2nd February
Today is Imbolc, an
ancient pre-Christian celtic festival celebrating the start of Spring,
when plants began growing again after the cold of winter. Also know as
Brigid's Day (after the goddess Brigid) and later Christianized as St Brigit's
Day. In the Isle of Man the festival is know as Laa'l Breeshey.
One of the first flowers
to emerge are the Snowdrops and I paid a visit yesterday to Braddan Old
Church just outside Douglas, where they grow around the graves in the churchyard.
Imbolc Wikipedia Article
link. Nikon D7100 & DJI Mini 2
    
   
Moving on to a location
that has a direct connection to Brigid, this is one of apparently seven
ancient Keeil's dedicated to St Brigit. These keeils were numerous
(174 sites are recorded) and are often in rather remote locations and I
wonder if they were established on the old Pagan worship sites with the
coming of Christianity to the island. This keeil stands in the middle
of a farm field around half a mile north east of the village of Crosby.
DJI Mini 2
   
Interactive Panorama
3rd February
A few pictures taken
yesterday, when we went out for lunch at The Sound Cafe. The weather
was not good, temperature not much above freezing with rain falling for
most of the day, turning to sleet or snow on higher ground, but it was
great to be able to travel on the island and eat out after our recent Covid
related lockdown restrictions were lifted from Monday. Panasonic
TZ200 & Samsung Galaxy S8.
    
Continuing with the
scans of Colour Slides from 1993, there are fifteen new pictures in 1990s
Gallery Two
    
4th February
I've finished off the
scans of 'general' Colour Slides from the 1990s today with twenty new ones
from 1993 uploaded to 1990s Gallery
Two
As I've been uploading
I've realised that I probably took the slides from arriving in the island
in 1990, changing over to prints sometime during 1993, therefore
I've shown them in the
wrong order! I'll reverse the two galleries order when I finish the
sections. I want to do a little selection of pictures taken on the
Isle of Man Railways in the 1990s to conclude with, trying to show scenes
that have changed over the years since then.
    
6th February
There are seven new
Aircraft pictures taken at Ronaldsway yesterday, in Aircraft
2021 Pt1. Panasonic TZ200 5/2/21
    
The promised selection
of scans from Railway pictures from the 1990s are now in 1990s
Gallery Two, with twenty pictures selected to show either scenes or
railway stock that have changed over the years since then. The original
pictures were colour slides taken between 1990 and 1993.
    
7th February
A visit to the beach!
Yesterday afternoon was generally sunny, if a little cold, and I decided
to take a stroll along Whitestrand beach on the west coast. It was
too breezy for any drone flying, but I have a nice Aerial
Panorama of the beach taken back in September last year.
Panasonic TZ200 6/2/21
    
    
    
 
9th February
There are six new Railway
pictures from yesterday afternoon now in Railways
2021 Pt1. Panasonic TZ200 8/2/21
    
10th February
Yesterday we had a first
visit of the year to Milntown House and Gardens in Ramsey, mainly for lunch
at the super cafe there but then for a stroll around the gardens.
Temperatures are still very low for here, hovering around freezing, but
the gardens are nice at any season. Panasonic TZ200 9/2/21
    
    
    
    
   
A few shots by Ramsey
South beach on the way home. This is where a development company
would like to build a big marina and apartments,
right on the beach!
Panasonic TZ200 9/2/21
  
A nice post-sunset sky
viewed from my window after arriving home
12th February
Three pictures taken
yesterday afternoon at Castletown while waiting for aircraft to appear
at Ronaldsway! Panasonic TZ200 11/2/21
  
The aircraft that I
had really gone down to photograph, an RAF C17 Globemaster III, didn't
arrive until after dark (two hours late!) but I managed to get a few other
pictures while I was there. Ronaldsway is very quiet at the moment
due to the Covid travel restrictions, with Loganair covering all scheduled
passenger flights to only three destinations, Liverpool Manchester and
London, with two aircraft. There are nine new Aircraft pictures in
Aircraft 2021 Pt1.
Nikon D7100 11/2/21
    
13th February
A visit to Glen Helen
yesterday afternoon, mainly to photograph the amazing icicles close to
the entrance, but then continuing along the footpath to view the Lower
and Upper Rhenass Falls. Nikon D7100 12/2/21
 
    
    
    
   
   
    
19th February
Pictures taken on a
walk in the Glen Rushen/Glen Dhoo area. It had been sunny when I
left home but by the time I reached the area, cloud was sitting on top
of South Barrule and it had turned rather grey. It was quite breezy
on the moorland but a bit more sheltered down in the glen and I was able
to get a few aerial shots of the normally hidden old reservoir. Panasonic
TZ200 & DJI Mini 2
    
    
    
    
19th February (Testing
a new phone camera)
This selection of pictures
was taken at Glen Wyllin and Kirkmichael to test out the camera on a new
mobile phone. It's a Samsung Galaxy A71 which in fact has four different
'cameras' (I would say lenses!) fitted. The Main Camera is (35 mm
equivalent) 24 mm focal length at f/1.8, which would call a wide
angle. This can produce up to a 64mb picture. There is also
a 'Ultra Wide Camera' which is 13 mm focal length at f/2.2 and produces
a 12mb picture. There is a Macro lens that is 25 mm equivalent focal
length at f/2.4 and a 'Depth Camera' which I didn't test yesterday.
Most of the picture have minimal editing, a slight crop sometimes, the
re-sized down to my usual web site size with a little sharpening to offset
the effects of re-sizing. I'll put some technical details on the
picture for those who are interested. Most were shot on fully Auto
settings on the Main Camera in a 16:9 format, I'll mention any alternative
settings.
    
    
    
    
   
Well that was just a
quick test on one afternoon, mainly leaving it on Auto settings to see
how it would cope. I think it did really well, obviously not as versatile
as a 'real' camera and with a fixed apeture, which does restrict you a
bit. It was interesting to see how it switched picture taking and
processing modes according to conditions. For a lot of the 'scenic'
ones it went into HDR mode where it takes multiple pictures and combines
them to even out exposure. I thought it did exceptionally well on
those. Minor criticism is the lack of sharpness at the edges of the
'Ultra Wide' pictures and a tendency to sharpen a bit more than I would
really like. The colours could be a bit bright at times, although they
looked worse on the phone screen! All in all I'm well impressed.
21st February
Something a bit different
here. I was still playing around with the new phone camera and wanting
to try some close-up pictures. We were visiting Element Isle at the
Grenaby Artist Studios near Ballabeg where Claire and Scott were kind enough
to let me use some of their lovely creations for the tests. The results
weren't perfect, but I thought quite impressive for a phone camera.
I used both the Main and Macro cameras. Samsung Galaxy A71 20/2/21
I should probably point
out that the items photographed are worked in silver, the gold effect is
due to the lighting and me not managing the white balance.
  
 
      
  
Continuing onwards to
look at the waves at Port St Mary and The Sound. It was a wild day
and quite difficult to hold the phone steady!
Samsung Galaxy A71 20/2/21
   
23rd February
An afternoon visit to
the Curraghs Wildlife Park on Sunday afternoon. Nikon D7100 21/2/21
    
  
The Wildlife Park is
still opening on its winter hours, so we had to leave by 4 PM, but as there
was still over an hour of daylight left, we decided to go for a walk in
the Curragh wetlands area that the park is situated in. Nikon
D7100 & DJI Mini 2 21/2/21
    
   
Interactive Panorama
24th February
With the weather looking
good for Monday morning, I returned to Ballaugh Curragh to try some more
aerial photography of this fascinating area, flying from four different
locations. Apart from the main Curragh wetlands area, there are several
nature reserves in the area, where grasslands are managed using traditional
methods. DJI Mini 2 22/2/21
Moaney & Crawyns
Meadows
    
Close Umpson
   
Ballaugh Curragh.
Flying from two locations within the main area of the wetlands.
    
    
Interactive Panoramas
   
25th February
After the final drone
flight I returned to the car, taking one of the longer footpath walks through
the Curragh instead of just following the green lane.
Panasonic TZ200 22/2/21
    
    
    
   
26th February
Some pictures taken
during a walk along the River Neb from Peel on Monday afternoon.
Nikon D7100, the last
four are with the Samsung Galaxy A71 phone camera. 22/2/21
    
    
    
   
27th February
Ground and aerial pictures
taken on a very pleasent, if sometimes strenouous, walk in the Eary Cushlin
area on Thursday afternoon.
Panasonic TZ200 &
DJI Mini 2 25/2/21
    
    
    
    
    
Interactive Panoramas
 
1st March
A visit to the tholtan
of Killabrega late on Friday afternoon, high in the hills above Sulby Glen.
DJI Mini 2 26/2/21
   
   
Interactive Panoramas
 
After finishing the
flight at the tholtan, I walked the short distance away to try some drone
shots of the waterfall, that drops around 350 ft down into Sulby Glen.
It was in the deep shadow so colours are rather muted.
   
The weather yesterday
morning was bright and sunny with very light winds, so I set out to try
some aerial photography from the summit of Snaefell.
DJI Mini 2 28/2/21
   
  
Interactive Panoramas
 
Four ground level phone
pictures from Snaefell summit. Samsung Galaxy A71 28/2/21
   
Having waited around
at the summit for a while in the hope that the cloud would clear, I decided
that it probably was going the hang around for quite a while so set off
back down. If course as soon as I was about half way down it cleared,
so I decided to take a few more shots in the area of The Bungalow.
    
Interactive Panoramas
 
2nd March
Hoping to finish off
the pictures taken in February this morning! On Sunday afternoon
the weather stayed bright and with light winds so I set off to take some
aerial pictures from several locations on the Mountain Road. After
the first I ran into cloud cover problems again and things didn't work
out quite as planned, but the bonus was the last set of pictures at Sulby
Reservoir around sunset. DJI Mini 2 & Samsung Galaxy A71
28/2/21
   
Interactive Panoramas
  
Sulby Reservoir
    
Interactive Panorama
As I was walking back
to the car after my flight, I took a few pictures using my phone.
    
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