Tag Archives: Black and White

Beautiful Ulster, Black & White, Co. Antrim, Landscapes, Photo-Essay, Reportage, Scotland, Travel

Rathlin Island

On Tuesday 23rd July 2024 Janette and I visited (for the first time) the small island of Rathlin, just off the north coast of County Antrim. Rathlin is the only inhabited island on the coast of Northern Ireland, with a population of around 150, although it is reported that the population is steadily growing. I can understand why. We were quite taken with its tranquility, and its peacefulness. The island is very community focused, and a graphic near the Co-op lists the values that mark the community, – seeking to make Rathlin a welcoming place for everyone. 

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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, Black & White, Co. Antrim, Photo-Essay

Crosskeys Inn

The Crosskeys Inn is a traditional thatched building in Co.Antrim, sited between Randalstown and Portglenone, north of Lough Neagh.

Photographed here with a Fujifilm X-T30 camera, F= 21mm, f/4 @ 1/1250th sec on ISO640. If the shutter speed seems a little fast for a static building – I agree! I’d just managed to capture a shot of a motorcycle and sidecar roaring by!

Beautiful Ulster, Black & White, Co. Antrim

Lislea Mission Hall

Lislea Mission Hall, in the townland of Lislea, between Portglenone and Kilrea. Now long abandoned and disused, it has been boarded up, and become overgrown and is slowly crumbling away. Once would have been a meeting place for worship to groups of local resident, farmers and their friends, and their children.

Lislea Mission Hall
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