Revisiting Northern Ireland

Hot on the heels of my pinhole photos from our Northern Ireland holiday, I’m back with my digital images. I travelled light for this trip, taking just my little Fuji X100V, which has a fixed 23mm lens. Some people might find this limiting but I’ve known for a long while that I ‘see’ best with a prime lens - it just makes me work harder to seek out compositions.

My photographic explorations began before we’d even left England, taking a few photos from my seat on our aeroplane, including a view of Hatfield Forest as we took to the skies.

Our first view of Northern Ireland - so green!

When we arrived we went for a jaunt around Castlerock, the village where we were staying and after a rainy start the sun came out!

The next morning we explored Portstewart, where we found some great street art, including a small painting which may or not be a Banksy…

A duo of digital images from the Mussenden Temple to complement the pinhole photos I took there. It’s amazing to think that once upon a time you could drive a horse and carriage right round this building!

Looking across the harbour at Port Rush

My main photographic focus at the Giant’s Causeway was my pinhole images, but I did take a few digital photos on our walk from the visitors’ centre.

Towards the end of our holiday we visited Derry City but chose to take the train rather than driving. The views across the river estuary were glorious so I took some minimalist photos of the landscape as it whizzed past the train window.

One of Derry’s most striking landmarks is the Peace Bridge, crossing the River Foyle which runs through the centre of the city. I love its curvaceous lines - so photogenic.

The Peace Bridge, crossing the River Foyle in Derry

While the lines of the Peace Bridge seemed to call for a monochrome treatment the rest of Derry was too vivid for me to remove the colour!

On our last day we took a diversion to the Titanic museum in Belfast. Such a wonderful structure and it was astonishing to see SS Nomadic, a tender which ferried some of the passengers to the Titanic when it moored just outside Cherbourg Harbour.

Photos taken in June 2022

Northern Ireland in slow motion

Back in June we flew over to Northern Ireland for a holiday and for the first time in nearly three decades I took a film camera with me. I chose to take my little wooden 6x6 pinhole camera - about as simple a machine as you can use for image making. Getting the film to our destination was a tad stressful, not knowing whether the scanning machines at security would be old fashioned X-rays (which are ok with slower film) or the newer CT scanners, which will wipe your film before it’s even been developed! Fortunately all was well and the fact that you’re seeing my photos means they made it through unscathed.

The beautiful sand dunes at Portstewart Strand

Our destination was a cottage on the north coast, at Castlerock, which gave us endless places to visit along the coastline. One of our early ports of call was Portstewart Strand, a beautiful sandy beach, with dunes stretching as far as the eye can see.

Just a couple of miles from our cottage was the charming Mussenden Temple, a Georgian gem. Once upon a time it stood far enough inland that it was possible to drive a horse and carriage right around its circumference. With coastal erosion this is now far from possible and one wonders whether it will ultimately fall into the sea, or perhaps steps will be taken to dismantle the Temple and move it away from the precipice.

On the same site, but further inland stands Downhill House, another Georgian building which hasn’t survived as well as the Temple. During World War II it was used to house RAF servicemen and women, but all that remains today is a shell - it’s amazing how quickly a building can be reclaimed by nature if it’s left untouched.

Kevin kindly loitered in the doorway to create a human silhouette for me here

One of the places at the top of our ‘must visit’ list was, of course, the Giant’s Causeway. I’ve seen countless images of these amazing basalt columns but it was even better to see them firsthand. I took a leap of faith and used only my pinhole camera to photograph the causeway, trusting that the slowish exposure times would blur or remove many of the tourists. I’m so pleased I did as the resulting photos are more atmospheric and characterful than anything I could have made with a digital camera. Naturally, I received some curious looks from the other tourists as I climbed around the rocks with a wooden box atop my tripod, but I’m used to that now!

Do click on the thumbnails to see these larger - it’s worth it!

A Giant’s Causeway selfie with a difference - we had to remain as still as possible for ten seconds!

Views of the Causeway from our walk back to the visitor centre…

My final pinhole location of the holiday was the magical Dunluce Castle, just a few miles west of the Causeway. Standing on a rocky outcrop and reached by a bridge, it’s astonishing that building such an impressive structure here was possible in the early 16th century. It must have been an imposing sight in its heyday but today it remains as a decaying shell.

Photos taken in June 2022