I can resist everything except temptation.

As you may have noticed, I've been a bit Instagram-happy over the last few days. I think I can be forgiven as it was my birthday and I took a little trip away for a few days. Although, I do try to restrain myself and save the good stuff for the blog.... I hope it's the good stuff anyway! 

Last Thursday I turned 33 years old and as I had a couple of days booked off work I wanted to go somewhere I'd not been before. It turns out that it's something like £20 to fly to Dublin and back from Birmingham; and as I had only been there before for just a few hours when I was a kid I chose it as my birthday destination. I'd heard it's great for short city breaks - steeped in history, culture and with a reputation for world class food and parties to match. 

So, my boyfriend and I jetted off and arrived mid-afternoon on Thursday to a freezing cold and windy Dublin. Unfortunately, the day before I'd come down with a cold. It happens to me every year! I bet all the summer babies don't have to deal with that when they're having fun on their birthdays... anyway, enough moaning. 

One thing I love to do is organise, especially when travelling! I read all the guide books, look at maps and do my research on all the interesting places to visit and, of course, all the best food and coffee to try! Our first port of call was the Hugh Lane Gallery, north of the River Liffey in central Dublin. They had some really interesting artwork there but we were short on time before the gallery closed and the main reason for visiting was Francis Bacon's studio. You can see a photo at the bottom of this post. Bacon's London studio was dismantled and recreated at the Hugh Lane in the late 1990s when it was donated by his heir John Edwards. It was fascinating to see into the workspace inhabited by one of my favourite artists, providing an insight into how he worked and what helped him produce his incredible paintings. It was somewhat eerie, like he'd only just put down his brush and walked out of the room, everything left untouched. 

That evening we ate a dinner of tapas and enjoyed some red wine at a lovely restaurant recommended to me by my Spanish housemate - it was great! I think I can still taste the garlic now! Still not feeling brilliant, we headed back to our hotel, which was situated opposite Christchurch Cathedral just outside the Temple Bar area of the city. 

We spent Friday and Saturday exploring the city more and we mooched in some shops, stopping off for coffee and food when we needed to. We saw Oscar Wilde's house and enjoyed the Georgian architecture of Merrion Square. I'm so glad we decided to go in to the Natural History Museum. It was taxidermy heaven! I think they must have a stuffed version of every creature in that place. Plus it's free to get in! I would recommend a trip there if you're ever in Dublin and dead animals are your thing. We saw Dublin Castle, ate Irish sea salt ice cream, walked over a lot of bridges, saw the alleyway where Phil Lynott once filmed a music video, consumed some huge and delicious sushi and managed to avoid drinking both Guinness and whiskey. A victory for common sense! 

On the last afternoon before we headed off to the airport we made a stop at St Michan's Church. I was told about this place by a friend who'd visited Dublin a while ago for a stag do. Only ten minutes walk from the hotel we stumbled across the somewhat unassuming church hidden behind modern apartment blocks, just north of the Liffey. We went inside where we had to pay €5 to two old gentleman to gain access to the guided tour. We were collected by an eccentric, middle aged Irish man who immediately wanted to know where we came from and what football team we supported. We followed him as he led us down some steps underground to see the crypts below.

There are several crypts under the church and due to the unusual combination of the local geology, depth and temperature of the underground burial vaults, the mummified bodies inside the crypts have been preserved in remarkable detail. Some are as old as 600 years. It's creepy, damp and dusty under the church but the stories of the dead told by the guide were captivating. You can see the couple of photos I snuck while he wasn't looking as photography is prohibited in the crypts. We were even allowed to touch one of them - the body of a crusader - as it's believed to be good luck. I'll let you know how that works out! 

I've added a few more of my favourite photos from the trip, including a few poor quality iPhone and Instagram shots but I wanted to share them anyway. I hope if any of you make it to Dublin you enjoy your visit as much as I did. Thanks for looking! 

The flash of a distant camera, reconnecting thoughts and actions.

Back in my first blog post I mentioned wanting to improve my photography skills so I searched online for local classes and found Photo School; a series of workshops and photo walks organised by Pete Ashton in and around Birmingham.

I signed up for the beginners course which consists of three 90 minute sessions for £40. I thought this was excellent value for money; most other classes I found were far more expensive and more advanced for my needs.

The aim of the classes is to get you used to the settings on your camera, what all the different buttons do and help you move away from the automatic setting so you're in control of the photographs you take. I was still struggling with my new camera and although I've been producing some decent pictures I'm still mostly working through trial and error and I found it frustrating when I wasn't able to manipulate the controls to achieve specific results.

Pete's lessons are great, easy to follow and he really helps you understand the fundamental basics of photography including aperture, exposure, ISO, shutter speed and composition. We were given the opportunity to ask any questions and provided with handouts of all the information we were taught. Each week homework tasks were set so we could test our newly acquired knowledge and skills and then the following week we would discuss our photographs and learn where we went wrong. And mostly I did go wrong! But that's why I was there, I needed to learn.

Here are some of the photographs I took for my Photo School homework. Some were so painfully boring that I've spared you the tedium!

As you can see, I seem to favour the portrait aspect, which I never realised until I submitted this set of photos. By no means do I think these are great photographs, they're just an example of stuff I was experimenting with.

After completing the three lessons I signed up for one of the Photo School photo walks. Pete puts on several different walks around Birmingham and I chose the Digbeth walk. I work in Digbeth every day and thought it would be interesting to take a stroll through the area and have a proper look at what's around me every day. Pete takes you on a guided tour, giving you plenty of opportunities to take photos, look at the views and architecture whilst listening to him tell you some facts and history about the things you see around you. I went along with a friend and there were three other people on the walk; it was a lovely way to spend a crisp, clear February afternoon. Here are some of the photographs I took during the walk, including one my friend took of me. 

Next time I'll wrap up warmer, my fingers and toes were completely numb by the time we finished up at the Custard Factory; so we headed home for coffee and cake! 

If you like walking, photography, local history and generally getting out and about in this fair city, I'd highly recommend signing up for one of the walks and you can do that here. Thanks for looking!