Victoria Square in Belfast opened on 6 March 2008 as Northern Ireland’s largest and one of its most expensive property developments, a £400 million, 800,000-square-foot commercial, residential and leisure complex that took around six years to complete.
Photographed by me (a real human) using a Fujifilm X-T50 camera, and given a sketch effect in post capture processing.
Continue reading Victoria SquareMore Belfast history.
The old Robinson and Cleaver building in Belfast, standing on the prominent corner of Donegall Place and Donegall Square North, was constructed between 1886 and 1888 as the Royal Irish Linen Warehouse for the successful department store founded by Edward Robinson and John Cleaver.
Tudor Revival Architecture, with a story of Ambition, Survival, and Superb Craftsmanship.
Tucked just a short walk from Belfast City Hall on Alfred Street stands one of the city’s most distinctive buildings: St Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church. From the outside it looks almost like a miniature Tudor castle, all red brick, castellated parapets and octagonal turrets. Step inside, however, and the contrast is dramatic. The interior opens into an ornate, intimate space crowned by a fan-vaulted ceiling that many visitors compare to a wedding cake turned inside out. Completed in 1844, the church is the third-oldest continuously used Catholic church in Belfast (after St Mary’s and St Patrick’s) and one of the finest examples of Tudor Revival architecture in Ireland.
Christian worship on this Co.Antrim site between Portrush and Bushmills has been taking place since the 14th century, but this derelict building is thought to date back to the early 1600’s when the area was being populated by the Protestant settlers from the Scottish Borders, which may account for its name, dedicated to the north English saint Cuthbert.
Apparently it is the only church in Ireland dedicated to Cuthbert.
Continue reading St Cuthbert’s Church, DunluceI met a friend at a recent athletics meeting, and he reminded me that he had ‘covered for me’ at an event while I was away on holiday recently. I thanked him, and he added, ‘Of course my photos weren’t as good as yours, I was just using an iPhone…’ That conversation reminded me of an apocryphal story I heard a while back. Permit me to share…
Continue reading Never Miss a Shot…It’s images like this that makes photographing amateur athletics worthwhile.
Here’s Jordan Heron of North Belfast Harriers, who has just crossed the finish line, running 5 miles in just 26:12 minutes and achieving overall first place in the Broughshane 5 Mile Race, organised by Ballymena Runners. These people train hard and give their best for pure enjoyment and personal satisfaction. To capture their achievement photographically is not just a challenge, it is a privilege.
Culcrow is a townland between Kilrea and Coleraine, in County Londonderry, and not far from the amazing Brown Trout Inn, where one can enjoy fantastic food. It has a lively Primary School, a handful of houses and farms, and a few old characteristics that always caused me to slow down as I travelled up the road between Kilrea and Coleraine, on route to Portstewart. Of course I never got around to stop and take a closer look because I was in a hurry, or it was raining, or someone was with me… whatever. But Culcrow has still got an old red phone box, and despite driving past it for years, I really wanted a closer look.
Continue reading Old CulcrowI use public transport – a lot. What I most like about it of course, is that for senior citizens of my vintage it is free to use here in Ulster. So, being a skinflint, I use it extensively.
Now, I don’t want to be over critical, – after all, our public transport in Northern Ireland is vastly superior to that in some other jurisdictions. We have clean modern trains that run on time and can usually get you to your destination without the risk of getting mugged. Buses that are punctual and clean and with reasonably polite and helpful drivers (speaking generally). But if there is one minor criticism that I hope I am allowed to offer on the subject of public transport it is this…
APOLOGIES TO THOSE WHO SPEAK PROPER ENGLISH. This post contains a lot of colloquial idiosyncratic diction. (Slang!) It’s just the way we spake over here, so it is…
It is PUBLIC. Too public for comfort. I know there’s little that Translink can do about the public nature of its public transport, but at least allow me the comfort of having a decent rant about it.
Continue reading What’s Wrong With PUBLIC Transport?A day spent around Belfast city centre can be quite boring for the dutiful husband who is required to take his ever patient wife to the city for a shopping trip – especially when that shopping trip involves what seems like endless browsing around the many clothing outlets!
The answer, of course is simple. Bring a camera, and leave her too it. That was my course of action a few weeks ago, when I left Janette in the care of the retailers, and wandered off on my own with the Fujifilm X-T50, and headed for Belfast’s touristy dockland, once the home of the coal boats, and the shady haunts of visiting seamen – now a venue for visiting cruise ship passengers and folk on city sightseeing bus tours. Safe access from the shopping area of the city to the docks is via an underground walkway, amply adorned with vivid graffiti.
I’ve just heard a rumour, that Fujifilm may be releasing another new camera in the X-T series around the autumn of this year (2026) – possibly a new X-T6, to replace the existing X-T5.
For a committed Fujifilm user like myself the release of a new model always poses a challenge. It usually starts with a determination that I am not going to spend any more money on photo-gear, which is slowly eroded over the period of a couple of months, until I eventually yield to the inevitable, and buy the latest model. (I justify the expense by telling myself that I don’t smoke or drink alcohol, or waste money on gambling etc, so a few hundred pounds spent on a new camera is fully justified. I use this ‘logic’ every time).
Continue reading Fujifilm X-T6 Rumours
