July 01, 2016

Ireland XIII (Kells Priory, Ireland)

July 1, 2016 marks the 18th anniversary of the first time Ingrid and I worked together!

After the previous day's weather challenges, it was nice to have a morning with some sun (and to be honest, some cloud, and ultimately, a little rain) for a change. Having worked with spaces around our week's accommodations, and to the west of it, for this day's major locations, I decided to head east, towards Kilkenny and several large historic ruins near it.
Kells Priory is one of the largest and most impressive medieval monuments in Ireland, situated alongside King's River in the village of Kells. Founded in 1193, the priory was attacked and burned three times, which likely explains the extensive walls and fortifications, which make it look more like a castle than religious site.
Of all the sites in my "locations" document (a PDF on an iPad with almost 100 potential locations to work in with Ingrid), this was the only one we visited that was an almost total miss - while most of the historic ruins I've seen in Ireland have been ruins left to their own devices, Kells Priory was a full-blown tourist destination, complete with interpreters and guides, and as chance would have it, a full crew of workmen, due to repairs and stabilization efforts. Not exactly the best place to spend an hour or two photographing a Nude model...which was a shame as it really was a lovely space to explore visually.
As it turned out, however,my research did not go to waste, and all was not lost. As part of my advanced preparation, I'd found there were two approaches to the ruins, with the less common one following a path along a river, and then crossing to the priory via a bridge. Thus, when we arrived, we chose this approach, and while the priory itself was impractical to work with, on the way back to the car (after exploring the ruins for a little while) Ingrid and I agreed to make an image of her posing by the riverside fence, with the abbey in the background.
As I had a clear view towards the priory from where Ingrid and I were planning to work, I asked Angie to continue towards the car, and to keep a watch in that direction. When all was clear, Ingrid quickly disrobed, and we created a full set of images with Ingrid against the fence, covering a handful of poses. When a distant figure casually walked onto the bridge in the background, Ingrid quickly dressed, and we continued to the car, pleased with the fact we'd managed to make something involving Kells Priory after all!

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