Singing the Blues because it's raining again - My World

Here we go again

My World

It is absolutely horrible weather here. This is colloquially know unaffectionately as typical British Summer weather- rain rain and er more rain. So I am most definitely not out and about with the camera. Until it improves we will be plundering the recent archives. Recent as in the last couple of months. As far back as May and a little something today from a musical event you may recall me showing you called the Laxey Blues Festival.



This is an event I like very much as I really love live music, both working as a photographer and purely as a fan. I tend to juggle the fun with the work, camera in one hand drink in another. You can get some fun results. Here is quite an early image of one of the first acts on at the marquee, Shore Hotel. A lone singer who entertained with a diverse range of songs. Anyone on the island can name this person that would be great. In fact you have seen him before as a silhouetted image in black and white. Now he's out of the shadows. Does he remind you of anyone who may of looked like this if he had still been alive? I'll leave you with that. I'll also leave you to take a peek into other my world's here

On the road again

Last one gets the drinks in

Monochrome

Very late posting tonight. As it's Sunday I have decided not to do any internet or camera work all day. Finally picked up the laptop and went straight for a file of images that I am working on tonight. Well that is if I can be bothered of course or don't get distracted by other sites. Back to the image.Pulled one at random that shows you a familiar place on the blog, but from a very different angle. This is Parliament Square. This is the opposite way round to my usual photography spot for a scene like this. Also a far wider angle than you are used to seeing, those very tight close ups of the motorbikes. As you can see from where I was shooting I had the advantage capturing them leaving towards the Mountain road, or capturing them approaching me. A tip for you here is the leaving is better than the approach due to the shadow of the tree at this time of day obscuring much of the detail on those close ups. Some of you may find that useful for next year, but I can't give all my secrets aways now can I. It is a useful tip though, better for evening than lunchtime photography here.



Want to know what this event was and why I was photographing it click here, or here or even here though I know many of you have already guessed anyway. Looks a lot safer from this view doesn't it than the others. You can also see it really is just ordinary roads that are used and not a race track.



For other monochromes by black and white maniacs click here. No dash you have all week.

August Theme Day - Night

Moonlighting

We are at that time of the month again when a bunch of us select an image to interpret a given theme. This first day of this month the challenge was simply "night." Good for me to experiment with a little midnight moonlighting as opposed to the safer daytime images.Well not quite midnight. I'm not that dedicated. Die hard that I am photographing the extreme, not even I would want to be hanging around an empty harbour quite so late in the evening. I've done this before shooting through the masts early evening with golden sunlight and I find it works well at most hours of the day. I could give you the technical reasons that there is no such thing as moonlight but simply the brightness of the sun hitting the moon to reflect the light but why get bogged down on the science bit. Let's just view the image for what it is, my take on a moonbeam dancing over the river. Would that be a moon river then or a moon dance? Apologises for the low res small image but I have to ward off those that take what does not belong to them. Hope you can still enjoy.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants


Many more from fellow bloggers participating today. Do pay them a visit if you can, and maybe leave a comment for someone you have never visited before or simply an image that just grabs you. As always I can guarantee you the array of photos will be as individual as the bloggers themselves.


Thanks as always for stopping by.

Flying the Manx Flag- Skywatch

Three legged doubled edged crane

Last week I had pretty pinks and purples washing over a satin look river sunset. This week a little more down to earth. A laid back, subtle, muted early summer evening sky. You can see the gentle blues are about to be overpowered by the gathering greys of the swirling rain clouds. You can see too by those proudly waving flags that we had more than a gentle breeze. We often do.




Not gone for beauty tonight, but for more a dramatic statement. A two crane fingered salute or maybe peace sign with the flag of the Isle of Man displaying. Or maybe it's just Ramsey Harbour on a dull evening, a bland sky and I just got lucky with the billowing wind fluffing out the flag to add the icing on the composition cake. I hope the "transport lady" enjoys this little offering from the person who photographs the town, shows the world all good and bad anonymously. Wonder what she has done for the island lately other than moan about visitors? You want to come back sometime and see here to put the image in context. A picture says a thousand words of course and v signed cranes to me are just about the most perfect ones tonight. Not born here, but I live here now amongst the three legged people flying the flag.




Want to see more from around the virtual world. Click here for more skywatch images. I seem to have got these weird double spaces again. No idea why. Always seems to happen in draft form.
Oh well, never mind.

The rude woman on the bus

The only problem I have with public transport is the public

This is a very off the cuff post. Bear with me as they say in customer services, just got to get this little tale form today off my chest. It all happened on that thing above. Well not actually that bus above but one from this fleet docked in Ramsey Bus Station. This is an archive I have grabbed quickly with a wide angled crop from the old point and shoot. It serves the purpose though as the event took place on one of these buses.



The tale. A group of kids (boy and girl Scouts) were conducting a mini survey. Very sweet and very polite. Not bothering anyone at all.Well you know me. Love to have my opinion. They asked everyone the same few questions. My turn. I answered honestly. The rude woman behind me said, and more than one person heard her" I don't like her" meaning me. My crime? To answer a question about the island with an honest answer. She didn't even say it quietly. Last question the kids asked was "were are you from originally" to which my answer being England resulted in rude woman making that snorting noise people do when they are disgusted with something. There are of course words other than rude for that woman of course. Thanks so much rude woman for showing yourself up to a bunch of well meaning well mannered kids. Also for showing the island's people in a negative light. Not me with the honest answer, but you with your rude negative attitude.Silly woman. As for me. Proceeded to talk about how I can't wait to go on holiday to the best country in the world, France, soon.Ha! Ha!



So that was the bus journey from Douglas to Ramsey today. I hope the Scouts from Ireland don't think too badly of the folks here. Rude woman (you ain't no lady) did you mama not tell you if you can't say anything nice keep ya gob shut. You have done the Isle of Man and Manxies a disservice today not I.

B is for - boats bobbing along on the beautiful briony sea

Not a toy boat, just cute

It's all the fun of the letter B for abc I'm not knocking myself out to be find another bountiful image, when I simply have to show you one of the very things I am surrounded by here. Blue, blue water and of course and bouncing buoyant boats bobbing along. Actually it wasn't so much bobbing than static due to the fact it was tightly moored. The temptation of course to cut the boats fixings, jump aboard and sail away were overcome by the sensible side. Pity. Such a cute little boat, a sunny day and an island coastline to discover. Not so much anchors aweigh for life on the ocean wave as not today I'm got some work to do. It'll keep.

Are you tempted to set sail in maybe something a little bigger or waters of a different kind? Then dive into the sea of letters of and see how others interpreted the sea and land this week here. I know you think I must have taken off on the boat with the short post, but sadly no just doing stuff as you do and moored to the laptop.

After the show

Time to go home

Sometimes you just can't photograph everything that goes on in a town, especially here. Nothing for ages then events and photo opportunities just appear like 3 buses at a bus stop after there have been none for the last hour. All or nothing. Doesn't mean though there isn't anything to photograph. On the contrary. Here is one of those events that I wasn't able to shoot from the start. Earlier you would have seen bands, a mini fashion show of organic and Fair Trade clothes sampled the local spices from the local curry house or even have a fair trade coffee. You would also have seen stands for One World and Tradecraft. What to do, how to join, what they are. You may even of heard the local member of Government speaking. Of course you just have to imagine this today or instead weave a story around the image above.


Never walk away without taking a photo even if you can't photograph the main event. By turning up late I got some far more interesting images than the usual standard shots the local papers tend to do in these situations.. You always have good old fashioned street photography. The girl now free to run around, the kids tumbling in the centre, generations chatting, the strange orange organic material adorning the normally sedate Courthouse. This is not how Parliament Street looks on a Saturday morning usually. To be fair I did get a few images of the dying embers of the band playing and the stands, just not the fashion show. Can't be in two photos ops at once. I did however get to chat to a fellow local and Mrs local who indulge in the odd rambling under a cloak shall we say if you click here . They were also modeling a little organic clothing ensemble and I did get a pic of them at a distance. So never walk away even if everything has been dismantled and people are leaving. Photos to be had if you just look.


For more of My world contributions coincidentally from around the world click here