There was some great activity around the Docklands of Dublin over the weekend with the arrival of the Tall Ships Festival. It was a great event and lots of people turned out to see the beautiful sailing ships from all over the world that were docked along the banks of the river Liffey. My wife and I headed in on Saturday morning and already the place was buzzing with the crowds who had gathered for the event. I took my D700 and 28-300. I hadn't really intended to go to specifically photograph the event, otherwise I would have brought my pro lenses, and on hindsight I wish I had, but then there was a big advantage in such a crowded situation not to be lugging around lots of gear.

There were plenty of side activities going on besides the main event like this world champion Wake boarder (above) who was wowing the crowds in Grand Canal Dock.

As we made our way through the apartments around the Theatre and the dock district there were lots of people wearing the obligatory sailor hats, but every now and then you came across some actual sailors off the ships...

And of course one or two more elaborate gentlemen of the seafaring tradition....

The main attraction of course was the ships. The first glance we got was the imposing masts arising from the crowds, emblazoned with flags billowing in the cool breeze coming off the river...

The area around the quay side was very busy. There were big crowds and it was still early. We made our way through the malee to Beckett bridge where we would have a much better vantage. I was expecting there to be an issue getting a good spot on the bridge and keeping it but people were quite courteous, and even kept out of your way when taking photos. I got some good shots from the bridge. Not just of the ships themselves, but some of the other watercraft that were milling about in the river...

Take a close look at that image before you move on. Yes, that is a young child driving the boat!

They had split the bridge into two way people traffic, so to get to the other side we had to cross over completely and head back. There were more ships further up the river towards the city centre and this formed a great backdrop for some nice dramatic shots...

There were some great reactions in the crowd too. If you're taking shots at an event like this make sure to turn around from time to time and pay attention to other people's reactions as you get some great images...

Note the figurine of "Captain Haddock" of Tin Tin fame in his hat!

All in all we had a great time. The ships are beautiful to look at and there was some great activities and buzz in the area. It was really well managed and kudos to the team who organised it for pulling off such a good event. I'll have some more images posted soon to my Google Plus page, and I also took some shots with my iPhone using my favourite iPhone camera app, Cross Process. The gallery of these is on my G+ and Facebook Pages.