No sweat! An athlete finds the going relatively easy, as she smiles her way to the finish line.
Happy Runners
Two Double Espressos Please
I’ve been photographing so much black and white material recently, and experimenting with various film stocks and developing solutions, that I thought I might have been neglecting my lovely Fujifilm X-T5 a little. So, in case it was feeling a little neglected, I made it two nice measures of espresso.
Needless to say, after I’d showed the coffee to the camera, and made a few images, I felt compelled to drink the stuff. It would be rude not to. Or, as I remarked to my Much Better Half, when she asked me what on earth I was doing, “One cannot simply MAKE coffee, – one MUST photograph it!”
Newcastle, Co.Down
Ok, I know people must be bored looking at posts featuring images of Newcastle, Co.Down, but I never tire of visiting the town, and photographing its scenic setting, where mountains meet the sea, or as the songwriter Percy French would have said, “Where the Mountains of Mourne Sweep Down To The Sea.” Here’s the view that may have inspired the words of the famous song, an image of those very mountains, doing exactly that…
Glenarm, Co.Antrim
Glenarm is a picturesque coastal village and conservation area located on the beautiful Antrim Coast Road, – that tourist gem stretching from larne to Ballycastle and the world famous Giant’s Causeway. We visited the town for an afternoon on a sunny day in August 2024 (One of the very few sunny days this summer) and found it well endowed with visitors, especially families with small children, paddling in the sea, and enjoying the sand and the ice-cream band.
Glenarm sits in a peaceful bay, surrounded by a forest to one side and the North Channel on the other.
Continue reading Glenarm, Co.AntrimBlack (& White) Bush!
Bushmills, Co.Antrim – our annual visit to the small Northern Irish town famous worldwide for its whiskey…
Situated in an entry and behind some houses off the Main Street of Bushmills, this derelict building is currently owned by a community group, who intend to restore it for community events.
Continue reading Black (& White) Bush!Guildhall Sq & Waterloo Street
Our seemingly annual trip to Derry/Londonderry (So good they named it twice?) or ‘Stroke City as it became known during the era of the late Gerry Anderson, the legendary (should that be ‘legend-derry?) famous BBC Radio Ulster broadcaster and entertainer. Where was I… Oh yes, our annual trip to Northern Ireland’s second city saw me taking a wander, with the Fujifilm X-T5, around the city centre, namely Guildhall Square and Waterloo Place, and then later round by the Craft Village. I’d walked the famous walls many times, and somehow that day I just didn’t have the energy to struggle up all those hilly ramparts. So, – city centre it was, while my so-much better half went to explore the big shops to be found in the city.
Portstewart Red Sails Festival, 2024
Lots of towns have festival weeks during the summer months, but I don’t know of anywhere that can put on a week long event like Portstewart, Co.Londonderry. The Red Sails Festival is named after the songwriter Jimmy Kennedy’s classic ‘Red Sails in the Sunset’ which he wrote after seeing a yacht sailing across Portstewart Bay, during one of those spectacular North Coast sunsets.
Thousands must flock to the seaside town for these events, many of which take place outside, around the town, and particularly at the Band Stand – right by the sea. Here’s a section of the crowd at this popular venue, undeterred by the rather inclement weather…
Murlough Bay
I’d a roll of Rollei RPX25 in the Nikon F100, so when (at last) a sunny day unfolded over Northern Ireland, I decided the light might be just bright enough for some ISO25 photography. It was Thursday, 1st August 2024, and nothing much was happening that was photo-worthy, so Janette and myself, and Lottie the wiry dachshund made our way to Murlough Bay, a Nature Reserve sandy dunes area on the east cost, owned and managed by The National Trust, situated between Newcastle (the Co.Down one – ‘Where the Mountains of Mourn Sweep Down to the Sea’) and Dundrum.
Flying Feet.
Isn’t it great when you shoot them and they have both feet off the ground. Incidentally, this image was made at a distance of around 150 yards from camera position.
For those who like to know these things, the image was shot at F=290mm, f/5.6 @ 1/500th second on ISO500. The aperture was wide open to allow a shallow depth of field, hence the bokeh (the fall-off in focus) visible on the ground, while the faster shutter speed froze the feet in a fraction of a second – a moment in time. The ISO was set at 500 to achieve a 1/3rd stop over-exposure, and CLICK.
East Belfast Bonfire
It was bonfire season in East Belfast, – early July, so an opportunity to make an image of kids building a pyre, with the famous Belfast cranes in the background.
This image was made with the Nikon F100 camera on Rollei RPX25 film, processed in FD10 for 5 minutes, and scanned for digital viewing. Digital processing in Lightroom using one of my favourite presets.
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