Take more pictures
I often go to Belfast on Saturday. The walking keeps me fit and I get the opportunity to take photographs, mainly for licencing.
These images were taken with a Fuji X100. The original Fuji X 100 – 12 megapixels and a 23mm lens (equivalent to about 35mm full frame). They’re up to the MK V now.
I bought my Fuji in April 2012 – I checked. I knew I’d had it for a while but I didn’t expect it to have been 11 years.
Still going strong and I love using it.
This photograph was taken not far from Quintin Castle on the Ards Peninsula. The golden field with the wind turbine in the distance attracted my attention.
The wind turbine is not sharp as there is heat haze rising from the field. The strange shaped cloud came from low on the left and disappeared quite quickly.
Yesterday morning it was warm and sunny and I went for a walk along the Marina. There’s what you could describe as a viewing area at the end giving a view across the lough with Eisenhower Pier in the foreground.
On this occasion as well as a view of the pier I got a view of rain rushing over the lough towards me.
I didn’t make it back to the car in time.
I’ve been experimenting recently in Lightroom with some pre-sets from a company called Sleek Lens. I’ve had them for some time and used them fairly frequently but with these images I pushed them further than before – quite a bit further.
How much is too much?
I took this photograph of Samson and Goliath some years ago and I may have included it previously. The old brick wall at the right is no longer there and sadly the blue sky has been missing these past few weeks.
This is an improved version with the sky extended at the top of the image, a touch of red removed and it has been sharpened in Topaz.
Arthur Square, Belfast
Hipstamatic is a popular photography app for the iPhone, although probably not as popular as it once was. I think I may have mentioned it previously as every so often I delve into it to see what I can do.
Briefly it allows you to use filters on photographs taken with your phone as well as adjust settings, such as exposure, saturation etc. Some filters are overly dramatic but exercising some restraint can yield impressive results. By curbing your temptation to go completely over the top some striking images can be produced. I tend to tone down the filters and then perhaps adjust saturation, highlights and shadows to get where I want.
I took these pictures standing near the Lifeboat Station at the bottom of Eisenhower Pier, Bangor.
The yacht in the far distance is Kaos, owned by Walmart heiress, Nancy Walton Laurie. It is worth £241 million, £275 million or $300 million, depending where you read it. Whatever figure is correct, it is a beautiful yacht.
The question to be asked is – would I have rather watched the sunset from the deck of a $300 million superyacht or standing near the Lifeboat Station at the bottom of Eisenhower Pier?
Answers on a postcard …….
The above images were taken on my old iPhone 8. It has been replaced with an iPhone 13 and while setting up the new phone all my photographs were moved across. I found these while doing a clean out.