12th of July

Ok so it’s the 19th, or the 18th of July as I start to write this post but the 12th is the subject of our photographs this week. The 12th of July is the date of the largest of the Orangemen and Women’s annual parades here in Northern Ireland.  Also to be found in parts of the South, Scotland, Canada and probably other places too.  Things were a tad subdued this year due to Covid restrictions but most large towns held some sort of parade, although much smaller than usual. Here in Coleraine there were just a dozen or so band from the local area. The parades up and down the country have been documented photographically for decades and by far better photographers than me but still, they are an pretty unique event and usually a good hunting ground for interesting shots.  Not so long ago there were pretty ugly scenes as objections to the usual, 'time-honoured' routes were challenged by local residents but these days routes are approved (or not) by an independent Parades Commission and by and large they pass off peacefully.  People either support them or don't...or go to the beach instead.  

I decided on the Nikon F2 and 85mm lens. I figured if the F2 could handle Vietnam then it would cope OK with Coleraine on the 12th of July.  But I’d forgotten how difficult it is to manually focus on a moving object. I hardly every photograph anything moving these days - with the exception of people the odd time I feel like doing some street photography. In hindsight I might have been better off with the N80 auto-focus but that would have meant reading the manual so I could ensure I was using the correct focus point and aperture priority metering etc.  I prefer cameras that I can pick up and use - just give me aperture and shutter speed control and a release button and I'm a happy man.  Normally when I'm shooting 35mm I'll take an incident reading with a small handheld Sekonic L-308 light meter and that'll do me for the day.  If the sun comes out or goes behind a cloud, or if I'm shooting something backlit then generally I'll compensate manually, unless there's a dramatic shift in light levels in which case I'll whip out the Sekonic again.  If I'm out with the Hasselblad or the pinhole then I'll usually take a larger Sekonic L-508, spot-meter for the highlights (or the shadows) in the scene and set the exposure appropriately.  With the F2 I ended up using f/8, pre-focussing, waiting for the walkers to come into the shot…and hoping for the best. For the most part it worked out OK.   

12th July parade in Coleraine, 2021.  Nikon F2/HP5+/HC-110 on Foma 313 paper.

The 85mm was just about perfect for getting close to the action, capturing some of the faces as well as the bigger picture.  The young man carrying the flag at the front of this band was pretty smartly turned out and has a deadly serious face on him but the guy some way behind on the big drum provides the perfect foil - you can tell from his walk he's battering the living daylights out of it.

Pride of the Bann, Coleraine. 

As far as I know (and I'm no expert here) each band is affiliated to and walks in front of an Orange Lodge.  Some bands are musically more accomplished than others, I think it's fair to say.  There are flute bands, pipe bands and accordion bands.  I like the accordion bands best - they're a bit easier on the ears.  Pride of the Bann, above, describe themselves as a 'Blood and Thunder' band - previously bands like that would have been called Kick-the-Pope bands but I guess that's a tad un-PC these days.  On the banners in the background belonging to the Lodge you can see two different impressions of King Billy, aka William of Orange or plain old William III, King of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1689 to 1702.  1690 was the important year as far as the Orange Lodges are concerned, when William and his forces defeated the Catholic James II at the Battle of the Boyne just North of Dublin.  I suspect even King William would have struggled to believe he'd still be being immortalised in banners all over Ulster some 300 years later.  Incredibly, some years he even manages to put in an appearance at the Parade, resplendent in full uniform, complete with black flowing locks and mounted on his white horse.  Funny old world, innit?