Tag: statues

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Sheepdog memorial statue

A statue of a dog perched on a rock, with a snow topped mountain landscape in the background.

There is a lot to take in on the shore of Lake Tekapo. It is most well known for the crystal clear, bright blue colour of the glacial melt water. Depending on the time of year you might see Lupins by the lake or the Milky Way at night. Many tourists also come to see the tiny Church of the Good Shepard. Just a few metres down the road is this statue which seems to get missed by a lot of people. In the 19th century, Scottish shepherds came to work on the land around the lake. The high country could not have been farmed successfully without the border collies they brought with them. This statue honours these canine Scots. 

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Molly Malone close up

A statue of a woman on the right looking towards a large clock positioned behind her. Below the clock is the sign of O’Neil’s.

Has time caught up to Molly Malone? I previously shared this black and white photograph of the Molly Malone Statue. It was sad seeing so many people rubbing the statue. Seeing the clock of O’Neill’s Pub on the other side of Suffolk Street I saw an opportunity for this quite different view. Getting low to the ground and using a zoom lens I focused on Molly’s face. Framing the portrait to make it seem as if she was looking at the clock. Maybe it’s time people stop touching this statue. Dublin City Council seems to agree as this year they are running a pilot scheme to have stewards stationed next to Molly to discourage people from touching her. You can read more about this on the BBC’s article Dublin’s Molly Malone statue to get stewards to stop ‘groping’.

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Molly Malone Statue Dublin

A statue of a woman in a long dress standing behind a cart with three baskets on it. In the background is the stone wall of a building. The photograph is in black and white and one the ground are three plaques of information about the statue.

Molly Malone is a bronze sculpture designed by Jeanne Rynhart and erected in 1988. She was moved to her current location outside the Dublin Tourist Office (formerly St. Andrew’s Church) on Suffolk Street in 2014. This is probably one of the most famous statues in Dublin. The song “Cockles and Mussels” or “In Dublin’s Fair City” is set in Dublin and has become the unofficial anthem. There were dozens of tourist surrounding her when I went to capture this photograph. I waited at least 10 minutes for a gap in people to capture this image. Since 2014 tourists have been rubbing the statue’s bosom area “for luck”. I saw dozens of people including children do this and it made me feel pretty uncomfortable. The statue is a dark brown colour but the chest now has a bright gold glow. The black and white processing has lessened this contrast and enhanced the texture of the overall statue.



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Resurrection Angel statue

Close-up of a golden angel statue blowing a trumpet, perched on the rooftop of a building with a slate roof. The angel has large, detailed wings and stands against a clear blue sky, next to a stone turret with a decorative cross at the top.


Stood high up on the sanctuary roof of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral is this amazing golden looking sculpture. Resurrection Angel is actually copper-gilt designed by the cathedral’s architect William Burges. The angel is one of the more famous and iconic of the 1500 artworks on, around and inside the cathedral. This life-sized angel hold two four-foot long trumpets and has its wings pierced so the strong winds can blow through them. This photograph shows how useful it is having a versatile zoom lens when exploring a new place as I do often in my travel photography. Whilst most of my photographs of cities are wide angel, in this case it was the amazing detail on the roof top that caught my eye.