Irish Blog Awards Photowalk

Hi All,
Thrilled that the Irish Blog Awards are being held in Belfast this year (finally I have no excuse for missing it!).

So, in honour of this Phil O’Kane (@icedcoffee) and myself have been not-so-idly discussing what we could do for a really good Photowalk around Belfast. There are some interesting places & spaces being negotiated, but my ‘lips are sealed’ until I get confirmation. Suffice to say Game On for now, so I’m pleased to announce:

Irish Blog Awards 2011 Photowalk itinerary.

Apologies for the lateness in delivering the (almost) full itinerary for this Photowalk, but we were waiting on a lot of arrangements to fall into place for these specific locations, it’s going to be a good one, hope you enjoy!

12noon to 1pm – Tour of Belfast City Hall interior

If you’ve ever been to Belfast you can’t miss the City Hall right in the centre. It’s an amazing piece of architecture, but if you think it looks impressive from the outside wait until you see the inside of it. The City Hall encloses an impressive collection of art, architecture and engineering, it really is quite spectacular – just don’t forget to raise your camera once in a while and take some photos  ;-)
The Tour of Belfast City Hall is provided with the compliments of the Belfast City Council and we have a bus to transport us to the Titanic Quarter courtesy of Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau.

1.30pm to 2.30pm – Tour of Titanic Belfast project

The Titanic Quarter in Belfast is undergoing an amazing transformation and there are substantial architectural projects already changing the very look of the Belfast skyline. The Titanic Belfast project is an ambitious, and unique, landmark construction – terrific potential for some great photographs. Have a look at the images that pro shooter Donal McCann has captured of this project to give you some ideas of what it actually looks like.

We’ll be taken around the base of, and inside, the building. It’s a work in progress but incredible looking even at this stage.Please note this is a ‘hard-hat’ tour, on a working construction site – so we all need to kit up in hard hats, boots & high-vis jackets, which can take up a bit of time. Harcourt Construction are providing the protective clobber
~ And yes, your bum may look big in this!

2.30pm – Tour of Titanic Drawing Offices

This is a guided tour inside the original drawing offices of the Harland and Wolff shipyard. A fascinating and historic building, previous photowalks here have resulted in some great images.

The Tour of Belfast Titanic project and the Titanic Drawing Offices is provided courtesy of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

The bus departs from Titanic Quarter at 3.30pm for the Europa Hotel, in time for the Ladies Tea party – and whatever beverages and vittles the rest of us wish to reward ourselves with prior to the Awards event later.

UPDATE: – We have the area beside the grand piano reserved at 5.30pm to relax and enjoy a drink before the Awards proper gets underway. The sublime jazz pianist Scott Flanigan has kindly offered to treat us to an impromptu performance. Suffice to say if you could shoot photos like Scott can play you’d be a member of Magnum already.

~ Who’s in?  Let me know please.

Queasy Like Sunday Morning…

OK, so you’ll probably all be feeling a little bit fragile on Sunday morning, if you’ve overdone the ‘Tea’ on Saturday. So, if you make it through breakfast how about a good dose of fresh air on the open top deck of the Belfast City Sightseeing bus?

Starting out from the Europa Hotel at 11am you’ll have a really comprehensive guided tour around the most popular Belfast city visitor attractions. This tour will take about two hours (there’s a lot to take in) by which time you may well have recovered your appetite, which would be timely as the bus will drop us off at the famous Duke of York pub for a bit of lunch.

UPDATE: The Belfast City Sightseeing tour and lunch at the fabulous Dark Horse victorian coffee bar are provided with the compliments of the Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau. Numbers will be limited to 40 max for this tour, first come etc., on Sunday morning.

This is a link to a larger map of the places we’re visiting