Monday 6 January 2020

That GoT place again

Yes I was out at Ballintoy on Saturday, or the Iron Islands if you are GoT fan (I'm not, btw, but I am aware that it does command a substantial following).  Ballintoy is now a very popular place to visit - as evidenced by the fact that even on a very cold day in January the place was busy.  As I left around 3pm the car park was full.  There were more photographers and tripods than I've ever seen before.  It would nearly put you off going.  Well, I don't go near it any day of the week in the summertime any more but it's looking like weekends even in winter are going to be a no-go as well.

Anyway, the sea was incredible - very big waves coming in and breaking over the many rocks and stacks that are there.  I could have stood and watched it all day - it was beautiful, even if it was rather bracing.

I was using a new film for me - Ilford's Delta 3200 Pro, which I was rating at 1000.  According to Ilford's datasheet you can rate it anywhere between 400 and 25000.  They recommend DD-X as the developer for finest grain and maximum sharpness and I can say that on 120 film it really is very fine grain indeed, which is amazing for such a fast film.   But...I haven't done any real testing with it yet and so unfortunately my negs came out a bit flat after 7mins 30s in DD-X 1:4  Next time I'll maybe sacrifice a film for some testing or at least over-expose a bit and see where that leaves me.

Anyway, here's a print for y'all, showing them big waves and everything.  Benbane Head/Giant's Causeway in the distance, in case you were wondering.  From nearly the same location as this shot a while ago.


Ballintoy on Delta3200 on Ilford Warmtone fibre paper


As my friend and I were walking back up from the Secret Beach, we were met by a load of GoT fans - complete with complimentary fur-lined capes and plastic swords.  Obviously one of those organised GoT tours.  We smiled at them and they smiled back - most of them seemed pretty excited by the whole Ballintoy/Iron Islands adventure and had cameras and GoPros in hand.  Fair play to them, I say - it's always good to see people out and about in the fresh air enjoying themselves.  Even if sometimes I wish they weren't there at the same time as me...

4 comments:

  1. oooof. nice.
    Had to look up what GoT was :-)

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    1. Thank you Andrea! Haha - GoT is big business in NI, lots of locations used and then there's a studio in Belfast as well. Ah well, the fans seem harmless enough. (I was going to call them 'Throners' but apparently that has a different meaning altogether!)

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  2. I'm not sure I want to look up what 'throner' means.
    Very dramatic photo! I hope that the interest in your Secret Beach dies down after a while and you can photograph the area in peace again.

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    1. I think you’re on the right lines, Marcus ;)

      And thanks! Yup - I’m going to avoid weekends I think.

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