Heading North...

Waking up at 6am on Saturday morning sounds like a crazy plan considering the fact that I do it every day during the week. This time however it was something special on the way - A photo trip with my good friend and excellent photographer Jim Leonard, who came up with this idea a few weeks earlier.

The day before I packed my Rollei, Holga (yes, just two cameras this time) and box of films. It was still dark and pleasantly mild when I left my place. An hour later I met Jim. We packed our bags into the trunk and soon after that we’ve been on the road to Belfast. 

Forecast was rather unfavourable. Once we arrived, to our surprise, Belfast was literally shining. The streets were filled with beautiful light reflecting off buildings and illuminating surroundings. It couldn't be better.

Belfast © Artur Sikora

I don’t remember when last time I was wandering the streets just for pure photography and enjoyment, without any other particular purpose. 

What made it special however was the fact that we were not on our own. We have met a fantastic local photographers who showed us Belfast from completely different perspective - Sean Allen, Patrick O’Lean and Alistair Prentice. 

(Links to their websites/public profiles are at the bottom of this text so please have a look) 

Walking, photographing and listen to great stories... Just a perfect day! It was also a great experience to see them in action portraying strangers on the streets in such an interesting manner and with full confidence. I was surprised how positive all approached strangers reacted asked to being photographed.

And of course I was the odd one avoiding people and pointing my camera towards concrete and brick walls ;)

Belfast, Gate in Peace Wall © Artur Sikora

Belfast, Peace Wall © Artur Sikora 

Belfast, Divis Street © Artur Sikora

Belfast © Artur Sikora

This is just a glimpse of what I photographed over there. Still have 2 rolls of films to process (out of 5 in total). This includes photographs of couple of architectural gems. 

As usually all images will be presented soon on my social media: FB, Twitter, Instagram and also LinkedIn. 

At the end we visited Ulster Museum and extraordinary exhibition 'Temporary/Permanent' by Frankie Quinn, marking the 50th anniversary of the erection of the first Belfast peace wall. Exhibition is open until 10th of November so go for it if you will be in the area.

© Artur Sikora

I guess we were very lucky with weather. Late afternoon, as we got back into the car, heavy rain started...  

At the end I wanted to thank here Jim, Sean, Patrick and Alistair for wonderful day!

Please don’t forget to check links below:

Jim Leonard:

FB page:  https://www.facebook.com/jimleonardphotography/
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jim_leonard53/

Sean Allen:

Website: https://rambleswithmycamera.com
FB page:  https://www.facebook.com/RamblesWithMyCamera/

Patrick O'Loan:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patrickoloan/

Alistair Prentice:

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/StreetStrangersOfNorthernIreland/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alistairprenticephoto/

Thank you!