Another example from my weird collection of cameras and photographic bits and pieces gathered up from friends, relatives and charity shops. This little film compact camera is the Ricoh XF-30. Mine is black – but I’ve seen a few nice red examples on the second hand market.
Continue reading Ricoh XF-30 Compact CameraBallyhackAmore!
Special Occasions!
Queen’s University, Belfast.
Rarely is there anywhere to park a car in the vicinity of Queen’s University, – parking spaces are few and hotly contested, but on 27th December 2023, I was driving through the area on return from an appointment in South Belfast, when to my surprise, I found an empty space, right beside the Students’ Union. I quickly parked, and stepped out with the Fujifilm X-T30 fitted with an 18-135mm zoom lens.

Photographed with a Fujifilm X-T30, F=18mm, f/5.6 @1/125th sec on ISO250.
Because it was still student holidays, traffic around the university was light, and that helped quite a lot with the photography. I stood outside the Student’s Union to capture the main image, but it wasn’t long before some human interest occurred.
Continue reading Queen’s University, Belfast.One Down… Three to go?
The remaining three blocks of multi-storey apartments at Rathcoole, Newtownabbey. There were originally four blocks, built in 1965 by John Laing Construction, were 140 feet high, and contained 65 flats.

The Village Pump
The old village pump at Crossgar, Co.Down. This rotary pump was installed around 1870, over the site of an existing well. The wall behind the cast iron pump rises into an arch, from which villagers could suspend a bucket to draw water from the former well. When the pump was installed, the arch was bricked up.
Continue reading The Village PumpLislea Mission Hall
Lislea Mission Hall, in the townland of Lislea, between Portglenone and Kilrea. Now long abandoned and disused, it has been boarded up, and become overgrown and is slowly crumbling away. Once would have been a meeting place for worship to groups of local resident, farmers and their friends, and their children.

Balligan Church
St Andrews Church (Church of Ireland) Balligan, near Ballywalter, Co.Down, on a bleak midwinter day.

Built in 1704, the church became famous for choral recitals and classical music, and was a popular venue. Choral Evensong was held on two Sundays each month until fairly recently.
Continue reading Balligan ChurchFeehogue Terrace, Randalstown
In September, 2023 I visited the Belfast Book Fair, held this year in Methodist College (Methody) at Stranmillis. There was little in interest this year, by way of books, (mostly Irish history etc), but there were a couple of dealers selling antique postcards, and I spent quite a time trawling through them – with no intention of buying, of course, (some of these antique postcards can be rather expensive), despite the enthusiastic sales techniques of one of the vendors, who mistook my prolonged browsing for a potential sale. I was looking for photographic inspiration! Actually, I was sorry I hadn’t taken a notebook and pen!
Continue reading Feehogue Terrace, RandalstownKodak Instamatic 25
Another one of my varied collection of cameras, it’s the…




