Swanning around

                          National Bird Day


Another Sulby river side walk in the Poyll Dooey Nature Reserve. It's a haven for birds of many feathers, but no foxes badgers or squirrels. We don't have those on the Isle of Man. We do have plenty of swans though. A Spring image, it is far too wet, cold, grey and windy for swans and photographers atm. Nice weather for ducks though. 


For anyone on twitter or facebook did you know it is #NationalBirdDay where you can see other posts around the world of birds. My bird collection album


This post today is part of Our World Tuesday.

Swan lake

                             Evening dip


I was actually looking for the swam that has taken to walking the roads, rather than swim in the harbour, or the visiting Australian black swan, but no just your average swans and geese evening birds. Also, has anyone seen the escaped lemur from the wildlife park. Last seen with a tomato sauce bottle apparently vandalizing butcher's shops. Or that could be the escaped wallaby.

Three's company - My World

Or three's a crowd

Well of course I could have gone for the obvious title of Swan Lake, but that would have been a bit of a lie. I'm not averse to bending the truth, well blatantly lying on this blog to illustrate an image with the text when I'm bored, or feeling mischievous but today, play it straight. The three little swan gliding into view are the real part not stuffed but the water is the swizz. It's not the lake but the Harbour inlet. If you look closely at the top half of the image you can see darker contrasting lines reflecting upon the lighter coloured water of the sail masts of the moored boats. Swans always look beautiful to photograph, but don't get two close. For such elegant creatures they have a nasty hiss and can break your arm if they don't want their photo taken. One for the zoom lens and run.


Still on a borrowed laptop, so posts as and when. For other My World images, click here.

SHY SWAN IN SOFT LIGHT - CRITTERS

I can see you!

Critters

A really quick post today. When in doubt get the swan shots out. Not so much in doubt but more pushed for time. So a little monochrome of this sweet coy swan who just wouldn't lift his/her head for me to photograph the beautiful line of the neck in the soft half light. Still those lovely white feathers really jump out against the dark water which was the aim of the image anyway. Gotta love swans to photograph. Elegant, slow, graceful and beautiful. Word of warning though don't make one angry. Not so beautiful, elegant, slow or at all graceful when they are hissing or spitting at you. That scenario doesn't quite fit the delicate, serene image above does it? For more serene swans not having a hissy fit click colours below.


Wing tips!
Romance
Ever decreasing circles

The gymnast

Arty
Comedic
Mythical
Lateral

I hope you like the little joke image one in there too. Gotta run.

WING TIPS - CRITTERS

Featherlight


Critters

Time has escaped me again so a little lateral thinking image and title. Almost lost another day(again) so one from the recent archives. Swan wings. I have so many swan images as the harbour is full of them all year round. They are a useful ( and needless to say beauitful) subject to make a study of by photographing many different ways. Just wanted to concentrate on the feathers with this image, so a partial capture of the area of interest.


One colour can have so many shades. Light bouncing off the water and the silken feathers show varying tones and textures. Angles too deflect or attract light which in turn cast shadows, heighten or hide areas. Individual feathers can appear almost translucent or groups of feathers the opposite opaque. The gentle breeze ruffles the feathers creating smooth or rougher textures. The image was taken at quite a distance but focusing on an area of the swan rather than the whole gives the illusion of closeness. Sometimes you can miss the finer detail by focusing on the overall image. For more swan images click red words below and spot the odd one out. Or is it?


Romance
Ever decreasing circles
The gymnast
Arty
Comedic
Mythical
Lateral


Misty Dawn's Critters of the world can be found by clicking here.

Babooshka Ramsey daily photo http://dailyphotoisleofman.blogspot.com/

Lone Swan - Critters

Me Myself I

Critters Sunday

The photo I wanted to upload I can't find to hand it's late so I've just grabbed this one. It's back in the harbour. The lonesome swan was swimming towards the wall that separates the harbour from the park lake. Is it me or can you make out a face in those feathers. Maybe it's me. 

The harbour is always full of swans so they are always a fall back option to post. I'm busy sorting through tonnes of images, especially bird photographs at the moment, particularly swans. I have that many now I may be tempted to let the odd freebie go to a good home. Have to think about that one.  I like this one very much on a personal level, how white the swan is against the darkened water, but it's a little arty and bold for the gallery I'm planning. It will make sense when you see it.  Have to see how the credit crunch is affecting this photographer to see if I can let a few images go then. This is one I am debating about for the new website. So many swans so little space. Somethings gotta give. 

I'm keeping this short and sweet tonight. Going to pour myself a drink, take a break and then plough on with the clear out. Maybe even update Facebook. To all you "budding" photographers out there have fun and don't be bitter, there's plenty of images to go round and advise.i  More critters can be found at Misty Dawn's if you just click here

Babooshka ramsey daily photo http://dailyphotoisleofman.blogspot.com/

VERSATILE SWAN - RAMSEY CRITTERS

Hide, Babooshka is here with her camera again!

Critters Sunday

I know the swan isn't really hiding from me. Well I presume it's not. We have camera show people but not birds, no the swan is of course preening itself. Not for my benefit for the image but I'm sure it did he/she some good. Spent quite a while doing this. On second thoughts maybe it was avoiding me. Of course this was taken alongside Ramsey Harbour again, actually on the Swing Bridge. 

Following on from yesterday another image using light and objects to bounce colour. The blue highlighted in the rippled circles was reflected off  a boat and stands out as the swan is so white. The same image with the swan in the centre of the shot isn't as dramatic, hiding the ripples and the blue isn't as emphasised, which is why I went with this one again a manual. Once you get the hag of manual images they are much sharper than auto. Forgive the next paragraph but going off at a complete tangent to internet thieves who are spoiling blogging..

If this blog page text full, part or images appears on any other site apart from "RAMSEY DAILY PHOTO" then it is being viewed illegally and has been reprinted, copied or fed to a site illegally. The contents of this blog are to be viewed on RAMSEY DAILY PHOTO, http://dailyphotoisleofman.blogspot.com/ and I will take action if I find this page on any site other  than RAMSEY DAILY PHOTO 

Sorry for the above but some of us have had problems and I will not put up up with it.

For more Critters see Misty Dawn and please leave a comment.

MONOCHROME ODDSHOTS - 4 HEADLESS SWANS!

Duck Babooshka's here with her camera again!

Sounds like the macabre version of the 12 days of Christmas doesn't it? Four Headless Swans and one hunted Wren from yesterday's St Stephen's Day Post here Not at all just the way the photos fall. A walk along Ramsey Harbour, here) with camera is always a sheer delight for the photographer. I do mean real photographer, not snapper too but that's a matter for another day. At least acknowledge me you amateur!(you know who you are)

An image that begged to be shown as a black and white and the odd part well, all swans just swan diving at precisely the same time is a gift. Serendipity the photographers greatest friend lending a helping hand again.  You ignore serendipity at your peril. As you can see another natural image with all the debris that flows in and around the harbour left in the frame.  Why clone out something from an image that is perfectly natural just because it is slightly ugly and not perfect? Another time for that discussion on perhaps another blog.

Bad news again. Gary's laptop has died too. Now we are back to sharing one laptop that is borrowed until next week only.  You can appreciate a photographer and artist need a laptop each so blogging will take a back seat for a while. I will post as best I can, but it is difficult presently, work I'm afraid comes first, especially when people are still trying to clone my very being. 

Want to join the weird world of Odd Shots Monday? Then see KATNEY

Want to join the beautiful and creative world of MononchoromeMonday? Then see Aileni at LOOSE ENDS

DECEMBER THEME DAY/MONOCHROME - CIRCLES/SPHERES

Water Circles

As it's also Monochrome Monday along with CDP Theme Day I combined both themes in one shot as I so often do. As a professional photographer it is something I am used to doing. I wanted to encapsulate the essence of a monochrome image with minimalist stark natural evolved circles. The very obliging swan glided into view. He pressed his blunt beak down into the soft water and then back up for air resplendent in tiny clear water droplets. As the water spheres, the droplets, fell on the liquid they were creating the ripples, perfect circles eminating out from the centre point. The other water spheres, the bubbles, were created from the swan dive earlier too. Pretentious eh, but you get the drift. On the otherhand I could have just said - cricles and spheres, made by a swan. Whichever works best for you.

Want to join the beautiful and creative world of Monochrome Monday? Then see Aileni at LOOSE ENDS

Want to see what the other CDP bloggers have in the way of Circles/Spheres. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.


I guarantee you it will be a wonderful eclectic mix. Remember it just for fun, it's not a photography competition, just a way to show how we all interpret one theme, on one day. It's called fun. Let's have some.

(Regular readers will see I am in a very strange mood presently. It' s called cabin fever. Barker and Babooshka are in need of moving to the South Of France. Photography and artist job anyone?)

RAMSEY HARBOUR ,COURTING SWANS, CRITTER SUNDAY

A couple of weeks ago I posted the black and white version of this image. Blue and purple light on the monochrome image are quite pronounced as a stream of white light. This is the image as shot. For the monochrome I simply used photoshop "desaturate" to strip the colours from the image. Again it's just been re sized for the blog. You will notice I shoot a lot over, near, by or onto water. It's because it's so reflective and can really enhance tones and hues. The colours are reflections from the harbour boatyard. Also shooting towards the sun helped to elongate the magenta light onto the gravel.

These two swans were again a fortuitous shot. I had been snapping away at one of the elusive cormorants. It just wasn't happening. Cormorants are shorebirds with dark feathers, almost black, but on closer inspection you see green, blue and purple when the light hits. Very poor light and basically the wrong lens for the distance meant time call it a day. I Always take the opportunity to take a few spontaneous shots on these days. I had noted the swans were about to pass near to the better light, the reflection, and as they are white knew they would make up for the cormorant. The magenta light onto the gravel I like purely as it's unbalanced for the shot. Again I could of cropped just for the swans, but personally I'm just a sucker for purple.


As some people really don't get my humour I have gone for a very straightforward post with a smattering of photography tips, without the patronising tone of you could never take this shot. On the contrary. It demonstrates that there are some days when you just can't get the shot you want, but if you improvise, know one will ever know. Well not unless you're me and you shoot and tell.

For more camera critters see MISTY DAWN Camera critters.