The King, in Belfast

We had a wee jaunt to the Big Smoke a couple of weeks ago.  It was a Sunday and we both felt like being spontaneous, for a change.  Not like us at all but there you go.  Anyway, I took the OM4ti with me while my wife looked for some wedding outfits for the Marriage of the Year - her second born, who is tying the knot with his squeeze Clare in a few weeks.  This pair.  (Spoiler alert: colour.  It won't happen again).

As we dandered about the shops, we came upon Elvis, doing his 'Huh huh huh' thing to the amusement of a crowd of onlookers.  I did the only decent thing and snapped up the situation:

The would-be King, in Belfast.  A couple of seconds after I took this he flung himself to his knees in an exaggerated Elvis fashion.  At this point we realised he was pretty drunk.  On the Sabbath!  Disgraceful. Probably the 35mm f/2.8 Zuiko.  Definitely HP5 and HC-110, on Ilford MG Classic fibre paper.

Coffee at the Dock

Another coffee shop - just what we need around The Liberties, which seems to be full-to-bursting with cafes and charity shops these days.  But I'll allow this one, saying as it's not in the town but on the banks of the River Bann, about a mile or so upstream from Coleraine.  There's a pleasant riverside walk where you can see herons and cormorants and even a kingfisher or two if you are lucky and then you have this, where on a good day you can sit outside and remind yourself it's not a bad wee place at times:

We had to wipe the seats before sitting, as there had been a heavy shower minutes earlier.  But the rain departed and it was really rather pleasant. OM4ti with 24mm Zuiko, on HP5+, HC-110 and Ilford Classic fibre paper.  The sky got a light burn-in under the enlarger, just to bring out those lovely clouds.

Guardian

This was one of those ‘last shot of the film’ photographs, taken on a spring morning a couple of weeks ago when the light was very soft. The tree stump in question sits 2/3 of the way down our drive and is like a grand old fellow guarding our entrance. I’m sure one of those chainsaw artists you get at Country Fairs could sculpt something amazing from it but for now it’s staying as it is:

Tree Stump.  Hasselblad/50mm.  FP4+, HC-110 on Ilford MG Classic fibre paper.

Rabbits have burrowed under the roots of the stump and emerge from time to time to hop around the fields, dodging buzzards (sometimes not successfully) and our kitties. Maisie, the tabby, has a habit of bringing little ones into the house. They’re completely unharmed…she just releases them and then loses interest.  Perhaps she thinks they are kittens and she’s being motherly, bringing them home. Quite sweet, really, but they can give you quite the shock when you move a chair and suddenly this wee furry animal scampers away.  We operate a catch-and-release policy…take them back to the tree and let them hop off, sometimes to be re-captured 24 hours later and then we do it all again. 

Teamwork

Still in the Paddock at the NW200 road races.  There was an impressive show by the top teams - this was FHO BMW Racing's offering:

FHO BMW Racing Team at the NW200.  The tread on the back tyre is a reminder of the poor weather - in dry conditions they'd be slicks, with no tread. M6/28mm/HP5 on Ilford MG Classic fibre paper.

FHO is quite the team - the only female-owned and led Superbike Team, by Faye Ho, who grew up in Macau and has been involved in motorsport pretty much all her life.  She seems to be pretty serious about the whole thing.  Unfortunately it didn't work out this year for FHO Racing, since their rider (Peter Hickman) was forced to retire with tyre problems and they then decided not to race on safety grounds.  Probably a wise move.  

A hundred yards or so down the Paddock and things start to look very different: 

Life at a smaller team - not quite on the same level as FHO Racing.

There were lots of teams like this - a couple of guys, up to their eyes in grease and doing their best to get their machines ready for the Saturday.  I guess they are sponsored by local businesses in whatever part of the world they come from.  It can't be easy - I'm sure even the smallest teams burn through a sizeable amount of cash in one meeting and if you aren't in the mix for a placing at the end you can forget about prize money.  The big races of the day will win you something like £6000 if you come first, the sixth placed rider get a few hundred and if you come lower than that, well, you don't even get your bus fare home.

I have no idea about the finances of road racing but from what I read, there are very few professional riders in the business - even some of the top names have day jobs, anything from electrician to builder.  Why do they do it?  The rush, I guess.  They're all a little mad, of course.

NW200 Paddock Pics

Last week was Race Week in the Liberties - North West 200 motorbike road racing, back for the first time in 3 years due to you-know-what.  I've talked about the races many times before on this place - here, and here if you need a reminder.  I gave up on taking photographs of the actual racing some years ago, since aging manual focus film cameras aren't really the best option to capture machines hurtling past at a rate of knots.  So I leave the digi boys and girls to do that.  My only option, I decided, was to concentrate on other aspects of the event and my goal this year was to try to emulate some of the Paddock shots that I captured 45-odd years ago and showed not so long ago (here).

Unfortunately the weather was not kind during the week.  It was damp and dreary for Tuesday Practice and full-on rain for Thursday evening's racing.  On Friday it was dry so I decided to go for it and invested ten pounds on a Paddock Pass.  It stayed dry, more or less, but it was overcast and very, very dull.  But all you can do is photograph what's in front of you so I stuck at it, wandered about the Paddock for a couple of hours and shot through a couple of rolls of HP5 in the Leica with a 28mm Elmarit attached.  I wanted to get as close as possible to the people and the bikes, hence the choice of a 28mm.  The Elmarit f/2.8 is a dinky little lens, with a 39mm filter thread (like most of the older Leica lenses) - it's just over an inch long (30mm) and balances perfectly on the M6.

In the Paddock, 2022-style with Oxford Clean Grips and Muc-Off.  HP5+ rated at 250, developed in HC-110 (1:31, 7.45m), printed on Ilford MG Classic fibre paper.

Now this may come as a bit of a shock to you but things have changed in the Paddock since the last time I walked around it, in 1979.  Some of the motorhomes and artic lorries wouldn't look out of place at a F1 race and all, or nearly all the bikes were hidden away inside tents.  Tents with see-through plastic sheeting, but still tents and pretty much a hopeless situation for getting any photographs.  I get why - the weather, for a start, as clearly you can't be stripping an engine in the pouring rain.  Also, given the cost of machinery and tools you don't want any Tom, Dick or Harry getting too close to the gear.   After walking about for a bit I summoned up the courage to ask if I could take a few shots inside one of them - I chose a 'not very big' outfit, as I figured they'd be more accommodating (they were).  Hence the 'insider' shot above.  

As time went on and the rain held off most of the teams 'opened up' the front part of their enclosures, which improved things photographically-speaking.  Marginally, it has to be said as even though there was lighting inside there still wasn't a lot of light around - for some shots I was down to 1/15s so I lost a few frames as a result.

Some of the teams had raised platforms, which made the bikes easier to work on.

I was surprised by the amount of work going on on the Friday.  They had been racing on the Thursday evening and the big race day (Saturday) was still to come, so a lot of the teams were doing a complete strip, clean and re-build of the engines.  This team (below) had the whole engine block in bits, pistons & valves out - the two lads at the back were measuring and cleaning, while their colleague seemed to get the slightly easier task of checking the operation of his stopwatch:

Bike, in bits, getting prepped for Race Day.

On the Saturday the weather was much better, perfect for racing - warm and dry.  I thought about going back to the Paddock Area, since the light was much better, but it would have meant an early start followed by a full day 'locked in' to the Paddock while the racing went on.  I was still tired from the Friday walkabout so I decided it just wasn't do-able.  Maybe next year.

  

Homeward Bound

This was taken on board the ferry from Greencastle, Donegal over to Magilligan, Northern Ireland.  It's a short crossing - about 15 minutes or so, and the ferry can take maybe 15 cars at a time.  It runs continually from dawn to dusk over the summer months, back and forth.  The main advantage is that it cuts down a lot of driving, since the only alternative is to drive the whole length of the Foyle Estuary up to Derry/Londonderry and down the other side, which could take the best part of an hour, depending on the traffic (and the ever-present road-works).  The main disadvantage is that it can be a tad rough, as indeed it was the day we crossed.  It was a lovely day, with full sun but by flip that stretch of water was choppy, particularly on the Donegal side.  I was out of the car with the camera but at one stage I almost lost my balance due to the rolling of the vessel - I made it to the side railings and hung on until things improved.  This was as we pulled out of Greencastle and just before things got a bit mad:

Leaving Greencastle, en route home.  Hasselblad/50mm Distagon, FP4+ in HC-110 (1:31, 9 minutes) on Ilford MG Classic paper.

From Magilligan it's only about a 20 minute drive home for us, past the prison, Downhill Beach and Castlerock.  The prison at Magilligan is a medium security place and mainly houses, or used to, sex offenders.  Between the prison and the beach is an Army Shooting range - something to bear in mind if you fancy a dander along the seven or so miles of golden sand.  If you see a red flag flying it might be best not to venture too far up the sand dunes.  We did, on one occasion a few years ago and got shouted at by some angry men in uniform some distance away.  We didn't hang around to engage the gentlemen in conversation but beat a hasty retreat.  Probably the correct thing to do in the circumstances.

Moville

The busy little town of Moville, in Donegal, lies on the banks of Lough Foyle.  It's more of an estuary thank a lough, as it's where the River Foyle enters the Atlantic - and it's a pretty wide estuary in places.  There's a rather pleasant shore-line walk you can do, and I've done it several times but we didn't have the legs for it this time around.  This was as close as I got to the water's edge last week:

Moville, looking over the lough towards Binevenagh.  FP4+, HC-110 on MG Classic fibre paper.  The sky and front of the building got a little burn-in, as did the left bottom corner.  The sky on the right hand side of the print could probably take a little more, to balance things out better.

I was about to write that the hall used by the 18th Donegal Moville Port Sea Scout Group looks like it once was a Church Hall but then I spotted the compass and set square near the top of the building, which would indicate it was a Freemasonry Hall.   Perhaps it still is and it's shared with the Sea Scouts.  Are there still Freemasons in Moville?  I have no idea...