What is the Island Images Website?
 
Island Images Homepage
 Unless otherwise noted, All pictures on this website are  © Jon Wornham
 
Welcome to the 'about the site & me' page, really just a little history of how it all started, what it is now and a brief bio to let you know who I am.
 
 
Hitting the Crash Alarm for the last time - just a routine practice call-out!
I'm Jon Wornham and I first arrived to live in the Isle of Man in July 1990, working at Ronaldsway Airport as an Air Traffic Controller until I retired in September 2014.  I've now lived in the IOM longer than anywhere else!
 
I'm married to Georgie and we live in Onchan. Before moving to the Isle of Man we lived in Ayrshire, Scotland and I worked at Prestwick Airport. I originally worked at the London Air Traffic Control Centre and then Heathrow Airport as an Air Traffic Assistant in the 1970s - 80s.  I'm originally from Hertfordshire, England and Georgie from Rutherglen, Scotland.
 
 
A super send-off from the Ronaldsway Rescue & Fire Fighting Service!  September 7th 2014 
 
 
Using the 'big selfie stick'
 
Aerial photography has been a big part of Island Images since the start of 2015, using various drones from the DJI company.
In the picture below I was just having the DJI Phantom 2 Vision + demonstrated to me before taking my first ever flight, 25th November 2014.
The pictures from the Phantom 2 always needed the 'Fish-eye' effect corrected in post processing, but here I've exaggerated it instead.
 
 
Injebreck Hill in the snow of early December 2017
 
With Georgie at the old Tynwald site near St Luke's, April 2020
 
 
 
 
My first IOM photo website was produced back in January 1998, as I had some free web space provided and wondered if I could produce a simple photographic site using my early digital images. When I started receiving emails from around the world, in particular from Jackie in Canada, I realized that there was a lot of interest in pictures of my adopted homeland.  Initially it was intended to be an illustrated guide to the Isle of Man, but things changed over time and it's now a regularly updated photographic gallery with information on the picture subjects.
 
The camera equipment I use has improved hugely since the early days enabling me to post larger and better quality pictures. The picture above was taken in 1998 using my first digital camera, a Fuji DS7 and is the full sized original picture out of the camera!  It also serves to demonstrate that aerial photography has been part of Island Images since I started the website, in those days poking the camera lens through the little direct vision window on the light aircraft.
 
Pictures are presented in monthly galleries, for the current month the latest pictures are at the top of the page, but for older months they are arranged sequentially by date.  From 2012 the full month galleries are available, but from 2000 to 2011 I've edited them down to smaller selections.  Most of the pictures are shot in portrait layout and usually sized to the16:9 format that we are used to on TV screens and computer monitors. Some are edited into a wider format for effect and occasionally I will use more of a portrait format, but I try to avoid that as the website is deigned primarily to be viewed on a computer screen rather than a vertically held mobile phone.
 
Aerial pictures appear in the relevant 'Month' sections but also have their own Island Images Aerial section, where the Aerial Panoramas that I stitch from multiple images can be found collected together and also selections of computer screen backdrops that can be downloaded in 1920 x 1080 size to fut the majority of computer screens.
 
 Trains, Aircraft and Air Traffic Control History are in their own sections, but new pictures are linked from the 'Latest' page. 
 
At the start of 2017 I had a major purge on the site and all of the smaller galleries were removed, some have since made it back! 
 
Most pictures from 2007 onwards also have the Exif photo data attached, so if you want to know technical details of the picture you can use a suitable program to decode it.
 
 
I've been interested in photography for many years, but it's only with the coming of affordable digital cameras that I was able to indulge my hobby to the extent I would like without bankrupting myself! 
 
I have used a variety of digital cameras since 1998 to produce the site, see the page linked below for details. Until about 2000/2001 I used film as well but although still possessing a couple of film cameras including the wonderful but weighty Canon T90, I haven't used them since then.  From late in 2014 I've been using DJI drones for aerial photography, starting with a Phantom 2 Vision+ but now using a Phantom 4 Pro and just recently (December 2020) the lightweight Mini 2.
Digital Cameras used past and present for Island Images
 
All the pictures are post processed to some extent using Paint Shop Pro - a brilliant program at a fraction of the cost of Photoshop. I started with version 4 and now use Corel Paint Shop Pro 2020. I also use PTgui for stitching together panoramas.
 The site is produced using Netscape Composer - old and basic but it suits me!
 

 
Contact Me!
 
I love to hear from website visitors so If you would like to get in touch with me about anything, my website email is:
XXXjon@island-images.co.ukXXX - Just remove the XXXs first! (it's an anti spam attempt)
 
Island Images also has its own Facebook Page
 
Feedback on the pictures is very welcome, but at the moment you can't provide it directly via the website.  Use the Island Images Facebook page or just drop me an email.