I was making a photograph of the Crosskeys Inn, Co.Antrim, when this motorbike and sidecar roared past me, – a rare opportunity to capture a rare mode of transport these days! No time to adjust the camera, so the existing settings had to do – and thankfully they were fine.
Ballymena, the ‘Middle Town’ in Co.Antrim, is known for its shopping streets and its churches, and its friendly people… But tropical sunsets, – in January? Yet here’s the sight that caught my eye as I turned the car into Ballymena Showgrounds car-park on Monday 29th January 2024…
Such a stunning sight deserved to be photographed, even if the only camera I had with me (apart from my black and white loaded film camera) was an iPhone 12.
Ballylaggan Reformed Presbyterian Church lies close to Agivey in the district of Aghadowey, on Curran Road, the road between Kilrea and Coleraine.
I often pass this church on the journey from Randalstown to Portrush, and I’ve often wanted to make a photograph of it. Its austere architecture denotes its Covenanter / Presbyterian heritage and its rural location gives it an attractive surround. But we’re always in a hurry, and I’ve never had time to stop…
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.
The Queen’s University, Belfast.
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.
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.
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.