It's raining again, Bowring Road skyline

                      Typical island weather


To the right, the Central pub, where most people will probably head for a quick one after shopping and work on a cold, wet day in October. Behind the pub you can see the mountains which overlook the town. To the left, the abandoned building which still says Aladdin's cave. Once, it may have been a a treasure trove but not anymore, as it's long since been used as an auction room for Chrystals. Today the Isle of Man is bracing itself for more wet weather. Looking at those swollen clouds, I'd say yes, and head for the pub. The only wet you'll get in there, is the beer.

Queen's Promenade, floods and high tides

                              Waterworld


 In a complete contrast to yesterdays colorful Queen's Pier sunrise and peaceful weather, back to high tides and localised flooding. Fortunately not too bad, just a few rogue crashing waves swooping over the top of the promenade wall. Enough though to render the path and road out of bounds for the afternoon.  Queen's Promenade, Ramsey, on a very, wet, wet, wet, day. Bad day for fisherman, good day for surfers. Pass me my wellies and a canoe!

On a clear day

                                 England

On a clear day you can see several parts of the UK and British Isles from the Isle of Man. One morning I could see England, and the view of the Lake District from the beach and candyfloss clouds above the mountains. Not often as clear as this, but a great view when it happens. The island is often used as a film location and coincidentally the part of the film "On a clear day" was filmed right here in Ramsey round about the spot I captured the photo from.

80, 000 alcoholics, clinging to a rock

                   It's 5 o'clock somewhere


There are a lot of Isle of Man motto's but today I'll introduce you to this one. "80, 000 alcoholics clinging to a rock" give or take one or two. As the population rises the number will change but the alcoholics part of the motto will remain. It's a tongue in cheek reference to the small size of the island, its location (the middle of the Irish Sea) battered by the elements and of course the fact we have a lot of pubs. This shot captured in one of those pubs, On a cold wet winter night, a warm fire, a friendly pint puller are a welcome site to the island dweller. Pubs are the hearts of any small community. Use them, or lose them. Go with the flo, Frankie and try your gin with cucumber. Some people have a real yen for it.   Dedicate to absent friends, who miss the island and why I have reignited the blog.  Chin chin, bottoms up, Santé!  (though it will always be lemon)

Crashing waves and floods

                          Incoming............

Like a lot of places around the globe Ramsey too suffered the damage of the recent floods. Consistent rain, coupled with extremely high tides joined together to batter the island. Homes and business's across the island received a fair amount of damage, though fortunately the house shown did not. You can normally walk along the beach here (I take most of my sunrises here, to give you an example of a calmer day) but you couldn't even walk along the road adjacent to the beach, due to the overspill of the ferocious incoming tide. Did I get wet, yes. Was it worth it, again yes. Though I am considering buying a waterproof camera, or at least waterproof housing for the camera. Also, wellies.

Breaking Dawn

                                                           Ray of light

See post below the polar opposite of this photo. Taken the day before. Same beach, just looking to the right and land ahoy. No two days on the Isle of Man are the same weather wise. It's called bipolar weather. I kinda like it. I could do without getting a soaking every other day though wandering my office (the beach) for that must have photo. If you move to the island or visit, pack a raincoat and a sun cream. Trust me you'll need both. Jack Daniels filled hip flask, is entirely optional.

Skywatch # 86 The Abridged Version

For those keeping count, 25.

So, I said the blog would be back this week. Trouble is we've been having bi polar weather and my camera does not go out in the rain. Far too sensitive. Trawling the archives, what do I find but yet another shot of the most famous bridge in blogland, Ramsey Swing Bridge. So the game is back on to get 100 shots of this bridge at varied angles, blah, blah each one different from the last, and drive me slowly crazy in the process. A lush blue sky as a backdrop unlike today, which has been dull, grey and April showers all the way. Also, the seagull deposited a load just after this serene image was captured, which I woud have taken had I not been trying to dodge the fallout!


For more skywatch images around the planet click here

Skywatch # 80 - Thunderous Applause

Angry

Had no post planned for today. Busy dogwalking and photographing the dogs at play and catching up with a friend. Marvellous! Pulled this one from the archives. Pretty intense sky, and yes a storm ensued. Just brewing there by the look of it. Short and sweet tonight I have a lot on and it's been such a fabulous day I'm not going to poke lighthearted fun at my hometown. A rarity.

For more skies of the world see here

Skywatch # 79 - I'm on a plane, I can't complain

And then I'm done, and I can go home

Actually I have no idea what number skywatch I'm posting but the random number spoke to me so it shall be. You'll know my musical tastes my now so I make no apologies for the outrageous use of part lyric and tweaking of a particular word too explain the image.


Simply Nirvana to be amongst the clouds looking down on the island, though not Ramsey. That would be the North. This would be the Southern bit of these here parts. Well the airport is South of the island so that'd be where we were heading. Unless you count Jurby airfield. Let me see, trip to the prison, thanks but no thanks. This was also the I'm sooooooooooooooooooo bored on the short journey back from England, oh why can't I be back in the South of France let's play with the point and shoot camera for a bit shot. Here's a tip for you though. Don't start being creative and doing that whole " hello I'm taking part in the 100 strangers photo thing on flickr.... may I take your picture" for some reason means translates as I'm a terrorist. Not like I used the word shoot, or (flash) gun. Not like any of that last bit was true either, just the image above and a glimpse of the island as seem from the sky.


Been a while since I skywatched so I'll have to check in later but here's the link back to the Skywatch team http://skyley.blogspot.com/

It's raining again - My World

Wet, Wet, Wet

My World

This is what you call an unplanned post. Bear with me as they all too frequently say in customer (non) services. Having a little camera trouble. I know what a nightmare. Just my favourite telephoto lens seems to be unwell. Now I do of course have a collection of lenses but it's the big guns lens I need to shoot distances at close range( you know perspective, zoom images, sport etc) and non distorted building. So you may be getting lots of landscapes for the time being. Ah well, every day will be a skywatch day then. What about today though?


Nothing special in the scenery here. This is Shoprite (our local supermarket) car park on a very dreary wet and windy grey day. A very real down to earth day. Taken with the point and shoot Olympus. Remember Big Nikon baby is not allowed out in the rain. Still it does the job. Does get you to think about the composition more, taking in that bike and of course it helps catching the red coat in the optimum part of the image too. I admit to waiting for them to get into position. You see the shot before you take it. Of course this is an image that is also made a little more interesting by those watery reflections. See even the most appalling weather, light and point and shoot photography in a boring supermarket car park can be a little bit of magic. Of course being a witch and hanging out with Manx fairies helps too.


For other My World contributions click here

DELAYED DUE TO THIS RAIN CLOUD

Rain Rain go away,
So the bikes have no delay,
Photographer me has her bills to pay

How thunderous am I feeling round about now. You saw my image from yesterday. Click here to see. Perfect sky. Not an cloud or any looming on the horizon. Got up today.. and so had the rain. Talk about a washout. Cancelled. This means now the whole week has to be rescheduled. This also means I now have to shuffle all my commitments around. You can see for yourselves that cloud hanging over us was swollen with water and within minutes of the image a downpour ensued. A downpour that lasted until late afternoon.

On the positive side the other half and I had a cracking slap up breakfast(me full veggie him full everything) at the Court Cafe along the high street. You know me by now. If it's bad I'll tell you so this will make a pleasant change. If you find yourself in Ramsey - go there. Good prices, good grub, friendly staff and no they haven't a clue who I am so this endorsement maybe a shock. Hell, you can even get a packed lunch for £5. You will find me there a lot this week stocking up on the caffeine in between races.


Well I'm gutted not to be showing you any racing today. Hopefully by the time everyone gets here she will have brought the sunshine on the ferry from Heysham and I can get to work on the motorbike photos.

Annoyed photographer on the loose will be cheerier when the sun has got his hat on.

Bank holiday laptop blues -

Grey Day

Monochrome Weekly

My World

I know I skipped a few days again. Friday night. So why the delay in posting? My psycho laptop( yes the relatively new laptop) has suddenly lost/mislaid/dumped wireless broadband connection. Very annoying. Means choices are sitting in the hall plugged into the the laptop( the Internet plugged in not me obviously) or borrow G's when he is not on it. So a long wait then. Like er two whole days. So today you have the first image I came across in black and white because I really don't won't to spend Bank Holiday Weekend wading through images. guess


Did you say the beach? Well it is an island I live on and we do sort of have er a lot of them. This would be the Mooragh beach. Remember the week on the beach we had. Remember how it pis... er persisted down with precipitation. Well here is one of those rainy grainy images, taken with the tiny point and shoot and not the big all singing dancing Nikon. Nikon is far too sensitive and isn't allowed out in the rain, little point and shoot is. Looks like I wasn't the only one out and about at least one man and his dog braving the elements. For the colour, sunny, stages of the beach clickety click the colours below.


Beach 1
Beach 2
Beach3
Beach 4
Rocks

Going to get some soothing ice cream and scream at my laptop until it complies. I may be a while. . Now pass me a very big spoon and a bottomless pit of the cold stuff. My needs are greater I cannot share today.

CLOUDBUSTING - SKYWATCH

 Don't know when this snow is ever going to happen?

Skywatch

The UK has been under cover of snow this week. Further to follow. So you expect me to be out taking those gorgeous snowy scenes. Afraid not. The Isle of Man may only be under 50 miles across the sea from England but it's a world apart with the weather this week. The night the UK got the biggest snowfall we had torrential rain. We finally have a little dusting of snow on the mountain, but this was taken before the dusting came. Really you don't want to see our 3 flakes snowy effort, it's such an embarrassing snowfall. Instead I went for what we do best here. Clouds. Especially clouds fit to burst. For real drama try the manual setting to tease out the contrasts. Try tilting the camera too to create silhouettes and catch extra light. I've never had a monochrome skywatch, but these rolling clouds over Snaefell instinctively felt black and white. Makes a change from one of my pretty sunsets. I hope you agree, even though I wanted to show you snow.

Tomorrow morning the borrowed laptop has to return to it's rightful owner. I have been very grateful for the loan. It has get me going with the photography. I owe someone out there more than a pint. So for a few days Gary and I will be sharing one again which means a low profile for me. Good news is the new one will be here in the next few days. Yippee! That is if it doesn't get lost in the predicted snow blizzards of England.  

Totally of subject, but for my marketing purposes what size photo do you print off yourself, would normally buy. I am changing outsource printers which means re pricing, lowering costs.

The other question is does matt or gloss work better or does it depend on the image?

Sywatch watchers can be found here.  Welcome back to Wigger's World and Lake Lady.

Babooshka  ramseydailyphoto  http://dailyphotoisleofman.blogspot.com/

WHAT IS THIS OVER MOORAGH PARK? -MONOCHROME ODDSHOTS

Do you think a cold front means a warm back?

Well I hope you all agree with me this is definitely odd. Taken over Mooragh Park by the entrance form the roadside, I spotted this very strange horizontal set of lines. I have the colour versions too but it was so striking in contrast I knew immediately it would be an ideal black and white and an strange one too.

The feint vertical lines are not rays of light but extremely fine rain, so why was the cloud so light and white? I took this with the little Olympus and no alterations so those shades are as taken. The horizontal lines ran for quite a length either side of this image Looks like the clouds are full of lovely white snow doesn't it, but unfortunately not. No this weird image is quite a common sight here, it's called a "cold front" a weather phenomena .

So there you are. A natural weather occurrence not at all odd when you know what one is but decidedly weird when you don't. We actually get them here a lot usually followed by rain and followed with me and camera as they are ideal photography subjects. I hope the rowers didn't get too wet on the lake. It really did precipitate down fairly soon after this was taken.

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

RAMSEY SWING BRIDGE- WHAT ELSE DO YOU EXPECT IN RAMSEY?

Ramsey Swing Bridge 12/100

Let's get this bit out the way. If you have found your way here for skywatch it's the post below.
It's Saturday, so it must be a Ramsey Swing Bridge photo. This wasn't meant to happen but Saturday's have become a sort of of Bridge Day. Anyway for those that know apologises for the next sentence. For those that don't, I was challenged by an some idiot to photograph one subject 100 different ways, which they thought was impossible to do. Doh! It's not at all complex, but well his pea sized brain obviously can't fathom out one more than two angles maximum. So here you go No. 12. So now we've had a dirty dozen of the bridge. Zillions more to go. It's taken again with the point and shoot Olympus. I try and take the bridge on a blue sky day purely as the red and white of the bridge stand out more. When I show you a monochrome shot of the bridge you can guarantee it's a crappy day weather wise. No alterations apart from re sized for the blog.


In case you think the tone of the text is a tad clipped well yes you'd be right. Sometime ago I was approached by a group of island photographers inviting me to join them on their site. I asked for a little more info. We traded emails. Their work is predictable, safe and in the main poorly shot. This for me was not a problem as the aim was to get them up to my level. Their idea was for me teach them add my images to their site to increase their sales base, and in turn they introduce me to the island. Sounded good. Time elapsed nothing happened until a curt email explaining that as they couldn't use my Ramsey Daily Photo blog, then I couldn't join theirs. Remember they approached me. Recently they have been desperately trying to mimic my photography and trade off my reputation instead. Sad!


The moral of the tale is... Many things! All I can say to them is it's your loss boys. You keep your small island market if it means that much to you and I'll tell you what I'll keep my online world market, you know the one you wanted me to introduce you too. You just can't help some people.
This happened a few months ago, but things have reached a point where something had to be said.


Scheduled post. Won't be around.

RAMSEY SWING BRIDGE

Looks like everyone has gone back to work. Hardly ever see Ramsey Swing Bridge empty like this. The tide is high too, as high as it can get without flooding. Great weather for ducks and not one in sight.

Used the wide angled lens for this one to capture the length of the bridge and the backdrop of the Quay road, with a further backdrop of the mist covered mountains.

Check out here for other views of Ramsey views of mine