2nd December
A new drone had just
arrived in the Island Images Aerial fleet and yesterday conditions were
suitable for testing its capabilities. Although the wind was very
light, it was an overcast day and I wouldn't normally have done aerial
photography under the low light conditions at this time of year, but here
are a few of the initial pictures from it anyway, flying from two locations
in the morning. DJI Mini 2 1/12/20
    
  
    
In the afternoon it
looked like the lighting was improving so I set off for St John's for some
more aerial photography. Unfortunately it stayed fairly dull.
DJI Mini 2 1/12/20
    
  
3rd December
Some more testing yesterday
afternoon with the new Mini 2 drone. The main purpose was to see
how it coped in a breezier situation and I went to Keristal, just north
of Port Soderick and flew from the cliff top there. It was close
to sunset when I arrived and unfortunately cloud covered the sun just after
I started flying, but the Mini 2 performed well in the breeze which was
a bit gusty at times as well. DJI Mini 2 2/12/20
    
  
 
5th December
We set out yesterday
afternoon to see if there was any snow left on the hilltops after fall
over the past couple of days. There most likely was, but the cloud was
so low we couldn't see it! However, I took some pictures at lower
levels. The light levels were very poor with heavy overcast and as
colours were really muted anyway, I've de-saturated them to monochrome
and with a sepia tint on the later ones. Locations are Druidale,
Cooildarry and Glen Wyllin. Nikon D7100 4/12/20
   
  
6th December
This morning the weather
was calm and bright and I decided to do some more aerial photography with
the new DJI Mini 2 drone. On the way to Ramsey via the Mountain Road
I stopped at Brandywell to take these ground level pictures of Snaefell
and Clagh Ouyr. Panasonic TZ200 6/12/20
  
7th December
As previosuly mentioned.
yesterday morning was calm and sunny, so I took the new Mini 2 drone to
Ramsey for some aerial photography of the town.
DJI Mini 2 6/12/20
    
    
    
    
A couple of pictures
taken on Sunday afternoon of the Lake Distict mountains from Douglas.
Panasonic TZ200 6/12/20
 
8th December
Another couple of flights
with the Mini 2 yesterday afternoon as conditions were good. Flying at
Crosby and then Douglas Head.
DJI Mini 2 7/12/20
Crosby
    
Douglas Head
    
   
10th December
I've recently been working
on a new selection of aerial computer screen backgrounds, this time from
pictures taken in 2018.
if you've not seen these
sections before, do take a look. Even if you're not looking for a
desktop background, the pictures can be browsed through from
January to December
in a slightly larger format than usual. If you would like to use
one as a background on your computer, click on the 'Save' button which
will bring up a 1920
x 1080 version. On a Windows computer you then just right click the image
and select 'Set as Background' or 'Set as Desktop Background' from your
browser. Use the back buton to return to browsing. It seems more
complicated on a Mac, but then so does everything to me!
The pictures below are
just examples of the thumbnails but click on any one to go to the 2018
Aerial Desktop Backgrounds page.
    
11th December
These pictures were
taken this morning on a short flight from the Centenary Park at the top
of my road. The weather was better today, no rain and quite calm
this morning, although rather dull with cloud on the hills. Still
trying out the new mini done. DJI Mini 2 11/12/10
    
 
13th December
A few aerial pictures
yesterday with the Mini 2 again. Taken just along the coast from
Groudle, in between photographing the Santa Trains.
DJI Mini 2 12/12/20
    
Dusk shots and Christmas
Lights in Douglas yesterday. Panasonic TZ200 12/12/20
    
   
17th December
A few pictures taken
today, rather late in the afternoon and with some rather dull lighting
conditions. Panasonic TZ200 17/12/20
   
   
20th December
A few pictures taken
in Ramsey yesterday afternoon. It was really a shopping trip but
the light was nice, particularly over the harbour.
Panasonic TZ200 19/12/20
    
    
23rd December
After a period of stong
winds preventing aerial photography with the drones, yesterday morning
was bright with light winds and I set off to photograph an
area that I hadn't look
at from the air before, the village of St Mark's. The hamlet is a
Conservation Area and an informative document on the area (probably from
2003) can be found Here.
DJI Mini 2 22/12/20
    
   
Another location that
I'd wanted to photograph from the air was the Eairy Dam near Foxdale.
I couldn't find out any informationabout the lake here, but it was
probably man made, the
old maps show a mill race towards a sawmill to the south. There is
also a mine shown close by, but the pump would seem to be powered by a
rod from an engine house to the east, powered by water from a smaller reservoir.
DJI Mini 1 22/12/20
    
  
24th December
I was driving back home
from the aerial photography sessions on Tuesday when I was taken by the
light on the scene near Braaid, so I had a quick stop there for some more
aerial pictures, starting with a panorama centred on the ancient settlement
site of The Braaid. DJI Mini 2 22/12/20
    
26th December
A photo trip out on
Christmas eve, starting with some ground level pictures at Poyll Vaaish
and Gansey Bay. Panasonic TZ200 24/12/20
    
My next destination
was the village of Cregneash. Initially I had a stroll around the
village and took some ground level pictures, but the sun was hiding behind
the clouds and I went on to try some aerial shots with the little Mini
2 drone - and the sun came out (for a short while!).
Panasonic TZ 200 &
DJI Mini 2 24/12/20
    
    
  
Taking the camera into
the air.
    
After the flight at
Cregneash it was onwards to the top of Mull Hill hoping that the sun would
emerge from the clouds to give me a mid winter sunset.
DJI Mini 2 & Panasonic
TZ200 24/12/20
  
  
As I was making my way
back from Mull Hill, driving down the narrow lane into Port Erin, I saw
that the post sunset light looked amazing over the beach, so I stopped
for another flight and these pictures are the results. DJI Mini 2
24/12/20
 
    
27th December
Some Christmas Day pictures!
Panasonic TZ200 & Samsung Galaxy S8
Sunrise
 
A walk along the Marine
Drive in the afternoon
    
29th December
Some aerial photography
today of the old Cornelly Mine, near Foxdale, on the edge of Archallagan
Plantation. DJI Mini 2 29/12/20
    
30th December
My second flight yesterday
was another 'spur of the moment' one as I was heading back home.
I was passing Lonan Old Church and though that the sunlight was illuminating
it well so stopped for a short flight. It was a bit breezy up at
the top of the hill for the little Mini 2 (it does weigh less than 250g!)
but it coped well. In the afternoon I was out again with it and did
another three flights. I'm really enjoying working with this tiny
drone, all the December aerial pics have been with it.
DJI Mini 2 29/12/20
   
First of the afternoon
flights was to take a closer look at the waterfall where the Pigeon Stream
falls into the sea by the Marine Drive. I'd first noticed this on
our Christmas Day walk, but you can't really see too much from the road,
the drone comes in very handy for things like this! The sun had already
set on this area at 15:30, hence the rather muted colours.
DJI Mini 2 29/12/20
   
  
Moving further down
the Marine drive for the next three aerial pictures, but the last two are
from ground level with the TZ200.
    
31st December
The final flight made
on Tuesday afternoon was over Douglas Bay at dusk, for some photos of the
town, harbour and Tower of Refuge.
DJI Mini 2 29/12/20
    
    
  
Pictures taken yesterday
afternoon.
A ground based panorama
for a change! Stitched from 14 original hand held shots, taken from
the breakwater in Peel. Panasonic TZ200 30/12/20
Continuing onwards to
carry out some aerial photography at Jurby Church. DJI Mini
2 30/12/20
    
The final photography
location from yesterday was at the Point of Ayre, the most northerly tip
of the island. A mixture of ground and aerial shots.
Panasonic TZ200 &
DJI Mini 2 30/12/20
    
   
Time Flies!
Taken this afternoon,
these seemed appropriate images to end the Island Images year. It's
the amazing clock constructed by island resident Dr John Taylor and originally
exhibited in Cambridge, England. It has recently returned to the
island and is installed at the '1886' restaurant in the old post office
building.
Panasonic TZ200 31/12/20
 
See you back in 2021!
1/1/21
Happy New Year!
I've just done the big count up of pictures added through 2020 and it comes
out as follows: General 'Scenic' pictures 2,837 which beats the previous
best from 2019 by a considerable margin. There are a couple of things
to consider though, firstly I haven't counted the pictures added in April
as they were all older ones taken in previous years as were were under
Covid-19 Lockdown rules for most of the month. However, also due
to travel restrictions 'off island' we didn't have our usual long periods
away on holiday so the website effectively gained two extra month's of
pictures.
The Railway pictures
did quite well at a total of 475 because after the April lockdown they
bounced back well with lots of passengers travelling although unfortunately
not on the Snaefell Mountain Railway as the government decided that it
would stay closed all year despite it being the line's 125th anniversary
year. We should probably be very thankful though as they had initially
decided that none of the government operated railways would re-start operations
until 2021, but pressure was brought to bear on them and they relented,
keeping the staff in jobs and entertaining the public who were in general
unable to travel off the island. The Dining Car Train seems in particular
to have done very good trade on all of it's various day and evening outings.
The Aircraft pictures
didn't do so well, the first knock-back was FlyBe stopping operations at
the beginning of March, followed by the Covid lockdown, after which air
services have been extremely limited with only three routes being served
by Loganair using only two aircraft. Private flights have also been
extremely limited, so the Aircraft picture total only come in at 117.
Here's looking forward
to hopefully a better year for all of us in 2021 although the Island Images
picture count may well fall when we are allowed to travel again without
restrictions! I hope that you have enjoyed the pictures from 2020
and will keep visiting this year for more. Best wishes, Jon.
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