Category Archives: Belfast

Beautiful Ulster, Belfast, Black & White, Co. Down, Landscapes, Travel

Carrowreagh Road, Dundonald

Summer fell on a Friday in Northern Ireland this year (2024). It was Friday the 30th August, – just at the very end of what the Met Office call “Meteorological Summer.” The rest of ‘Meteorological Summer’ was a complete wash-out, more or less. But today, the sun was shining, the wind had absented itself, and little fluffy white clouds drifted lazily across an azure sky. Why can’t it always be like this?

I was in Newtownards, Co.Down for the morning, and driving over Carrowreagh Hill from Dundonald to Holywood, – to access the M2 thus avoiding the traffic jams on the Newtownards Road, Belfast. I stopped in a small lay-by to place something in the boot of the car, when I noticed this small, twisted bush across the road. Taking my camera from the car, and my life in my hands as I avoided the would-be rally drivers, I managed to get a few exposures, with our historic Scrabo Tower in the distant background.

Carrowreagh Road, Dundonald – with Scrabo in the background. Photographed in glorious sunshine with the Fujifilm X-T5 camera and a f/2 7Artisans manual focus lens. Acros film simulation with digital red filter.

Belfast, Black & White, Co. Down, Reportage, Streetscapes

St Matthew’s RC Church

St Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church, Bryson Street, – situated just off the Newtownards Road, in loyalist Ballymacarret, –  East Belfast. 

I deliberately picked out the flag in colour. (I’d followed my usual practice of shooting in RAW/B&W Jpeg) 

The Ulster flag, flying outside the church, and the wire fence between the road and the grounds perfectly illustrate the divisions and tensions that exist between the two communities that live in the area. 

Belfast, Black & White, Reportage, Streetscapes

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.

Newtownards Road, Belfast.

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.

Beautiful Ulster, Belfast, Black & White

Middlepath Street, Belfast

The 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

Beautiful Ulster, Belfast, Black & White, Photo-Essay, Travel

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.

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.

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