There are those who will claim that Elvis Presley has been dead for many years, but I have evidence to the contrary. I was driving along O’Neill Road near Whiteabbey Hospital on Monday when I noticed Elvis himself, holding forth in song outside a house close to the road. Armed with my trusty Nikon F100, and loaded with Ilford 400ISO film – I shot Elvis!
Here is the proof – and the camera never lies.
I’ve been playing with an iphone app called ‘Hueless.’ It’s an excellent piece of technology, allowing the phone’s camera to shoot in monochrome, and giving the photographer great control over the capture of the image. the user interface screen is intuitive and easy to use. it features accurate autofocus achieved by a simple tap on the screen to set the focus point. There’s a drop down control to alter the exposure and contrast on the screen, so you can see the end result before the snap is taken. There’s a series of optional presets which the photographer can set up for instant camera control, and cropping to photo-sizes is easily achieved by pinching the screen. If you are for ate enough to own an iPhone 6 (and I don’t) then there’s even an option for high ISO shooting to make low light shots possible.
Here’s a selection of images I captured at the Tullyglass Hotel, and later in Belfast with the app.
No monochrome camera is complete without filters, and the Hueless app offers a drop-down menu with the standard filters one would use with a black and white film camera. Here’s an image with the red filter:-
Really, for a couple of quid, its a fantastic app, get it at the Apple App Store! Dont be clueless, get Hueless, – it’s just about flawless!!!
It has been rumoured that this alien spacecraft has travelled through millions of galaxies, and has landed in Ballymena to share in the hospitality and generosity of the local inhabitants!
No, wait! It’s all a big mistake. It’s not a spacecraft after all! It’s a Presbyterian Church! Yes, Wellington Church – with its remarkable new building is now a landmark feature in the town. I captured this Monochrome image on my way back from a wedding at Galgorm last week using my Nikon F100 film camera, loaded with Ilford FP5 ISO400 B&W film, f/11 @ 1/250th sec.
It was processed for 8 minutes in Fotospeed FD10, washed and fixed for 10 minutes, then washed for 10 minutes. Scanned into Photoshop for layer balance and contrast adjustment, and addition of border. There you are!
Go buy yourself a real camera and use film!
Having said all of that – one does have to wonder why a church needs such powerful thruster rockets?
‘Migrant Mother‘ was the title of a celebrated image made by Dorothea Lange in America in 1935 (or thereabouts) Lange was appalled by the poverty she found among immigrant people in rural USA. She said, (Cited on the ‘Photo-quotes’ website)
I am trying here to say something about the despised, the defeated, the alienated. About death and disaster, about the wounded, the crippled, the helpless, the rootless, the dislocated. About finality. About the last ditch.[1]
Challenged by Lange’s words, I set about creating a similar image, among the migrant community of Belfast – with less success, I found, – for some migrant people simply don’t want a camera pointed at them, even after a financial bribe. I found this old Roma woman begging in Botanic Avenue, and her pose was a reluctant one, to say the least!
Reluctant or not – she’s a pitiful sight. I hope she spent the money wisely.
[1] http://www.photoquotes.com/ShowQuotes.aspx?id=146&name=Lange,Dorothea
My visit to Newcastle, Co. Down last week produced a vintage image – a child on a little miniature pony, being gently led along the beach by the pony owner and the child’s mother – a very traditional sea-side scene.
It reminded me of another Pony on the Beach image I made around 5 years ago, when we lived at Millisle, and the beach was just across the road from our living room. It was a grainy Black and White image of a traditional ‘trotting pony’ being exercised on the sand, shot on the Nikon F100, on Ilford ISO1600 film. I looked out the negative and scanned it at 300 DPI, and here’s the result, after just a tweak or two in Photo-shop:-
I haven’t a clue who the person in the image is!
Here’s my (prize-winning) shot of the Belfast-Dublin enterprise express, drawing into Newry station, one August evening in 2011. Taken as the train was still moving, Nikon D700 camera on a tripod.
No, it’s not Paris, it’s Edinburgh, the Paris of the North! Back again to 2004, and the Continental Market on the streets of Scotland’s capital. This French Market Stall is doing what the French seem to do best – export their wine!
Photo-Nerd stuff: Nikon D70 Camera, (6 mp DSLR) f/3.5 @ 1/30th sec on ISO400. Focal Length 44mm.
I couldn’t resist this shot.
Walking away from a parade I noticed this gentleman walking in front of me. The look (even from behind) is so incongruous, that it was begging for a photograph. The media and popular perception of members of the Orange Order is as stuffy, staid, conservative, old men. This man just blows those impressions right out of the water!
Here’s the techie stuff:
Nikon D700, 1/250th sec @ f/2.8 on ISO400. Lens at 70mm
When I was studying for my HND Photography, one of the modules was Advertising Photography. As part of the project, we had to select a well known company and create three adverting images that could be presented to that company. I chose the famous ‘Old Bushmills’ Irish Whisky Distillery. I researched their existing and previous advertising campaigns, and asked them how they wanted their product to be recognised – what was their unique selling point. One of their brand images seemed to be the age of the old distillery – It was established early in the seventeenth century. Continue reading Bushmills Advertising Project
Ok, so most things in Cumbria are high! But if anyone can name this mountain I’d be grateful. I captured this shot on a warm April afternoon a few years ago. I love panoramas, and this shot lent itself so well to that format.
On the same visit to the Lake District, I drove off the road into a car park, to find a picturesque bridge. Here it is, captured on an Olympic Pen digital camera:-
Again, if anyone can put a name to the bridge or the river…
No prizes though!
Portraits2Go.co.uk 