The Dublin Post, #NoFilter*

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram then you may have seen that I recently visited Dublin on a long weekend break. Upon my return I discovered that London City Airport have been running a project which as you may have guessed from the title is called #NoFilter. The idea is to encourage and promote using photos in their truest form, without adding those ever popular Instagram filters or using editing tools from similar apps. The key aim of the project is to get back to the root of photography, capturing the notion that the ever-photographed travel destinations are just as beautiful without the filters.

This is the third instalment in LCY's project with each chapter focussing on a different city; they've been to Madrid, explored Switzerland and are now taking to the Emerald Isle with #NoFilter Dublin. The brilliant Monica Stott of The Travel Hack has teamed up with London City Airport for this leg of the adventure given her love of the Irish city. If you want to check out more about the project you can see all of the details at http://londoncityairport.com/home/page/dublin-photo and I highly recommend checking out Monica's page for some great travel inspiration.

I've been a hopeless wanderluster for so so long and I'm so lucky to finally have the opportunity to visit some of my wishlist destinations, it's only right that I pass on my experiences with you, my wonderful readers :)

Some of you may have explored my other blog www.bestplaceiveneverbeen.com which is linked at the top of this page; if you fancy a read click the 'Travel' link in the header. Best Place I've Never Been is a wishlist travel blog through which I channel all of my travel and adventure desires and when I first started writing on the site Dublin was right up there with places I needed to visit. 

Seeing as it's such a short flight from London at only an hour long it seemed silly not to jump at the chance to finally see the city.

I've always been keen on photography and my favourite way of capturing beautiful scenes on my travels is through my Polaroid. It's an expensive hobby without a doubt with film costing between £10-£20 depending on what camera you opt for but, trust me, it's worth it. The image below isn't the ideal portrayal of how great Polaroid photography can be but the great thing about Polaroid is that there are no second tries; you're literally freezing the moment that made you want to get your camera out in the first place rather than taking a bunch of photos and choosing the best one to share later on. Polaroid captures the most authentic side of the scene you're shooting and I love that you can't add filters.

Okay, Polaroid rant over, back to the #NoFilter project.

Stepping off of the airport transfer coach onto the famous O'Connell Street, the first thing that caught my eye was the Monument of Light which is a spire marking the very centre point of the city. As you can see from the photo, the weather was pretty grim and it pretty much stayed like this for the majority of our stay, but this actually added to those first moments because the thick fog meant you can't judge how high the spire stands as you can't see the very top.

Dublin undoubtedly has some great sites but my favourite thing about this city is exploring different pubs and stumbling upon some traditional Irish gems. The famous Temple Bar is one of Dublin's' most well known attractions and it delivered some awesome music and atmospheres. One of my utter favourites was the Auld Dubliner which we literally couldn't tear ourselves away from due to the great vibe and even better musician who will forever be referred to as 'The Jake' (we didn't know his surname and was more talented than any other Jake I've met). I loved going outside of the touristy Temple Bar in search of the most traditional and oldest pubs possible, loving the local vibe that came with it. I won't lie, I spent a lot of time in pubs on this trip but don't worry, it wasn't falling over drunk kind of drinking. The thing I noticed above all of the laughing, chatting, singing and dancing was that not one person had their phone out. Not. One. Take a trip to most pubs and bars in London and you'll see hoards of people on their smartphones, engrossed in the most recent Twitter update or Facebook post but Dublin is worlds away from that and it's great! Going for a social drink is actually, well, social.

Off the beaten track, great pubs kept on coming with one of the most impressive being The Stag's Head and yes, that is a real stag's head above the bar. Polished granite tables and iron chandeliers made this Victorian pub particularly memorable and with bars across three levels I'm only disappointed I didn't go back later in the evening to check out it's night scene.

The trip wasn't a total booze-fest though. We did a lot of exploring and checked out some of the recommended sights so as not to miss anything. Dublin Castle and the brilliant Guinness Storehouse were among the spots and Trinity College was a particularly rainy addition to our adhoc tour.

Dublin was, without doubt, best at night. Walks along the River Liffey after spending the evening in a toasty authentic pub sipping beer was definitely the perfect way to round off days in Dublin.

All photos featured in this post are unfiltered and taken with an iPhone 5c (with the exception of the Polaroid image).
Below are my key tips to making the most of taking photos on your phone/iPad:

• Give some thought to the composition of your photo. Centre isn't always the way to go and sometimes it's more appealing to have the main focal point off centre so that the photo leads into the subject. Think of it like reading a book, left to right.
• Tap your screen a few times on different aspects of the photo prior to shooting as this will change the tone of the image. You may find that focussing in the centre will set the contrast at one level, whereas focussing on something in the fore or background will alter it to a better light composition which means you won't have to worry about parts of your image being washed out or underexposed.
• Panorama is your friend. It's a really great setting on most phones, perfect for cityscapes or street scenes to capture as much of the moment as possible.
• Flash isn't always your friend. Turn that thing off, especially for night time photography, Selfies suit a flash. A pretty landscape more often than not doesn't. Give that contrast trick a go instead.

If you're looking for inspiration for your next city break then I suggest heading to Monica's or, London City Airport's, Twitter page to see all of the blog posts about Dublin being published over the next few days.

I can't wait to go away again so I can share my adventures with you!

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