About 'Picture Northern Ireland'
Website Purpose
Getting Into Photography
Who's Behind It?
This website has been created to highlight some of Northern Ireland's great historical buildings and places of interest.
If you live in Northern Ireland or are thinking of visiting, maybe these photos will give you some new ideas for where to spend a bit of time.
However, please note that some venues will have entrance costs or membership requirements while others may require other permission for access.
Who's Behind It?
Getting Into Photography
Who's Behind It?
Belfast amateur photographer Gary Hughes was behind the camera for this collection of photographs.
Gary has no formal photography qualifications or training. To be honest, he's a bit uncomfortable describing himself as a photographer. When you look at his photos you may well agree but never worry, at least he enjoys himself.
Getting Into Photography
Getting Into Photography
Getting Into Photography
Gary became interested in photography during his late 30's.
His wife Sandra very kindly bought him an SLR camera in the hope that photography would take his mind of his job. It worked, up to a point.
Taking photographs gave Gary an excuse to get out of the house and to visit places, many of which he had never been to before and, in some cases, he had never heard of.
The other great thing is that photography encouraged him to slow down and actually look at the world around him.
Photography Journeys
At the End Of the Day
Getting Into Photography
The six galleries on this website contain approximately 100 photos. To take these, Gary travelled the length and breadth of Northern Ireland.
Saturday's and short breaks away from home provided the opportunity for most of the photography expeditions.
Online, Saturday outings became know as 'Staycation Saturdays' and provided a chance for people to identify, or guess, the latest photography venue. Well done to those who identified or guessed right. For those who didn't, why not take the opportunity to visit some of the places in the gallery, and maybe bring a camera!
Sunshine the day before many trips provided the hope of bright and sharp images with wonderful blue and white skies. Such hopes were sometimes dashed by the arrival of the rain.
Northern Ireland's road network is improving but the potential for getting stuck behind a tractor on a stretch of A or B road is ever present.
On occasions, reaching the desired destination would not have been possible without the navigation skills of Sandra who has been known to take pleasure in reminding Gary of the time he got lost in a car park.
There are also those parts of Northern Ireland where road and historic monument signs have mysteriously disappeared. It wasn't on just one occasion that locals would have seen Gary driving past their homes five or six times with a look of great frustration on his face.
Probably the greatest challenge was finding an ancient monument that had no direction signs and was located in the middle of a muddy and dung filled field at the top of a hill over the horizon and hidden behind a clump of bushes. In such scenarios, satellites only offered limited help and there was no substitute for plodding on and hoping for the best.
You know, despite the moaning, it was all good fun (most of the time).
Equipment and Images
At the End Of the Day
At the End Of the Day
Gary used his twelve year old Sony 390 Alpha digital camera to take the photos. It was very kindly bought for him by his colleagues when he left a former job.
It has been a reliable piece of equipment that has served him well and owes him nothing.
This camera, along with the lenses and other pieces of equipment accumulated over the years, are carried in a camera backpack that is a good job especially when clambering over gates, fences and muddy fields.
Gary takes his photos in Raw format and then processes them using Photoshop. This allows him to give them a bit of a rustic look and is useful for finding contrast in skies on the many grey days. The final image is in JPEG format.
The images you see on this website have a double watermark and have been reduced in size. The latter allows a greater number of photos to be uploaded to the website.
It has taken a good while to put together this collection of images. There is still scope for adding more and this is the plan, over time.
At the End Of the Day
At the End Of the Day
At the End Of the Day
People take photographs for many different reasons but, at the end of the day, it's about creating something unique to you and enjoying yourself while doing it. Hopefully you enjoy the galleries and are encouraged to get to know Northern Ireland a bit better.