3/8/22
Starting the August
section with a set of pictures from yesterday afternoon. The previous night
had been very wet and windy and low cloud remained through most of the
morning, but started to lift and break around lunchtime. I decided
to get out for some pictures in the afternoon, heading towards Sulby Glen,
but it was only after I was there that an idea came to me to follow the
Sulby River, the Isle of Man's longest, from its source to the sea.
One day I'll try it as a properly planned project, but these are just a
selection of fairly random locations along its length of just over nine
miles. Nikon D7100 2/8/22
4/8/22
These pictures were
taken on a walk yesterday afternoon from Laxey up to Agneash and back,
followed by a short aerial photography flight. It was a rather dull
and cloudy afternoon, but still a lovely walk up via the nature reserve
established by the Ballanette
Trust after they cleared the old Laxey rubbish tip.
Panasonic FZ72 &
DJI Air 2S 3/8/22
The Aerial photographs
5/8/22
There are nine new Railway
pictures now in Railways
2022 Pt4. The Snaefell Mountain Railway shot from Agneash.
Panasonic FZ72 3/8/22
There are three new
Aircraft pictures from yesterday afternoon in Aircraft
2022 Pt 3 Nikon D7100 4/8/22
7/5/22
With water levels in
the island's reservoirs at a low level just now, on Friday afternoon I
set off to see if I could walk right around Injebreck Reservoir on the
shoreline. I have walked around before, but using a route higher
up the hillside on the eastern side. I di manage it, with a few problems!
Panasonic FZ72 5/8/22
8/8/22
Yesterday morning i
did some aerial photography flying from the ridge between the west and
east Baldwin valleys, a lovely location with agricultural fields, the Injebreck
reservoir and open moorland. I had planned a further flight from
the north end of the reservoir, but it clouded over a lot and I decided
to leave that for another time. On the way home via the Beinn-y-Phott
roads the clouds were dramatic so I stopped by the sheepfolds for a quick
low level panorama.
DJI Air 2S 7/8/22
9/8/22
A visit to Port Erin
yesterday afternoon, where the sailing ship 'Phoenix' was at anchor in
the bay.
DJI Air 2S 8/8/22
11/8/22
On the way back home
from Port Erin, I stopped at the picnic area near 'Tom the Dippers' on
the road towards The Sloc. There are great views from here even at
ground level and I wondered several time before if it would be a good spot
for some aerial photography.
DJI Air 2S 8/8/22
Cruise liner 'Bolette'
in Douglas Bay
DJI Air 2S 9/8/22
12/8/22
This set of pictures
was taken on one of our favourite local walks, the 'Warden's
Walk' in Colden plantation, with an extension that we found using former
forest tracks. The walk follows the old 'Governor Loch's Road' for
much of the way. This was a work creation scheme in the late 1880s
and made a new road starting close to Injebreck in the West Baldwin valley
and then climbing up the hillside, around the end of the Colden valley
before following the contour line to finish by the Barregarrow road near
Sartfell. Today the road is just a narrow grassy track on the hillside
and very boggy in places, even in the current dry weather. All of
the pictures are aerial ones, taken flying from two location on each side
of the Colden Valley. If you want to see what the walk looks like
from ground level in the winter, I have a selection of pictures taken in
January 2021 Here.
DJI Mini 2 9/8/22
13/8/22
On Wednesday morning,
I set out to try the kayak trip from Port Soderick to Port Wallberry again.
When I first tried it last month I only managed to get as far as Keristal
before turning back due to deteriorating weather, but this time the weather
was perfect, hot on land but cool on the water with a very light breeze
and more importantly for an open kayak, perfectly calm seas. I had
a great trip and would have stayed out longer, but lunch called me!
GoPro Hero 9 10/8/22
15/8/22
With the recent spell
of unbroken good weather, I've spent more time out enjoying it (and taking
pictures!) and less time producing web pages, so I have a backlog. Last
night the weather broke, we had a big thunderstorm and this morning it's
raining, so I'm attempting to catch up.
On Thursday evening
I headed over to Peel to take some late evening shots of the castle and
hopefully capture a good sunset from the air. Here's the first set
of pictures, looking at the town, castle and Fenella Beach at around an
hour before sunset.
DJI Air 2S 11/8/22
I had plenty of time
in hand before the actual sunset, so I walked down to the 'Cod and Castle'
end had a very tasty fish supper from the before driving to the other end
of the promenade and climbing up to the headland. I still had two
full batteries so planned to carry out two flights, one straight away to
use the remaining direct sunlight, then back to change batteries in time
to capture the actual sunset.
Sunset
Isle
of Pride 2022
On Saturday afternoon
we visited Isle of Pride for a few hours. Held in the Villa Marina
gardens we loved the first one in June last year and this was better, last
year's lack of food outlets seemed greatly improved and Gelatory were there
with some of their super ice cream! I started off taking some general
aerial shots from over the beach and sea before heading in and just using
my phone for the pictures inside the gardens.
DJI Mini 2 & Samsung
Galaxy A71 13/8/22
16/8/22
On Friday afternoon
we went for another of our favourite 'local' walks, along the Marine Drive.
We started from the Douglas and and made it (slowly!) almost to Keristal
before turning back. As it was almost calm I took the mini drone
along and stopped at two locations to take these pictures.
DJI Mini 2 12/8/22
17/8/22
A kayak trip on Sunday
morning heading south from Niarbyl, ending up at Gob-ny-Ushtey before returning.
Lovely calm seas and clear water again.
GoPro Hero 9 14/8/22
18/8/22
When you live on an
island, ferries and aeroplanes assume a much greater importance in you
lives than elsewhere and probably our most important link is provided by
the Isle of Man Steam Packet's 'Ben my Chree' which most days does two
return trips to the port of Heysham in Lancashire, England. The 'Ben'
is freighter, car ferry and passenger ship and our lifeline to the outside
world, it is a matter of general conversation if she is cancelled to to
weather or a technical issue! I'd long wondered about shooting a
sequence of images of her entering port and I achieved it yesterday afternoon,
after her sailing Heysham.
DJI Mini 2 17/8/22
19/8/22
Yesterday was a strange
day for weather. At home we were in the clouds all morning (500 ft above
sea level) and low cloud was also affecting operations at Ronaldsway Airport.
In the afternoon I had places to visit in Douglas and Ramsey, still very
grey and overcast in Douglas, with thick fog and poor visibility on the
Mountain Road. However, just before entering Ramsey, I broke out
into bright sunshine. I was probably there for about an hour and
had a wander round to take these pictures, it was hot and sunny all the
time. When I left to return via the coast road, the clouds came back
almost as soon as I'd left the town, with heavy rain all the way back to
Onchan. Out of interest I checked the Ramsey web cam as soon as I
arrived home and it was still sunny up there!
Panasonic TZ60 18/8/22
20/8/22
I took these pictures
on a short visit to Port St Mary yesterday afternoon, starting with a small
panorama stitched from eight hand held shots.
There's a very informative
online booklet detailing the history of Port St Mary and its old buildings
available from
here .
Nikon D7100 19/8/22
25/8/22
Carrying on the Port
St Mary theme, these are some aerial pictures taken in the Gansey Point
area yesterday afternoon. It was a bit cloudy which has muted the
colours a bit. DJI Mini 2 24/8/22
On the way home via
The Sloc and Foxdale, we noticed that the Mountains of Mourne in Northern
Ireland were very conspicuous, so had a short stop at the Round Table for
a look and some pictures. Panasonic TZ-60 24/8/22
26/8/22
A photo expedition yesterday
afternoon to try and capture from the air the purple hillsides we have
at present as the heather blooms. The main shoot was intended to
be 360 degree interactive panoramas but of course I also shot some conventional
pictures. I had three locations in mind to fly from, but ended up
extending to a fourth one. DJI Air 2S 25/5/22
'Snuff the Wind' and
Beckwith's Mine
South Barrule and Round
Table
The Sloc
27/8/22
Pictures from the final
location for flying on Thursday afternoon, Mull Hill by Cregneash.
DJI Air 2S 25/5/22
28/8/22
Wildflowers at Conrhenny
Plantation on Friday afternoon. These were just taken with a phone
camera on auto in fairly dull conditions and the focus depth of field was
a bit disappointing at times. Samsung Galaxy A71 26/8/22
30/8/22
I took these pictures
yesterday afternoon while we were walking with our homestay dog 'Star'
in Conrhennie Plantation. Much nicer weather than when I took the
flower pictures a few days back giving some great views. Panasonic
TZ60 29/8/22
31/8/22
Following on from the
ground level pictures that I've taken at Conrhenny Plantation recently,
I thought that some aerial pictures might be interesting, so on yesterday
afternoon's dog walk there took the mini drone along with us. DJI
Mini 2 30/8/22
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