Life – Page 11

July 1, 2013July 1, 2013

Bangor 400 Seashore Festival

2013 marks the 400th Anniversary of Bangor’s town charter and the celebrations continued over the weekend of 29th and 30th June 2013. The town hosted Military Bands and vehicles, a spectacular display of modified cars, street entertainers, market stalls, HMS Bangor visited and there was even a selection of cars from the Ford Capri Owners Club!

Click on an image to enlarge.

Bangor 400 Seashore Festival, J Orr — Three sailors looking for a ship

There were characters roaming Eisenhower Pier dressed in period costume.

Bangor Seashore festival J Orr — Stop Check Point

Those of us over a certain age will remember the times when we would probably see a sign like this most days and Murphy’s Law dictated that it would always be when you were in a hurry to get somewhere

Bangor Seashore Feastival J Orr — Central Band RAF

This is the Central RAF Band being directed by an official photographer who had to get things exactly right. Now look at the young lady first row right and will see that she is smiling and looking across to the young lady first row second left who seems can barely stop herself bursting into laughter. Not what the official photographer would’ve wanted but makes the picture for me.

These two ladies were posing dressed in costume and certainly entering into the spirit of things.

Before everyone went home some of the custom and modified cars did a lap of the town.

June 17, 2013June 18, 2013

Saint Anne’s Square

I don’t often mention the equipment I use to take photographs as I think we can sometimes spend too much time discussing the gear we use rather than the actual images we take. It has been said that the best camera is the one you have with you when the image presents itself and for most people the camera they have with them will be in their mobile phone. Today’s smartphones will easily produce images of sufficient quality for Facebook, blogs and screen display and this is all that most people will need.

I hope to sell some of my images and that means getting the best quality I can so I nearly always have a camera with me – and I take a lot of photographs.

SLR cameras, even the small ones, are too bulky and heavy to carry when you’re doing something other than taking photographs and my favourite carry around camera of the moment is a Fuji X100. The X100 looks like a rangefinder camera and caused a bit of a stir when it first went on sale because of its retro styling. First users complained of problems with focusing and ease of access to some functions among other things but firmware updates have cured not all, but most of these early difficulties. About a month after I got mine I had to return it to Fuji for repair as the aperture blades were sticking. A quick search on Google revealed and I was not alone in experiencing this fault. Over time I have become used to the camera’s ways. It has a prime lens so when I want to zoom in I have to walk closer and I have found this encourages more thought when creating an image. I have to work that bit harder and push myself that bit more.

These images of Saint Anne’s Square, Belfast were taken with the X100. Saint Anne’s Square is directly behind Saint Anne’s Cathedral and there are a couple of restaurants, The MAC is there and probably other things I don’t know about. It’s one of those areas in Belfast that can be ideal for taking portraits and while I was taking these images there was a photographer there shooting a model.

While preparing these photographs I’ve found that I tend to produce more images from the Fuji in black and white than I would expect. I can’t explain why this is but now that I’m aware of it I’ll have to come up with some theory for a future post.

Click on an image to enlarge.

June 3, 2013June 3, 2013

Cultra Hill Climb 2013

The Cultra Hill Climb is an annual event held in the grounds of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, Holywood. This year it fell on Saturday 1 June 2013 and the sun came out.

It has been said that the event allows you to see vehicles from the past century being used as originally intended and this was certainly the case with these older rear wheel drive cars showing their mettle at each bend in the course. Further attractions included a display of Porsche cars, Crossle Racing cars (based in Holywood), motorcycles and lots more.

Click on an image below to enlarge or click here to see more photographs.

May 27, 2013May 27, 2013

Belfast Maritime Festival 2013

Gulden Leeuw, Belfast Titanic Maritime Festival 2013 J Orr

The Belfast Titanic Maritime Festival 2013 was held over the 25th to 27th May. The Festival is always worth a visit (it’s free) and this year was no different with Tall Ships, a Maritime Market, street theatre and more. I called in on Saturday 25th and although it was fairly busy it wasn’t too crowded. Unfortunately, although the weather was fine it was a bit windy and sailing ships being involved, things didn’t go exactly as planned but then I suppose they rarely do.

Click on an image to enlarge or click here to see photographs on Photoshelter.

Yachts in front of Titanic Building, Belfast Titanic Maritime Festival 2013 J Orr — Yachts in front of Titanic Building, Belfast Titanic Maritime Festival 2013

May 6, 2013

Belfast Fools

The tenth Belfast Festival of Fools was held from 2nd to 6th May 2013 and brought artists from across the globe. As always the event was well supported and the acts certainly introduce a carnival atmosphere to the city. Even the weather, unusually for Belfast, cooperated with the rain mostly staying away over the four days.

The events were mostly in Cathedral Quarter but I came across some in Corn Market and the Victoria Centre.

Click on an image to enlarge.