PARKS AND GARDENS

A MUCH FASTER SITE AS IT IS HEADLESS

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THE CLOCK TOWER AT ST ANNE’S PARK

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ALSO REFERRED TO AS THE BELL TOWER

The Clock Tower in St. Anne’s Park is more accurately referred to as a bell tower, constructed in 1850 as part of the Guinness family estate. It’s a four-story brick structure, notable for its large bell inscribed with the Lee family motto. Although it once had a clock mechanism, it no longer functions as a timepiece.

The tower represents a piece of the park’s rich history, linking back to the Guinness era and the estate’s grand design. It’s a landmark within the park, offering a glimpse into the past and the lifestyle of the estate’s former residents.

THE WOODLANDS AND THE TREES

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ST ANNE’S PARK IN RAHENY

A Rich Tapestry of Trees

St. Anne’s Park boasts a diverse and mature collection of trees, many of which were planted in the 19th century by the Guinness family. This gives the park’s woodlands a sense of history and grandeur. You’ll find a delightful mix of native and exotic species, including:

Native: Oak, Ash, Beech, Elm, Lime, Chestnut, Yew
Exotic: Holm Oak, Monterey Pine, Himalayan Pine, Atlas Cedar
The variety of trees creates a multi-layered canopy, providing a rich habitat for wildlife and a changing spectacle of colour throughout the year.

Unique & Unusual Features

Shelterbelts of Holm Oak: Lord and Lady Ardilaun, the Guinness family members who developed the park, planted extensive belts of Holm Oak to protect the park’s interior from the harsh easterly winds and salt spray from the sea. These evergreen oaks, native to the Mediterranean, are well-suited to coastal conditions and their dense foliage creates a microclimate within the park.

Avenue of Giants: The park’s Main Avenue is a magnificent mile-long stretch lined with alternating plantings of Holm Oak, Monterey Pine, and Austrian Pine. These mature trees form a majestic canopy overhead, offering a sense of enclosure and grandeur.

Coastal Adaptations: The trees closest to the sea display fascinating adaptations to their challenging environment. Their branches often grow in a windswept, contorted fashion, sculpted by the prevailing winds. Some trees may also exhibit stunted growth due to salt exposure.

Impact of the Sea

The proximity of the sea has a profound influence on the park’s trees and woodlands:

Salt Spray: The wind carries salt spray from the sea, which can damage leaves and inhibit growth. This is particularly noticeable on trees near the coast.

Wind Exposure: The prevailing easterly winds can be strong, especially in winter. This can cause physical damage to trees, leading to broken branches or even uprooting.

Soil Conditions: The sandy soil near the coast is free-draining and nutrient-poor, posing challenges for tree growth.

Resilience & Adaptation

Despite these challenges, the trees and woodlands of St. Anne’s Park have shown remarkable resilience and adaptation. The shelterbelts of Holm Oak play a crucial role in mitigating the impact of the sea, creating a more sheltered environment for other trees to thrive. The trees’ windswept shapes and stunted growth are testament to their ability to survive and even flourish in a demanding coastal environment.

Today I used a Zeiss Batis 25mm Lens.

The Zeiss Batis lens series, designed specifically for Sony E-mount cameras, is a collection of prime lenses that excel in image quality, build, and innovative features. Let’s discuss some of their key aspects:  

Image Quality

Sharpness: Zeiss Batis lenses are known for their exceptional sharpness and clarity across the frame, even when shooting wide open. They produce images with fine details and beautiful contrast, making them ideal for various genres like landscape, portrait, and street photography.  
Color Rendition: These lenses deliver accurate and pleasing color reproduction with natural skin tones, making them particularly suitable for portrait photographers.
Bokeh: The wide apertures of Batis lenses allow for stunning shallow depth of field effects with smooth and creamy bokeh, contributing to beautiful subject isolation and background separation.  
Build Quality and Features

Durable Construction: Built with a combination of high-tech plastics and metal, Batis lenses are both lightweight and robust, designed to withstand demanding outdoor conditions and extensive use.  
Weather Sealing: The lenses are sealed against dust and moisture, offering added protection when shooting in challenging environments.  
Autofocus: Batis lenses feature fast and quiet autofocus motors, crucial for capturing fleeting moments and ensuring precise focus.  
Manual Focus: The focus rings on Batis lenses provide smooth and precise manual focus control, ideal for situations where critical focus is crucial or for creative effects.  
OLED Display: A unique feature in the Batis line, the OLED display provides information about focus distance and depth of field, assisting in achieving precise focus, especially in low-light conditions.  
Lens Lineup

The Batis series covers a range of popular focal lengths, each offering unique perspectives for different photographic needs.  

Batis 18mm f/2.8: A wide-angle lens perfect for landscapes, architecture, and astrophotography.  
Batis 25mm f/2: A versatile wide-angle prime ideal for street photography, environmental portraits, and landscapes.  
Batis 40mm f/2 CF: A compact and lightweight standard lens suitable for various genres, including travel, street, and documentary photography.
Batis 85mm f/1.8: A classic portrait lens with beautiful bokeh and shallow depth of field for stunning portraits and headshots.  
Batis 135mm f/2.8: A telephoto lens for portraits, sports, and wildlife photography, offering compression and subject isolation.
Conclusion:

Zeiss Batis lenses are a premium choice for Sony E-mount photographers looking for outstanding image quality, reliable performance, and innovative features. While they may be an investment, their superb optics, durable build, and unique features like the OLED display make them a worthwhile addition to any photographer’s kit.  

I own the 25mm, the 85mm and the 135mm and hope to purchase both the 40mm and the 18mm lenses at some future date.

I should mention that I was about to purchase some Zeiss Loxia lens but was advised by a contact that there is a known issue that develops over time:

The issue primarily revolves around the aperture communication between the lens and the camera body, particularly with newer Sony models.

Here’s a breakdown of the problem:

Inconsistent aperture communication: The issue manifests as erratic behaviour in how the aperture value is communicated from the lens to the camera. This can lead to several problems, including:

Focus magnification issues: The camera might unexpectedly exit focus magnification mode when focusing at certain apertures, making it challenging to achieve critical focus, especially for manual focus lenses like the Loxia.
Exposure inconsistencies: The camera might struggle to meter correctly or take an exposure at all due to the fluctuating aperture signals.
Flickering aperture display: The aperture value displayed on the camera’s screen or viewfinder might flicker or change erratically.
Cause: The root cause is likely related to the mechanical aperture ring and the encoder that translates its position into an electronic signal for the camera. Over time, wear and tear or even slight corrosion can affect the precision of this communication.

Affected models: While the issue can affect any Loxia lens, it seems more prevalent in certain models and particularly pronounced when used with newer Sony cameras like the A1 and A7R V.

Solutions Suggested To Me:

Send to Zeiss for repair: Zeiss has acknowledged the issue and offers repair services for affected lenses, typically involving replacing the aperture encoder.
Exercise the aperture ring: Regularly moving the aperture ring through its full range can help prevent corrosion and maintain smoother operation.
Workarounds: Some users have reported success by sticking to specific apertures where the issue doesn’t occur or by using alternative focusing methods. However, these are not ideal long-term solutions.

THE ANNIE LEE TOWER BRIDGE

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ONE OF THE MAJOR FOLLIES AT ST ANNES PARK

Within the sprawling beauty of St. Anne’s Park, a bit of confusion has arisen over time regarding its iconic bridges. While the Gothic Bridge and Annie Lee Bridge share a similar aesthetic, they are distinct structures. The Gothic Bridge, with its elegant pointed arches and intricate tracery, stands apart from the Annie Lee Bridge, a captivating mock ruin adorned with castellated towers.

St. Anne’s Park, a sprawling 240-acre public park, once formed part of a grand 500-acre estate developed by the Guinness family. The estate boasted a magnificent mansion surrounded by meticulously landscaped gardens, adorned with charming stone follies, several of which endure today. In a recent restoration project, Oldstone Conservation meticulously repaired and rebuilt twelve of these follies, safeguarding their legacy for generations to come.

Following Lady Ardilaun’s passing in 1925, the estate transitioned to Bishop Plunkett, a passionate horticulturist and nephew of Lord Ardilaun. Plunkett enriched the estate with a kitchen garden before its sale to Dublin Corporation in 1939. While the mansion tragically succumbed to a fire in 1943, the follies and most gate lodges remain as poignant reminders of the estate’s illustrious past.

Among these enduring landmarks is the Annie Lee Bridge, a captivating sham ruin constructed in 1839 by Benjamin Lee Guinness. Built to celebrate the birth of his daughter, Annie Lee, this mock bridge and tower stand as a poignant symbol of paternal love and pride. A commemorative plaque graces the bridge, which once arched gracefully over the main entrance drive into St. Anne’s.

As the first folly erected on the estate, the Annie Lee Bridge marked the starting point for a majestic promenade known as “the grand terrace.” This 700-yard path, once lined with stately yew hedges and punctuated by statues and arched openings, offered breathtaking vistas of Dublin Bay and the mansion. While the hedges and statues have faded into the past, the bridge endures as a testament to the Guinness family’s visionary aspirations for their estate.

The Annie Lee Bridge further etched its place in history during Queen Victoria’s final state visit to Ireland in 1900, as her carriage passed beneath its archway. Additionally, Bishop Plunkett, upon inheriting the estate, added another plaque to the bridge in memory of his mother, Annie Lee Guinness.

THE RAG TREE AT THE BOTANIC GARDENS

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PHOTOGRAPHED IN APRIL 2024 USING A SONY FX30

What are Rag Trees?

Rag trees, sometimes called “cloutie trees” (from the Scottish Gaelic word for cloth), are trees adorned with strips of cloth or pieces of clothing. They’re primarily found in Ireland and Scotland and are often near holy wells or other sites of religious and spiritual significance.

History and Meaning

The tradition of rag trees has a long and complex history in Ireland:

Pre-Christian Roots: Many believe the custom has roots in pre-Christian Celtic traditions. Trees were often considered sacred, believed to be places where the veil between the human world and the spirit world was thin. Offerings left on trees were thought to appease deities or nature spirits.
Christianisation: With the arrival of Christianity, the practice of leaving offerings on trees didn’t disappear. Instead, it became associated with saints and holy wells. People would tie rags to trees near a well as a plea for healing from illness or as a request for blessings from the local saint.
Symbolism: The rags on the tree are thought to symbolise the ailment or problem the person wishes to be rid of. As the cloth disintegrates over time, the hope is that the illness or trouble will also fade and disappear.

Rag Trees Around the World

While most prominently associated with Ireland and Scotland, traditions of tying offerings onto trees exist in various cultures:

Eastern Europe and Asia: Similar practices are found in parts of Eastern Europe, Russia, and Asia. These could be connected to ancient animistic beliefs or adopted into other religious traditions over time.
Global Examples: You can find variations of this idea of leaving offerings on trees or bushes in other parts of the world, highlighting the cross-cultural power of trees as symbols and potential places of spiritual connection.

The Rag Tree in the Botanic Gardens

The National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin, has a rag tree. It’s likely a hawthorn, a tree often associated with this tradition in Ireland due to its links to the Otherworld in Celtic mythology. Visitors tie mostly colourful ribbons and pieces of cloth to its branches. While many holy wells are rural, the rag tree in the Botanic Gardens demonstrates this enduring folk custom in an urban setting, allowing visitors to connect with Irish tradition.

A RAINBOW APPEARED

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AS I WAS LEAVING THE MILL FIELD IN THE BOTANIC GARDENS

It was very windy and wet when I visited the Botanic Gardens which mad photography very difficult. However, as I was leaving the Mill Field area I noticed a very faint double rainbow which I tried my best to photograph but to show it I had to adjust the files to the extreme.

The Fictional Allure Of A Crock Of Gold

The idea of a crock of gold hidden where the rainbow touches the ground is a classic folktale found mostly in Irish mythology. Here’s what makes it so enduring:

Leprechauns: This mythical treasure is usually linked to leprechauns, mischievous little creatures from Irish folklore. These tricksters are said to be shoemakers who bury their pots of gold at the end of rainbows to keep them safe.

Symbolism of Rainbows: Rainbows themselves are beautiful and ephemeral, often seen as symbols of hope and promise after a storm. The idea of tangible treasure connected to this fleeting beauty adds a magical element.

The Desire for Riches: Whether it’s finding a pot of gold or just getting lucky, many cultures have stories about sudden wealth – the idea appeals to our desire for good fortune.
The Scientific Reality

Unfortunately, the search for that crock of gold is always fruitless. Here’s why:

Optical Illusion: Rainbows aren’t physical objects in a fixed location. They’re a result of sunlight refracting and reflecting within water droplets in the air. The position of a rainbow depends entirely on the viewer’s location relative to the sun and the water droplets.

Shifting Perspective: As you move, the rainbow appears to move with you because the angle of the sunlight, your eyes, and the water droplets changes. This means there’s no single “end” to reach.
No Physical Pot: Even if you could reach the end of a rainbow, there’s nothing there. Rainbows are an illusion of light, not a tangible object or location.

The Enduring Charm

Even though we know the crock of gold is a myth, it doesn’t diminish the fun! The story still serves as:

A Whimsical Tale: It’s enjoyable as a piece of folklore, reminding us about the power of imagination and the playful nature of myths.

Teaching Moment: The “crock of gold” can be a gentle introduction to science for children, explaining how rainbows form and encouraging them to observe the natural world.

Motivator: While the treasure is fictional, the chase for the rainbow can be seen metaphorically. It can represent pursuing our goals and dreams even if the outcome is uncertain.

Photographing rainbows, especially double rainbows, can be challenging due to several factors:

Natural Conditions: Rainbows are formed when sunlight is refracted by water droplets in the atmosphere. This requires specific conditions: a mix of rain and sunshine, with the sun at a low angle (42 degrees or lower relative to the viewer). These conditions can be unpredictable and fleeting, making it difficult to plan for rainbow photography.

Visibility: Rainbows are more likely to appear when the sun is behind you and the rain is in front of you. However, they can be faint or partial, and double rainbows are less common and often fainter than the primary rainbow.

Size: A full, double rainbow can span a large area of the scene. Capturing the entire arc of a double rainbow requires a wide-angle lens.

As for the best lens choice and camera settings:

Lens Choice: A wide-angle lens is recommended for capturing the whole rainbow. A 24mm lens on a full-frame camera can capture a full rainbow, but it won’t be wide enough for a double rainbow. For a double rainbow, something like a 16-35mm lens is recommended.

Camera Settings:

Aperture: Use a narrow aperture (such as f/8, f/11, and beyond) to achieve plenty of depth of field, which refers to the window of sharpness in your photo. This helps keep both the foreground and the rainbow in focus.
Shutter Speed: Unless the light is strong, you may need to drop the shutter speed to 1/80s or below. A slower shutter speed can lead to blur due to camera shake if you try to shoot handheld. Therefore, using a tripod is recommended.

ISO: Keep the ISO at the minimum (ISO 100 for most cameras) to avoid image-degrading noise.
Remember, these are general guidelines and the exact settings can vary depending on the specific conditions and your creative vision.

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