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.
The old village pump at Crossgar, Co.Down. This rotary pump was installed around 1870, over the site of an existing well. The wall behind the cast iron pump rises into an arch, from which villagers could suspend a bucket to draw water from the former well. When the pump was installed, the arch was bricked up.
In September, 2023 I visited the Belfast Book Fair, held this year in Methodist College (Methody) at Stranmillis. There was little in interest this year, by way of books, (mostly Irish history etc), but there were a couple of dealers selling antique postcards, and I spent quite a time trawling through them – with no intention of buying, of course, (some of these antique postcards can be rather expensive), despite the enthusiastic sales techniques of one of the vendors, who mistook my prolonged browsing for a potential sale. I was looking for photographic inspiration! Actually, I was sorry I hadn’t taken a notebook and pen!
On Wednesday 27th October (It’s 2023) the good citizens of Norn Iron were introduced to Big Aggie, or, more formally, Storm Agnes, the remnants of a gale blowing across the Atlantic, or somewhere! We were, apparently, spared the worst of it; that privilege was granted, so they say, to the people of the south west of England, but we did have lashing rain and some wind. Anyway, I was in Comber that day, with the Fujifilm X-T30 resting in the car seat beside me, and I had the photo-itch. (You know that urge you get to make a photo of something – anything…) but there was no way I was getting out of the car in THAT rain.
So, I was looking something, something that would appeal to me as an image, that I could shoot from the comfort of the driver’s seat! (Yes, I know, a total lack of dedication.. A REAL photographer would stand in the rain, la de da de da…)
I was to meet someone in Killinchy Street, – and I just happened to park opposite this…
Killinchy Street, Comber. F=40mm, f/5.6 @ 1/100th sec on ISO640
I lifted the camera, and – there it is! My photo-itch was scratched! Later, on Flickr, the image was elevated to ‘explore’ status, – something I was really chuffed about!
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.
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.
Westbourne Street, Belfast
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)
This historic building dates back to 1655, when a presbyterian congregation was founded on the site on the Portglenone Road; that building replaced in 1790, at a cost of £600. On the hill behind the OC Church is the St Brigid’s Church of Ireland Church, Drumaul Parish.
I’ve been trying for years (literally!) to get a photograph of this building – and I’ve been thwarted in the past by parked cars in the lay-by in front of the church, so when I was passingly a few days ago, and saw it carless, I did a quick u-turn and got the camera out before someone parked!
Photographed with the Nikon F100, on Ilford FP4 ISO125.
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.