Can you ever tire of photographing a river? I now have a whole folder of images from the Lower Bann, that majestic river that flows from Lough Neagh out into the Atlantic Ocean at Coleraine.
Many of them are made from the western side of the river, accessed by The Fisherman’s Walk, and on those occasions I have looked across the Bann to a small jetty, about half a mile or so upriver, on the other bank.
Look! It’s Dougal the Old English Sheepdog from the Magic Roundabout, trotting along the forest path and getting himself all dirty. I shot him with a Fujifilm X-T5.
(Don’t worry – Florence and Mr Zebedee weren’t around, so they didn’t see it happening. I think I’ve got away with it.)
I realise most of you are too young to know what I’m on about! lol
Summer fell on a Friday in Northern Ireland this year (2024). It was Friday the 30th August, – just at the very end of what the Met Office call “Meteorological Summer.” The rest of ‘Meteorological Summer’ was a complete wash-out, more or less. But today, the sun was shining, the wind had absented itself, and little fluffy white clouds drifted lazily across an azure sky. Why can’t it always be like this?
I was in Newtownards, Co.Down for the morning, and driving over Carrowreagh Hill from Dundonald to Holywood, – to access the M2 thus avoiding the traffic jams on the Newtownards Road, Belfast. I stopped in a small lay-by to place something in the boot of the car, when I noticed this small, twisted bush across the road. Taking my camera from the car, and my life in my hands as I avoided the would-be rally drivers, I managed to get a few exposures, with our historic Scrabo Tower in the distant background.
Carrowreagh Road, Dundonald – with Scrabo in the background. Photographed in glorious sunshine with the Fujifilm X-T5 camera and a f/2 7Artisans manual focus lens. Acros film simulation with digital red filter.
Ok, I know people must be bored looking at posts featuring images of Newcastle, Co.Down, but I never tire of visiting the town, and photographing its scenic setting, where mountains meet the sea, or as the songwriter Percy French would have said, “Where the Mountains of Mourne Sweep Down To The Sea.” Here’s the view that may have inspired the words of the famous song, an image of those very mountains, doing exactly that…
Carnanee Road, Templepatrick, Co.Antrim, sunset, on the 1st Day of British Summer Time, 31st March 2024, 8.17pm
Photographed with the Fujifilm X-T5 camera and a vintage Nikon 35-70 manual focus lens.
Waking along Tullygarvan Road this evening and got overtaken by this road-hogging monstrosity!
Fujifilm X-T30, F=21mm, f/5.6 @ 1/125th sec on ISO2000 (9.20pm) Nikon manual focus lens, using focus peaking.
Keeping it in Perspective.
This church at Hillsborough is popular with photographers. And why not? Look at the image!
There’s a pretty scene in there, with lots of the elements of design. There’s colour and shape, there’s lines drawing the eyes into the church, the central focus of the image. But there’s one problem. In many photographs of the church the trees are seemingly angled inwards, a distortion of perspective. It’s a natural lens effect, because the lens is low (usually at eye level) and the trees are high… Continue reading Keeping It In Perspective
A visit to the cafe at Dundonald Old Mill is an opportunity to make an image of the historic mill waterwheel at the building. I photographed it from several angles, using the Nikon F100, and a role of Ilford Delta ISO100. Here’s one of the resulting images…
Developed in Fotospeed FD-10 for 7 minutes.
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