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/

PHOTOGRAPHING STEPS

r

Running up that hill with no problem

Click to enlarge, and I do mean enlarge

Really very simple, no zooms telephoto lens or macros. No filters, hoods or tripods.  Just standing squarely in front of the subject. Close enough to keep everything in perspective as it should be, no concaving or tilting of the lines. For composition, depth and balance I have included a little of the promenade wall on the right hand side of the image. On the left a little space to see the stretch of beach leading towards Maughold. This also adds an extra dimension of layers or depth of field. The light was very poor, not dim but one of those horrible white light days which actually works well against the concrete and stonework. In keeping with natural images, shot as seen.  Tempting to up the contrast and bring out a silhouette of the steps, but then you would lose the texture of the stonework. I'd rather have the natural tone and see those textures. Plain and simple but a nice example of textures, using poor light and keeping subjects lines and form as seen not distorted.

 

I asked recently what you would like to see and so many of you asked for the swing bridge again. So the bridge at another jaunty angle will be up in the next few days.  I know it's been a while but I didn't want to overload you with it. Seems I was wrong. That and sunsets. You seem to like Poyll Dooey sunsets,  reflections and odd shots. Definitely odd shots. What do people want you to show more of on your own blog?

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

1/25

COOL FOR CATS - ABC

Seeing Double

ABC this week is brought to you by the letter C

Romeo and Juliet as this couple will be known as were so very obliging. Normally there is only one black cat in this drive near the harbour docks but today we have two. Romeo it seems has found a lady friend in the fair Juliet.  

cool

cute

cats

coyly

conversing

Of course chatting and concrete are other c words, but how many more do you see. Actually several more, not so obvious and of course many creative subjective ones. Let you ponder that conundrum

The Ramsey Romance of Romeo and Juliet will continue I'm sure while the camera is elsewhere. Wonder if his kittenish charms will works on the fickle female. Who knows. What would you name them? No you can't have Cleocatra!

Remember  or have you heard of these saying?

A cat may look at a king.

Curiosity killed the cat.

The curious can click here to ABC with Mrs nesbitt

Hopper                                                                                                                                           babooshka/ramseydailyphoto

http://dailyphotoisleofman.blogspot.com/

PHOTOGRAPHING RAMSEY RUGBY - MY WORLD

Statues

My world

I asked recently what you'd like to see on the blog. I was surprised to see so many ask for more of  the sport photography I am known for. So not motorbikes and the Isle of Man TT but the Rugby again for those  who just wish to be known as J, O, M, and B. Here you are. Ramsey are the ones in the blue shirts. J. by the way has turned this image of mine into a mousemat. In fact this image is also on a mug a set of coasters and greetings cards as far as I know. 

This wasn't a recent game, last season. Had to use an archive tonight due to a little editing of the images and selecting ones for the website. Hence the late post. Back to the Rugby. It's a game I photograph a lot as the pitch is between the park and the beach a place as you have noticed I photograph a lot. It's free to watch. Not many sport events you can say that about now can you? The Superbowl yesterday I think prompted the request for more Rugby images. Although on the surface they are very different games the basics for photographing the action shots are the same. Freezing the jumps was the most requested pose. "How you make them look like statutes." OK here are the jumping statues. I know one of those posing players well. He has been called many things, but never a statue.  For M, you are right it is unusual for a female like me to be good at sport photography, but if you want I'll give you pink flowers. For a price. I get bored photographing flowers. I need a challenge. I'll stick with 120mph motorbikes.

For other my worlds click here and thank the skywatch team for the idea.

Yes

maybe

could be

Snooooooooooooow!

I hope so. I am the only person not to photograph it this year.

MONOCHROME ODD SHOTS - CHIMNEY POTS AND T.V. AERIALS

What no cable ?

I was going to use this as my next skywatch image until I noticed the aerial. How often to you come across one of those now? In fact how often to you happen upon analogue TV aerial,  a smoking chimney pot and no satellite dish on the roof for your cable of choice? Even here it's not that common a sight and a little odd. How uncluttered the chimney pots look.  Of course being the island we have one of those strange quirks of legislation to do with TV viewing. A TV License.  I'll explain.

In the UK the BBC  is a public funded corporation. The BBC TV and radio programmes are not paid for by sponsored advertising but my the purchasing of a TV license either colour or black and white. You can have several TV'S in a household covered by one license renewable yearly. Now as I have said before the Isle of Man is a separate country with it's own Government, tax, legislation. However, although we are not part of the UK we are part of the British  Isles which means we fall under the scheme of paying for a TV license. Did you get that?

Analogue TV is soon to be a thing of the past. Due to poor reception most of us either have cable or a freeview box anyway depending on which side of the mountain you are. In fact some places are still not able to get cable TV. They also tend to be the ones with the open fires too, although certain areas are smokeless fuel free zones.  Anyway for those of you young people out there or in warmer climes. those are chimney pots, and that is a TV aerial. Used to be such a common skyline now it's just a little odd and suited to monochrome and harking back to Classic British Cinema.

Click here for Aileni's Monochromes 

Click here for Katney's oddities

Life in a Northern Town.

PATHS & PASSAGEWAYS THEME- MOORAGH CROSSROADS

Which Path would you choose?

Mooragh Park has many paths as you would expect. This though is the only place where two paths converge and the choice is made. The one on the left(looking onto the image) leads you out of the park into suburbia and further choices of twists and turns. The one on the right leads deeper into and around the park. To add a little mystery to the image The right hand pand path is shot in soft focus(manual setting) leaving the left hand crystal clear. This is no indication of the path I chose though. Coincidentally if you follow either path and follow them to their conclusion eventually you could arrive at the same destination at the end of the promenade and beach leaving Ramsey. How often do we have two choices leading to the same conclusion? I will leave you to ponder which path you would choose.

 Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Many cities participate in Theme Day. It is just for fun, not a photography contest.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

B.

Jaded Solid Air - Skywatch

Sad reflections

For those that don't know this week has been pure reflections. One camera, one woman, no alterations. Images captured as see all refelctions. I have just stopped by to upload this, but then I will be off again. Many thanks to all for the Birthday congratulations. In brief this is Mooragh Park overlooking the lake conveiniently named Mooragh too. You can see Snaefell mountain in the background surrounded by peachy sunglow. The sky reflected in the lake has a slight jade tinge meeting the peach tinged sun. As you can see my the week's worth of reflections, we have had some interesting results. Again I have left the pebbles in the image and not removed to leave a smooth surface.

This was an experiment this week to show you what can be achieved with just a camera, and no digital alterations.

Had a great day thanks. Gary is just offered another Illustration commission and it's a biggy. Only sad news is one of the artist's, a UK musician, who was big influence on Gary called John Martyn(click here) died today. He was a close friend of someone who was a great influence on me Nick Drake. Hence the Jaded. So may we never raise our glasses for better reasons than birthdays and passings into solid air under a saturday sun. It makes sense if you know the music.

Gone for a Bailey's or several.