We arrived at Kilkenny after dark. After circling the downtown a couple of times looking for a parking spot, we entered a parking lot of a bed and breakfast inn and knocked on the door. Not only there were vacancies – it appeared that we were the only guests. The house was freezing cold – the heat had been turned off. We dropped our bags in the room and went to have dinner at the historic Kyteler’s Inn. The story is that at the end of 13th – early 14th century it was owned by Dame Alice le Kyteler, who was subsequently accused of practicing witchcraft and had to flee to England. That was one of Europe’s first witchcraft cases.
The next day started for us with a visit to Kilkenny castle. Opportunities for photography were somewhat limited, as the exterior was lit by a very high-contrast light. Nevertheless, a combination of wide and telephoto lenses provided some variety in composition. Inside the castle, photography was not allowed. The tour itself gave a nice overview of the history of the Butler family – former owners of the Kilkenny castle.
Another major historical site in Kilkenny is St. Canice’s Cathedral, from which the city derives its name. Although we were not allowed to climb the impressive round tower due to the lack of supervising staff in the off-season, we had the main cathedral all to ourselves. Once again, we enjoyed the photographic benefits of travelling outside of the peak tourist season.
An unexpected interesting feature of St. Canice’s Cathedral (besides it being an architectural treasure that traces its history to 6th century) is that it contains a tomb of one of President Barack Obama‘s distant relatives. (Really!)
Another note on cathedrals in Ireland: we were always allowed not only to take pictures inside, but also to use a tripod. The interiors of the cathedrals are perfect for applying the High Dynamic Range (HDR) technique.
To use HDR, one captures several (typically, 3 to 5) images of the same scene with different exposures (both over- and underexposed). These images are then combined on a computer (e.g. using Photoshop) to produce a single 32-bit image (a conventional photo has 16-bit dynamic range).
Please follow the link to see our photographs of Kilkenny.
Keywords: Kilkenny.