My favourite seaside town

Just a couple of shots of my favourite wee seaside town.  Now I've written a bit about Portstewart before - or Port na Binne Uaine as it used to be called in Irish (as in Benone) so I'll not repeat myself (well, too much anyway).  At one time it had a thriving fishing harbour, but today you'll mostly find charter boats for fishing day-trips tied up there.  All that sea just out there and nowhere to buy fresh fish anywhere - isn't that a disgrace?  Anyway, here's what it's like at low tide, looking towards the harbour:

Portstewart - looking towards the harbour at low tide, late 2014

Turn the other way and you'll get a grand vista past the gothic architecture of Dominican School (previously Dominican Convent, and before that O'Hara's Castle) towards the famous Strand beach, 2 miles of golden sand.

View West from Portstewart Prom, late 2014

As you can see from the wee photos above Ireland is a great place for dramatic skies.  Often the light is just wonderfully 'soft' - probably due to all the precipitation in the atmosphere.  Many painters were aware of that - most famously probably Paul Henry.  Until I can afford one of his paintings I'll make do with a couple of original Michael McNeill photographs hanging on my wall, like these ones captured on Ilford FP4+ on a little old 35mm rangefinder camera.