool, play with the cat, go shopping at Roches stores and then guess what....The weather became sunnier so instead of going home we decided to stroll by the quays of the Liffey River and ended up at the docks on the way to Clontarf, so what best, off we go to Howth!!! But wait what is that little bridge after those traffic lights?

- I have been in this city for 3 bloody years and have not seen this little island because everybody said " oh this is the golf island..." Well yes ti's indeed, however it has one of the loveliest views overlooking Dublin city and it's coast, it is serene and small but! There is a huge beach of thin, white sand, just like thin sugar. The Dollymount beach. There is something dramatic about this isolated little North Bull Island, which I would rather let my photos depict, than having me talking about it. After all, it is all about the feeling that emerges or even overwhelms you, something in the air of this island which should preferably be left unsaid, but felt.Iris is an amazing camera, indeed its response is so quick, by the time you lift the camera to your eye level, you can practically take 3-4 photos! This way going out for a 10 minute walk in a park makes you feel that you may end up with a good bunch of 20-30 photos...Easily!!!
To my amaze I realized that since the lens of this camera is considerably wider (in diameter) to the one I use to have, it kind of compensates for the loss of zoom (prior 10x, now 5x) for the light entering through the lens is so much more, making brighter and crisper images. A good example that made me realize this was when we visited my favourite Bistro bar inside a former Catholic church, opposite of Jervis Centre, for a snack with Sofia. I turned back to shoot the organ, just as I did with my Kodak few months ago, from the very same table we were sitting with Maria and Vaggelis, taking photos of the place like crazy Japanese tourists.

Well, mind you but this lens gave me a better image of the church organ with much less effort! ...Ok you might say it was day light Calliope, come on! But, even then I will say that this camera has a 1600 ISO, giving me a great chance to explore night photography.

Thinking about it now, I forget when was the last time that we saw each other with Sofia, I kind of loose it back in time...Enough to realize and explain my difficulty identifying my cousin at the airport! The years have changed us, beautified us, hardened us, our future agonies, I believe remain the same. And sharing our feelings and thoughts...Finding again our similarities and our differences as personalities.

For me I would call it the re-shaping a relationship. Take some old dry clay mix it up with some fresh one and some "water", put your "hands" carefully there and there you have a new pot!