Photography captures a moment in time – a moment that sometimes can never be recreated, and in that sense is an important tool in recording our local history (and our national and international history too).
These images are of the old Ballystockart Mission Hall, between Comber and Dundonald, where I preached one of my very first sermons, back in the 1970s. It held great memories for me, for I had shared with the people my call to be the pastor at Annaghanoon, Co. Down. As I left the building one lady asked, “Whereabouts in Africa are you going?”
This project was about evangelicalism in Northern Ireland. Up to this point, I had been looking at how the secularisation of society had impacted on evangelical beliefs, practices and worship styles, in the evident decline of the mission-hall culture in the province. But how are the evangelicals striking back? There are a number of different answers to that question, but at least in Northern Ireland, one of the most visible ‘attacks’ on secularism, historically and consistently used by evangelicals and fundamentalists is the strange practice of nailing messages to trees throughout the countryside. A number of these placards had been erected around the Ards Peninsula.
Can you ever tire of photographing a river? I now have a whole folder of images from the Lower Bann, that majestic river that flows from Lough Neagh out into the Atlantic Ocean at Coleraine.
Many of them are made from the western side of the river, accessed by The Fisherman’s Walk, and on those occasions I have looked across the Bann to a small jetty, about half a mile or so upriver, on the other bank.
Introducing another of my eclectic camera collection, – meet the iconic Agfa Karat 36, a strut-folding 35mm camera.
This cute little camera is no lightweight, not in performance, and not in bodyweight! Made of metal, the camera was German produced and made to last! It made its first appearance around 1935, and was discontinued in the 1950s. The original Karats used a specially fitting film cartridge, but from 1948 the design changed allowing the camera to use standard 35mm film cassettes. Mine is the latter.
It must have been around 2005 when I visited the home of Belfast artist Denis Johnston and viewed some of his paintings. Denis lives in Belfast and was a member of the same church as me at that time, and so I would have visited him on occasions, but on this particular visit he showed me some of the art he had showed on display in an exhibition. The imagery was stunning, with amazing technique and beautiful scenery. Yet my eye was continually drawn to one particular painting, and I couldn’t resist expressing my admiration for it. It wasn’t a beautiful landscape or an amazing sunset or mists rolling across a lake, – it was a small section of Regent Street in Newtownards, with a pedestrian crossing and a big dark shadow, and some old, and entirely unremarkable buildings. Thousands of people must walk past it every week. Yet I couldn’t take my eyes off it! Why? Just because it made me feel that I was right there! It had a ‘sense of place!’ It told me about the place, gave me a sense of ‘belonging’ to it, drew my mind visually into the picture.
The popularity of running as a leisure activity is growing exponentially. And runners seem to actually like being photographed.
I’ve been photographing these athletes for around five years now, and I use the Fujifilm X-T5, with a 100-300mm lens. I open the lens aperture to its fullest extent, which at 300mm is around f5.6, which reduces the depth of field and give a nice bokeh effect in the background. I set the shutter speed to 1/500th sec to freeze the movement, and that usually means an ISO of 1600 or thereabouts, – depending on the light quality, of course.
Yet one more of my personal vintage camera collection…
The ‘Vest Pocket Camera’
These tiny folding bed cameras had a unique feature – the “Autographic Back,” perhaps the first primitive version of a data-back! There was a slot in the back of the camera, that could be opened by the photographer, to allow them to write the date of exposure on the back of the film.
Yet another in my occasional series featuring cameras in my rather eclectic collection! This time it’s the MicroPress 4×5 Large Format Press Camera,
Another one of my antique camera collection. The MicroPress 4×5 Large Format camera from around 1950. It’s hard to believe this monster was designed for use by press photographers on location. The images, though were high definition and amazing quality. Photographed under studio lights with the slightly less antique Fujifilm X-T3. More images…
Call it ‘Formals’ or a ‘Prom’ – but it’s the professional photos that make it memorable.
School Formals
Tonight the mobile studio was on the road visiting the lovely Edenmore Golf And Country Club at Magheralin for School Formals – with full studio setup and on-site printing.
Situated at the edge of the Bann Estuary in County Londonderry, this quaint abandoned cottage was built around 1600, by fishermen who trawled the waters for the salmon who travel up the Bann.
Portraits2Go.co.uk 