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!
Rarely is there anywhere to park a car in the vicinity of Queen’s University, – parking spaces are few and hotly contested, but on 27th December 2023, I was driving through the area on return from an appointment in South Belfast, when to my surprise, I found an empty space, right beside the Students’ Union. I quickly parked, and stepped out with the Fujifilm X-T30 fitted with an 18-135mm zoom lens.
Photographed with a Fujifilm X-T30, F=18mm, f/5.6 @1/125th sec on ISO250.
Because it was still student holidays, traffic around the university was light, and that helped quite a lot with the photography. I stood outside the Student’s Union to capture the main image, but it wasn’t long before some human interest occurred.
Continue reading Queen’s University, Belfast.The Diamond, Enniskillen, Co.Fermanagh. Photographed with a Fujifilm X-T30, on Acros film simulation with red filter.
On a lovely sunny June evening a walk along the sea path past Pickie Funpark at Bangor is a pleasant way to while away an hour or so. Here’s a few shots made on the Fujifilm X-T30, using the excellent Acros Film Simulation.
Here’s an experiment with an old manual focus 70-300mm zoom Nikon lens on the Fujifilm X-T30 mirrorless camera.
I was given this lens as a gift in 1995, (I think) and although it’s slow (max f/4) it’s quite a good lens. The light was failing when this image was made, around 5.30pm, so the ISO was 6400, making the image grainy. I extended the lens to 300mm and shot a photo of this bush at f/4 – 1/250th sec.
I needed to keep the ISO high and shutter speed short to eliminate lens shake. Overall though, I see possibilities for this combination.
It’s getting boring now. I’m now at Day 4 with my dead leaf. This time I put a macro extension tube on the X-T30 and stuck the lens right up against the leaf. Focal length was 55mm (Macro tubes only work at the vey end of these lenses) –
In Lightroom, I used split toning to bring out the reds in the leaf’s shadow areas, – just a tiny amount of saturation used.
I’ve got to find a new leaf soon. I’m running out of options. Either that or I need to get out and find something to photograph really soon.
I found this scene when wandering around the Botanic area of Belfast on Saturday morning. Someone has chained a bike to a pole, and an advertising sign above the bike reads, “Take me home!” What a challenge for a would-be bike thief!
Fujifilm X-T30. F=181mm, f/9 @ 1/60th sec on ISO400. Shot in Acros Film Simulation mode.
An interesting aspect of documentary photography is that human influence and interaction can be implied, rather than overt.
Even if people are not actually in the photo, the human element is still present and the human story is still told.
This gable wall in Belfast points us to events on the other side of the world, and indicates the desire of locals here to show solidarity with their fellow students there. There is a significant Chinese community in South Belfast, many of whom are students at the university, and many of them would have Hong Kong origins.
Fujifilm X-T30 shot in Acros film simulation.
F=22mm, f/11 at 1/60th sec on ISO400.
So, why have I posted it? Because of how it was captured. The camera is switched on, untouched. On my iphone the Fujifilm app has connected by WiFi to the camera and is showing me the image being recorded on the sensor. I can adjust the camera settings, shutter, aperture, ISO etc etc.
Also, because the camera is mirrorless it can capture images silently. No noisy mirror to move out of the way. With the focus beep switched off, and the camera set to ‘Electronic shutter’ instead of the mechanical shutter, there is no sound as it does its work. (Ideal for church interiors incidentally).
So, to a casual onlooker, the photographer is simply sitting playing with his phone.
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