A brilliantly sunlit Saturday morning, a walk by the River Bann with family, and a Fujifilm X-T5 Camera, and coffee afterwards.
A perfect combination!
The Fisherman’s Walk, Portglenone, Co.Antrim
Continue reading The Fisherman’s WalkThe murals on the overpass at the end of the Sydenham ByPass, and adjacent to and viewed from Middlepath Street.
Photographed with a Fujifilm X-T5, simultaneously in Acros black and white film simulation, and in RAW. The RAW image was processed in colour, and in Photoshop overlaid with the monochrome image; a mask applied, and the mural colours revealed with the brush.
I’d intended it to be in monochrome only, but the result was drab, – and that street corner is brightened greatly by the colour on the walls, – so I went for a compromise, – a monochrome image with a splash of colour. In the early digital era, that technique was frowned upon as ‘cliched!’ But sometimes it just works.
Fujifilm X-T5, with 50mm with Nikon manual focus lens, f/5.6 @ 1.125th sec on ISO500
Carnanee Road, Templepatrick, Co.Antrim, sunset, on the 1st Day of British Summer Time, 31st March 2024, 8.17pm
Photographed with the Fujifilm X-T5 camera and a vintage Nikon 35-70 manual focus lens.
So, there was me, taking a stroll through the beautiful city centre of Lisburn (there’s a joke – boarded up shops and empty buildings – the place looks decrepit, a shadow of its former self). I got up to Castle Street, where once stood the Co-Op supermarket, and the big NIE electricity showroom, and Frederick Thomas Prams and Nursery Goods, and I noticed that amid the dereliction, there were ridiculous balls of some sort strung across the street. I decided to make an image – this is it – mediocre enough, like Lisburn itself.
All that makes it interesting is what happened next.
Continue reading Lisburn, Co.Antrim, – and a strange encounter…The Crosskeys Inn is a traditional thatched building in Co.Antrim, sited between Randalstown and Portglenone, north of Lough Neagh.
Photographed here with a Fujifilm X-T30 camera, F= 21mm, f/4 @ 1/1250th sec on ISO640. If the shutter speed seems a little fast for a static building – I agree! I’d just managed to capture a shot of a motorcycle and sidecar roaring by!
It’s not often that the two cranes at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast are so close together. Samson and Goliath are both at the same end of the dry dock, to allow a ship with a huge mast to be repaired.
Photographed with the Nikon FM3a Camera, Underexposed by 2 stops. on Ilford FP4, and developed in Ilfosol3 for 4.25 minutes.
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.
Fujifilm X-T30, Acros film simulation.
Derryboye Crossroads, in deepest Co.Down, where an Israeli flag has been raised on a lamppost!
Photographed with the Nikon FG20 camera on Ilford HP5 pushed to ISO800, and developed for nine minutes in FD10, 200mm lens.
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…
Continue reading Ballylaggan Church
