Kilmood is a small hamlet, a few miles from Comber, Co.Down. This picturesque little settlement consists basically of one single street, – Kilmmod Church Road, with rows of cute cottages.
I visited in July 2024, with the Nikon F100 Camera, and a roll of Fujifilm Neon Acros 100ISO film, which I later developed for 7 minutes in Fotospeed FD10
I’ve been trying out a new-to-me Nikkor lens on the Nikon D100, using Fujifilm Neopan Acros Black and White film, – old stock dated July 2013. I’ve never developed Acros myself before, (although Acros Film Simulation is one of my favourite shooting modes on the Fujifilm digital cameras). I have to say, I really like this film. It has a beautifully soft grain, and gives great depths of contrast on the digital scanner.
I spent an hour at the annual Randalstown Community Festival, an event aimed at bringing the community together in the town centre, for a night of free open air entertainment and fun, with cuddly animals and funfair rides for the kids, a mini-market selling novelties and food, and a stage featuring local artists.
Raindrops in monochrome, shot on the Nikon F100 film camera, F-50mm, f/3.5 @ 1/500th sec, after a long heavy rainy day – typical of our Northern Ireland summers…
Photographed on (out of date) Ilford HP5 film, ISO400, and developed in FD10 for 7 minutes. Negatives scanned.
Millport, on the little Isle of Cumbrae has a hidden gem – hidden because the Cathedral of the Isles can be really hard to find, buried behind a forest of mature trees, and, at least from that angle, approached by a steep path and steps. But it is a worthwhile walk.
The Isle of Cumbrae is just a very short ferry crossing from Largs in North Ayrshire. It’s well worth the trip, if you have a day to spare, and you’re in the area.
Garrison House, Millport
We visited in mid May, 2024, when the weather had been very changeable, one day rainy, the next sunny… But our day in Millport, the town of Cumbrae was a lovely day, warm and some decent sunshine. Here’s some images, made with the Fujifilm X-T5, and the manual focus 7Artisans 35mm f1.8 lens.
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
I’ve been messing around with a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 manual focus lens, attached to the Fujifilm X-T5, using an adapter made by K&F Koncept. The depth of field is amazing.
This shot of a cutlery drawer demonstrates the bokeh possible with a lens like this, and of course with Fuji’s ‘focus-peaking’ feature, manual focus is a doddle!