Discovering Belfast

Last year, during my world trip for my 50th birthday, I met up with a number of Blipfoto members in Australia when I was staying with Trish and Adele. They were all very welcoming and friendly. Among those Blippers was Christina (Puggle) and this week, she visited Belfast with her friend, Luisa. I was delighted to be able to show them around the city and environs over two days. We managed to include the Victoria Square viewing platform, the City Hall, Queens University’s Lanyon Building, the Botanic Gardens, Sandy Row, Belfast Castle, Scrabo Tower, the Crown Bar, the Europa and the Opera House, Carrickfergus Castle, various political murals in the east and west of the city, Donaghadee (where we ran into Tim Lawrence, Princess Anne’s other half), Bangor, St Anne’s and St Peter’s Cathedrals, the Thompson Dock and Pump House, the Nomadic, viewed the Tesco Metro’s beautiful ceiling and a fair bit more. I think we may have overdone it a little!

I spent most of my time talking rather than photographing the sights, but I have included some of my shots below:

Merchant Banker (Tesco Metro)

 

NOTA!

 

Thompson Graving Dock

 

Scrabo Tower

 

St Peter’s Pews

 

St Peter’s Tiles

 

The Needle

 

Amazing weather too! Hurry back, Christina and Luisa.

Randomness Or Specialising?

I shoot people, scooters, Land Rovers, bridges, Mods, graffiti, decay, ships, coffee, and many other random subjects. I shoot what appeals to me, and then and only then, do I think about what might appeal to those who look at my images. Like most people though, I appreciate the validation that watching the stats on my images on Flickr, Tumblr and this blog brings. If I was commercially minded, I would need to shoot what appeals to others firstly. This, I imagine, would quickly cause me to interest in photography fairly quickly.

I would like to experiment more though. Perhaps by shooting people more than I currently do, and perhaps by getting closer to my subject matter, showing aspects of the subject rather than the whole picture.  We’ll seen what happens.

Here are a few shots from the last couple of days. As varied as usual…

Clicking on the images will open them up for closer scrutiny 🙂

Today’s Blipfoto entry: I’m Down With Da Kidz

Cup of Bokeh

Special Offer

ANCO!

Metal Insects

I went to see Only God Forgives at the Queen’s Film Theatre this evening. It’s pretty awful and a waste of ninety minutes and £4. Pretentious arty rubbish, just like Gosling and Winding Refn’s previous collaboration, Drive. Anyway, there is no better way for me to relax after a long-ass day and a crap film, than to wander around taking some long exposure shots of large industrial metal objects like these. My favourite shot of the evening is here: Sleeping Giants. It’s in landscape and didn’t suit the blog post layout. Clicking on it will take you to Flickr.

Metal Insects

 

Dark Giant

 

Rust In Peace

 

Off tomorrow! Yayy!

Decay and Dereliction

I’ve intended to take a few night shots of the demolition of this high-rise car park for some weeks now but only found the opportunity in the early hours of this morning. I missed the initial demolition of the semi-circular lane way at this end of the building which was quite striking in itself. At 00:30, Frederick Street was quite an experience but the three separate blokes who passed me seemed quite affable and as nervous of me as I was of them.  Clicking on the images opens them up larger in a separate window, for all the gritty detail!

 

Baby Ché and His Proud Dad

I think today was the most relaxing day I’ve had in many months. We had a lie-in until 09:00 and then drove up to St George’s Market in Belfast with Mrs P, Sophie and her country cousin, Fiona. Once I had got over paying £8.40 for two black coffees and two hot chocolates, I started to relax and had a wander around with my camera. I was particularly pleased with a shot I took of a chap called Al, who was holding his five month old baby, Ché Phoenix. I saw him standing halfway in and out of a glass fire door enjoying the cooler air and I liked the light, so I asked him if I could take the shot. Baby Ché’s parents, Al and Astra, run a stall selling books and they’re lovely people. Give them a visit, local readers!

Baby Ché Phoenix

St George’s Market takes place in a very old building which initially formed part of a much bigger market area. I’ve seen old pictures from the ’30s and ’40s showing lots of farm animals and farm produce for sale on a huge scale on the site across the road, which is now covered by various office buildings, and the local residential area is still known as The Markets. Here’s a shot I took one rainy night a few years ago: St George’s Market At Night

Anyway, here are a few more from today’s walkabout.

Breads

The Lady In Red

Browsing

Facade

The shot of the day was definitely Ché and his dad, for me. More snapping tomorrow, methinks!

Looking Up

This is the first of two posts today. On Sunday evenings post-18:00, the city centre is fairly quiet, so my photo-walk was almost without human subjects. Having spent many, many hours walking around town, I am aware of the higher level beauty of some of the older buildings that have had their street level frontage gutted and modernised, and I think Belfast is much poorer for it. This first Art Deco building is in Ann Street and I am always attracted by the elephant head features at the top of the windows.

Elephants

Almost opposite “Elephant House” is this alleyway. It, has various times, has been a shelter for homeless people and some of Belfast’s street drinkers use it as a lounge. On one occasion, I saw a transaction of some sort taking place between two shifty-looking characters. It looked almost innocent yesterday evening.

Avenues and Alleyways

My other “look up” is from High Street. Note the dragon gargoyle thingy from 1905!

Stone Dragon