John Mee's photostream  

Ballinfad college is only about 15 minutes drive from me but this is the first time that I have actually visited it. It was originally a large country house boasting 50 bedrooms and 50 bathrooms. It was built in 1827 and was sold to the African Missionary Brothers in 1908. They opened it as a secondary school or minor seminary to accommodate students preparing for the missionary priesthood.

Thousands of young men from all over Ireland received their secondary schooling there until the mid-1970s, when the school was sold to Balla mart and became an agricultural college for a period. During that near 70-year period, between 400 and 500 pupils went on to be ordained to the missionary priesthood in the SMA. A number also went on to other seminaries and were ordained priests.
I parked up right outside the main entrance. The front door was unlocked (that's handy) and I entered. Pretty much immediately, you can sense the atmosphere - not good, not bad - just abandoned and derelict - and exciting!

I took a bunch of photos and they were rubbish.
This isn't much better but I had good fun creating it.

A long exposure shot from one of my favourite locations.
Part of me thinks I should crop this. I think the branches at the bottom may be too dark. Mouse over the photo to see what I'm thinking.
I value your thoughts on this. Thanks - John.

This year 2012, I hope to explore and experiment some more. Maybe I can bring a bit more of me to my images. Maybe I can go back to what it was that brought me to photography in the first place.
It probably won't be pretty - it probably won't be West of Ireland. But it will be me.
Read the full article on my site. www.johnmeephotography.com/index.php/john-mee-photography...
No graphics please. :-)

Feel I've lost my mojo lately and haven't got the opportunity to get out to shoot so I took the time to work on a planned site redesign.
I'm hoping to have it all back online towards the end of this week.
The shop is online all the time - only the main frontpage and blog are affected.
It should all "fit" together a bit better than the last one.
No doubt, there will be a few glitches when it does go back up.
Here's a sneek peek.