Dateline: May 8th 2020
Sketrick Island, on the shores of Stanford Lough was the nearby destination for my single permitted exercise period today. I’ll post some more of the images in a separate post, but meanwhile here’s my Sketrick ‘shot of the day.’
Fujifilm X-T30, F=55mm, f/4 @ 1/180th sec on ISO100
Dateline: May 7th 2020
I went to Comber today to get a few things from the shops, and while there I made this image of people queuing outside the Tesco Local shop. Queues outside shops have become a feature of the Lockdown, as premises try to maintain the ‘social distancing’ regulations. One of the side effects is that people are avoiding the larger supermarkets, with their huge queues and are instead supporting smaller local shops.
Fujifilm X-T30 F=120mm, f/10 @ 1/160th sec on ISO200, Acros film simulation.
Dateline: May 7th 2020
There’s an inevitability about this image. We’ve had a couple of days of sunshine, and already the low lying land around the top of Strangford Lough needs water. There’s newly sowed crops in this field, and a steady watering regime is being maintained.
Watching the farming community at work is a favourite pastime of mine. I love work – I could watch it for hours!
Fujifilm X-T30, F=175mm, f/8 @ 1/160th sec on ISO200
Dateline: May 6th 2020
Our local area is rich in agriculture, and especially in vegetable and crop horticulture, and Comber is famous for its potatoes. Returning from essential work around lunch-time today I noticed that the fields around Scrabo are full of activity. And what a glorious Spring day for working outdoors! Ah well, back now to the Cocoon for me!
Fujifilm X-T30. F=200mm, f/8 @ 1/160th sec, on ISO200. No tricks, gadgets or Nikon lenses!
Dateline: May 5th 2020
One of the challenges of the Lockdown, of course, is to find ways to illustrate the present situation – and photographs of ‘locks’ seem too appropriate, perhaps even clichéd! Yet my original ‘padlock’ photo has been downloaded on Pixabay 588 times to date! So, there’s market in padlock-downs!
Here’s another example. I’ve called this one
Captured on the Fujifilm X-T30, F=55mm (plus 11mm Macro Extension tube), f/5.6, @ 1/60th sec on ISO400. Pastel effect added in post capture processing.
Here’s a reminder of the original…
Dateline: May 5th 2020
The countryside around the Cocoon is ablaze with colour! Whin bushes are flowering – (Whin is also known in some areas as Common Gorse, or Furze).
F=55mm, (with 11mm macro extension) f/4 @ 1/250th sec on ISO1600. Classic Chrome film simulation. Fujifilm X-T30
Dateline: May 4th 2020
I’ve been photographing weeds again, and this one is Cow Parsley (when I was young we called it ‘Mother Die’ – probably because it’s poisonous!). I photographed this specimen with an 11mm macro extension fitted between the Fujifilm X-T30 and the
18-55mm kit lens. F=55mm, (+ 11mm for the extension) f/4 @ 1/2000th sec (because of wind) on ISO3200.
Dateline: May 4th 2020
Escaped from the Cocoon, and walked up the Belfast Road, hen down Tullyhubert Road. The wee pond there is always good for a couple of shots. The swans are gone, but this heifer was down near the water, and making a nice reflection on the surface.
Fujifilm X-T30, F=55mm, f/4 @ 1/100th sec, on ISO1600. Time was 8.35pm, sunset conditions. Classic Chrome film simulation.
Dateline: May 3rd 2020
To pass the time today, I’ve been looking over some old wedding photography files, and playing with image manipulation. This one is an image of Inch Abbey near Downpatrick, Co.Down. I’d been photographing a wedding at Loughanisland, and after the ceremony I took the bride and Groom over to Inch Abbey for some romance, – only to find that because it was a bank holiday, the site was packed with tourists, including a council-employed tour guide, dressed as a monk, who was eager to assure me that he wasn’t a real monk!
Today, I dredged this image up from the digital slurry pit where the old wedding files live, and gave it some Lightroom treatment, (when this image was made, around 2008/9 I didn’t have Lightroom). I increased its presence, desaturated the ruins and the sky, and gave the grass and trees some saturation, then put it into a edge/border mask and framed it with my standard frame.
Here’s what it looks like…
Dateline: May 3rd 2020
There’s this white flower growing among the bluebells in the Cocoon garden. Apparently it’s a wood anemone, and I haven’t a clue how it got there, for it wasn’t there last year! Anyway, I’ve just shot it.
Fujifilm X-T30, with Nikon 300mm Macro Lens, MF, f/8 @ 1/400th sec on ISO1600. Focus Peaking on.
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