There’s a common question asked, “Which camera is best for…” Add your own circumstances! Yesterday I was faced with a stark choice. I was at a country churchyard around dusk, and there was a magnificent sky behind the silhouetted church building and trees. I wanted that image! So here it is:-
So, what’s the answer to the conundrum? Which camera is best for a shot like this? The answer is…
Whatever camera you have with you!
In this case, just an iPhone 12!
CAVE HILL, BELFAST, from Hightown Road.
Image made with a Nikon FG20 using Ilford Delta 3200, pulled to ISO1600. f=34mm, f/16 @ 1/500th sec.
A good film choice for a wintery day, although this image was made during weak sunshine.
This is a fast (by film standards) film, which accounts for its grainy appearance. In the developing tank, I split the processing time between 1600ISO and 3200ISO, giving it 10 mins 30 secs in Fotospeed FD10, mixed at 1/9 at 20deg, then 1 minute stop bath in 20 deg. water, 2 mins in hypo-clear and 10 mins wash.
It’s the first time I’ve used this film, and I must admit I expected more contrast in the scanned image, but, there’s another film loaded, and I’ll try again.
A Ballymacarrett icon, St Patrick’s Church on the Newtownards Road, with one of the Harland & Wolff cranes in the background.
Photographed on film with the Nikon FM3a classic camera.
I found this 2022 built motorcycle parked in Belfast today, – and I was transported back in my mind to the early 1970’s when I rode a Royal Enfield, – not dissimilar in style and shape to this beauty.
For a lighthearted Saturday evening…
No, I don’t normally take photographs in public toilets, but today I was alone, and I couldn’t resist a quick snap with the iPhone! Don’t try this though – you could get arrested.
Don’t let those noisy hands go without a dryer!
Westbourne Street in east Belfast is now hardly a street at all! A dead-end with no houses or buildings of its own, – now terminated prematurely by the railings of a local FE College.
I stopped there and parked, on a day when I had a few minutes to kill before an appointment, and got out to make a few images, with the help of the Nikon FM3a and a roll of Ilford HP5 (ISO400)
Continue reading Westbourne StreetHoly Trinity and St Silas
This church is situated at the top of Oldpark Road, in Belfast, and it caught my eye when I was driving down Ballysillan Park, right towards it.
I love the way the Castlereagh Hills in the background give this image a sense of depth and perspective.
Photographed with the Nikon F100 film camera, on Ilford Delta 100.
Looking back to a 1945 tragedy, the Ballymacarrett rail crash. This mural is painted on the gable of ‘Claires’ in Dee Street, East Belfast. Photographed with the Nikon FM3a on Ilford HP5 film, ISO100.
#railcrashhistory #Belfastmural #railwayphotography #filmphotography #NikonFM3a #Ilfordfilm#historicalmural #vintagerailway #urbanart #streetmural #urbanart #historicalmural #visitnorthernireland #visitbelfast, #traincrash #eastBelfast #shipyardmen
An East Belfast icon, selling everything ‘from a needle to an anchor…’ Well, perhaps not literally! Photographed with the Nikon FM3a film camera on Ilford HP5 ISO400 and developed on Ilfosol 3.
We have recently moved house. In our last home the water was full of impurities, and film developing was impossible. Negatives were destroyed with multiple little white flecks. Eventually I just gave up.
On Saturday I thought, to while away an hour or two, I’d look through my old darkroom kit and see what was still usable. I found an unopened bottle of Fotospeed developer, (use by 11/2011). It was the colour of black ink, so it was disposed of.
Continue reading Old Film, Old Chemicals, Old Man – and all in Working Order!
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