Downtown Belfast, Saint George's Market, Above the Rooftops, and Belvoir Forest Park

In planning a trip to Spain for next week (amongst other things), I have gotten behind on my photo posting.  I will try to keep my ramblings to a minimum so as to get through the many photos from the past few days.

It starts with the first of November.  I really like this photo.  The colors are soft and the minimal approach makes the scooter stand out all the more.  Sadly, I'm sure I will offend someone by calling that thing a scooter.  I think it's a scooter...but I'm not certain.  Most likely it isn't...leaving me open for attacks for calling something that is obviously more manly/sexy/feminine/fast/street legal/expensive than a scooter a scooter.

Next up is the 2nd.  Walking through downtown Belfast in the evening, my wife and I came across the first signs of Christmas.  There were banners with cheery Christmas messages, lights being strung, and department stores changing their inventory to more Holiday-oriented items.  I took some pictures of these Christmasy things, but none of them turned out as I would have hoped.  A photo of the clock tower in the middle of the city did, on the other hand, turn out decently... so that is what you get.

The 3rd provided me with some free time to meander.  I ended up with a photo with some beautiful colors...

...one with a nice antique feel to it...

...and one with interesting lighting and composition...

The 4th was Friday.  Saint George's Market day.  I frequently get my Friday photographs there, but they are normally of the products being sold, the stands, or the people.  The market is inside a beautiful old building and I decided that it was about time for me to get a picture of it.  It's a pretty long building (it almost takes up a whole block) so I decided to try cropping it differently.  Panoramic cropping seemed like the best method, allowing me to get the whole building without getting too much foreground or sky.

Looking at the panoramic result, I realized that this photo would lend itself well to a style that resembles a pen or pencil sketch with watercolor coloring.  So since I am pretty pitiful with a pen or pencil, and since I lack watercolors, I fired up my photo editing program and applied a crap ton of filters and layers, hoping I could achieve the image I had in my mind.  Luckily, I could...

Yesterday, on a roundabout morning walk to the grocery store, we found an area that takes you above the rooftops.  It's just a bridge, but the streets surrounding the bridge are densely packed with houses that being above them gives you a feeling of either being in an entirely different world with an entirely different landscape, or being a chimney sweep in Mary Poppins.  Having messed around with panoramic cropping the day prior, I was still in that mindset and applied it to this strange "landscape."  This photo made me want to go to Epcot.  Very badly...

This one reminds me of some otherworldly graveyard... 

I love the cranes in this one...

and here's a bunch of awesome looking chimneys all lined up... because no one can ever have enough photos of chimneys...

Today we got up early, found a nice area within walking distance that we knew nothing about, donned our jackets and headed out.  It was on the River Lagan and was called the Belvoir Forest Park.  It's a really nice area that is actually a forest within the city.  There is a pretty massive meadow that while traversing you will, not may, walk right into the middle of a herd of cattle and end up getting stared down by a few of them.  The river itself lazily makes its way through the trees, gathering mist in the early morning light, and is home to tons of ducks and other waterfowl...

I shall be kicking the quality up a notch with a few days of Spain photography soon...stay tuned.

September 14th through the 18th

The view out one of our windows in our Belfast apartment is a nice one.  It's an interesting mix of older roofs and modern hospital buildings.  Here is a tilt shift version of it.  I had my tilt shift lens out from yesterday...so I figured I should use it again before putting it away.

Tilt Shifted Belfast

I passed something wonderful on my way to the grocery store on the 15th...a flyer with the words "ska nation" on it.  You can't go wrong with ska.  Adding to the awesomeness was The Special's Rude Boy standing there on said flyer.  A day later I was on a bus that had a flyer that said The Specials are playing in the next week or so.  This is a beautiful world that I am currently residing in.  The only thing that would make it better would be if it was Operation Ivy's Skanking Man instead of the Rude Boy.

Hooligans and Rude Boys

My wife was told that Friday morning is the best day to go to Saint George's Market.  Apparently that's when they have the most produce.  So we went.  We survive off of produce.

 Irish Pineapples

 Happy Men and Their Produce

There was a nice little fair on the 17th and 18th.  There was music and food.  It took place in the Botanic Gardens right by our house.  A palm tree house that is only opened once a year was opened.  It was filled with crazy plants.   A jazz/swing band was playing.  This trumpet player was filled with soul.

 Irish Palm Tree

The Horn Section

We went hiking yesterday.  The trail had a few hidden animal mosaics.  Some of them were covered with shrubbery, some were missing parts.  Only one mosaic, the squirrel, was fully intact.

 Bats, Squirrels, and Badgers