One of the worthy causes that were helped by our CHARITY GIFT VOUCHERS last year was Knocknagoney Primaey School. They raised £1350 for school equipment and resources.
If you know a good cause raising funds, click this link…
And see if you qualify for help.
Today I had the privilege of attending the funeral of Pastor Israel Ojo in the Covenant of Love Church in Belfast, and photographing the event for his loved ones, – a lasting tribute, and memorial. Pastor Ojo has many friends and relations abroad, and the on-line gallery can be accessed from all over the world, so that they will see around 200 images made through the day, all over the world.
Many thanks to Pastor Ojo’s family, for allowing me to share in their day, and for commissioning me for this event, to Pastor Kevin Sambrooke for his patience and for permission to make images throughout the service, and to James Brown and Son, whose staff were very helpful and friendly.
It’s being able to share in people’s lives like this that makes professional photography a very special vocation indeed.
‘Migrant Mother‘ was the title of a celebrated image made by Dorothea Lange in America in 1935 (or thereabouts) Lange was appalled by the poverty she found among immigrant people in rural USA. She said, (Cited on the ‘Photo-quotes’ website)
I am trying here to say something about the despised, the defeated, the alienated. About death and disaster, about the wounded, the crippled, the helpless, the rootless, the dislocated. About finality. About the last ditch.[1]
Challenged by Lange’s words, I set about creating a similar image, among the migrant community of Belfast – with less success, I found, – for some migrant people simply don’t want a camera pointed at them, even after a financial bribe. I found this old Roma woman begging in Botanic Avenue, and her pose was a reluctant one, to say the least!
Reluctant or not – she’s a pitiful sight. I hope she spent the money wisely.
[1] http://www.photoquotes.com/ShowQuotes.aspx?id=146&name=Lange,Dorothea
My visit to Newcastle, Co. Down last week produced a vintage image – a child on a little miniature pony, being gently led along the beach by the pony owner and the child’s mother – a very traditional sea-side scene.
It reminded me of another Pony on the Beach image I made around 5 years ago, when we lived at Millisle, and the beach was just across the road from our living room. It was a grainy Black and White image of a traditional ‘trotting pony’ being exercised on the sand, shot on the Nikon F100, on Ilford ISO1600 film. I looked out the negative and scanned it at 300 DPI, and here’s the result, after just a tweak or two in Photo-shop:-
I haven’t a clue who the person in the image is!
Here’s my (prize-winning) shot of the Belfast-Dublin enterprise express, drawing into Newry station, one August evening in 2011. Taken as the train was still moving, Nikon D700 camera on a tripod.
I couldn’t resist this shot.
Walking away from a parade I noticed this gentleman walking in front of me. The look (even from behind) is so incongruous, that it was begging for a photograph. The media and popular perception of members of the Orange Order is as stuffy, staid, conservative, old men. This man just blows those impressions right out of the water!
Here’s the techie stuff:
Nikon D700, 1/250th sec @ f/2.8 on ISO400. Lens at 70mm
This image of Ballycopeland Windmill near Millisle, Co. Down was captured on an old Nikon D100.
Here’s the ‘tech’ stuff:
Nikon D100 camera, 1/60th Sec @ f/13 on ISO400 at focal length 48mm. Lens: 24-120 zoom f/3.5
Portraits2Go.co.uk 