1/2/22
Happy Imbolc!
Imbolc is a pre-Christian
pagan festival day, particularly in Celtic nations, when the Goddess Bridgid
and the start of Spring are celebrated. In later times, as with may
other old festivals, it was 'Christianised' although in this case hardly
disguised as St Briget's Day. I have established a bit of a tradition
in Island Images over the last few years of bringing you some pictures
of the Snowdrops flowering in the graveyard of Braddan Old Church and I
shot these on Sunday morning there.
Panasonic TZ200 30/1/22
There
are some lovely videos from Culture Vannin about Manx tradition of 'Laal
Breeshey'.
    
   
Three connected Aerial
shots from previous years.
  
3/2/22
The camera never lies
is an old saying - but maybe it sometimes struggles with colour balance!
These three pictures were taken within ten minutes of each other using
my Galaxy A71 phone on Auto, of the sunset sky from home. I'd say the first
is probably most accurate! Samsung Galaxy A71 1/2/22
  
There are five new Aircraft
pictures, taken today, in Aircraft
2022 Pt 1 Nikon D7100 3/2/22
    
4/2/22
A stroll around Castletown
yesterday afternoon. A rather cloudy and windy day, but the sun broke
though from time to time.
Nikon D7100 3/2/22
    
    
    
5/2/22
A visit to Ballaglass
Glen yesterday afternoon. It was a bright and sunny day, although
with a strong and cold wind blowing, so I fancied somewhere a bit sheltered
to walk! Nikon D7100 4/2/22
    
   
    
   
    
    
6/2/22
This was the second
location that I wanted to visit on Friday afternoon after Ballaglass Glen
and I reached it just before the sun dipped behing the hills. It's
Cashtal yn Ard, marked as 'King Orrey's Castle' on the 1870 Ordnance Survey
map but more accurately translated as 'Castle of the Heights'. It
was never a castle, in fact an ancient burial site, described as a Neolithic
Chambered Long Cairn in 'Archaeological Sites of the Isle of Man', dating
from around BC 3,000, although the on site information reckons BC 1800.
The book in fact suggests that it was altered over a period of time, so
both may be correct!. Only the ground level stones remain, it would
have been covered by a mound but investigations in the 1930s apparently
altered the site somewhat. It's quite difficult to comprehend the layout
of the site from ground level, the aforementioned book has a good diagram,
but I've included three aerial pictures I took back on 2016.
Nikon D7100 & DJI
Phantom 2 Vision + 4/2/22 & 5/8/16
    
Aerial pictures of the
site from August 2016
  
8/2/22
Another batch of aerial
pictures from 2001 uploaded, a total of 45 this time. The date would
go down in history as a black day for the world and particularly civil
aviation as events unfolded later that day in the USA. I didn't fly
myself again for another ten months, by which time I'd lost a lot of my
flying skills and only flew intermittently after that before my final flight
as 'P1' (Pilot in Charge) in late 2003. Fuji Finepix 4900 zoom 11/9/01
     
11/2/22
Pictures taken at Ramsey,
Maughold Head and Ballafayle while testing a new 150 - 500 mm telephoto
lens. It wasn't really a nice afternoon, with regular rain of hail
showers passing through and a strong and blustery wind blowing.
Nikon D7100 10/2/22
    
    
There is one new Aircraft
picture in Aircraft
2022 Pt 1 Nikon D7100 10/2/22
12/2/22
A new drone has joined
the Island Images Aerial fleet! It's a DJI Air 2S and yesterday morning
the wind and weather were suitable for a couple of test flights with it.
The location for the first one was Keristal, on the east coast just north
of Port Soderick. 11/2/22
    
    
 
Pictures from the second
flight yesterday morning, in the vicinity of Little Ness on the Marine
Drive. DJI Air 2S 11/2/22
    
   
13/2/22
On Friday afternoon
we headed down to The Sound for lunch at the cafe. It was very busy
but we managed to find a table, the food was excellent and staff very polite
and attentive. After lunch we went to have a look at the seals on Kitterland.
Nikon D7100 11/2/22
    
   
We took the 'scenic
route' home from the Sound and stopped briefly at Niarbyl, where I took
these pictures with the big lens.
Nikon D7100 11/2/22
 
14/2/22
Some more testing with
the new drone. A small window opened up in the generally wet and
windy (=no flying!) weather we've been having recently and I headed up
to Laxey to try for a quick comparison of shooting 360 panoramas with first
the DJI Fly app in control, followed by the 3rd party Litchi app.
The results of the two panorama shoots can be seen at the end, but I also
took the opportunity for some other pictures. Most are 'HDR' images,
combined from the five exposure balanced pictures that the drone can shoot.
This allows for a larger dynamic range in the end picture than can be had
with a single shot. For anyone interested, the first two pictures
are screen shots comparing the control screen from the Fly app to the Litchi
one.
 
DJI Air 2S 13/2/22
    
    
    
 
18/2/22
We had a temporary lull
between Storm Dudley passing by and Storm Eunice arriving and I took the
opportunity to walk from the Bungalow up to Snaefell Summit yesterday afternoon.
Not too windy and quite clear, although not enough to view the 'Seven Kingdoms'.
Panasonic TZ200 17/2/22
    
    
    
   
20/2/22
The weather here has
been rather changeable just recently. After the two 'named' storms
passed by, yesterday morning the wind was almost calm, but by mid morning
heavy snow started falling, causing problems on the roads with stranded
cars in many locations. However, by lunchtime the snow stopped and
the clouds started breaking up, leaving us with a sunny afternoon and the
snow melting. I hurried out for some aerial shots before it all vanished
again!
This morning there is
no sign of any snow and we are back with strong to gale or storm force
winds and rain.
DJI Air 2S 19/2/22
    
    
 
Continuing on to a second
location, not far away by Archallagan Plantation.
    
    
 
21/2/22
On Saturday afternoon
I noticed on 'Marine Traffic' that the Steam Packet fastcraft 'Manannan'
was out in the northern Irish Sea, presumably on sea trials prior to coming
back into service for the summer months. I was able to capture some
pictures of her returning to harbour later. Nikon D7100 19/2/22
   
23/2/22
These pictures were
taken yesterday afternoon on a walk down the Dhoon Glen from the main road
to the sea and back up again. It's not far distance wise, but the
sea is around 600 ft below road level, so quite a steep climb back up!
The glen does contain what is probably the best waterfall on the island
though.
Nikon D7100 22/2/22
    
    
     
    
    
    
25/2/22
Pictures taken on a
stroll in the Tholt-y-Will area and for a short distance down Sulby Glen
on Thursday afternoon. Nikon D7100 24/2/22
    
    
    
26/2/22
With some lighter winds
yesterday I decided to try some aerial photography in much the same area
of Sulby Glen that I had walked in on the previous day, but I also ended
up walking up into the hills. DJI Air 2S 25/2/22
    
    
    
 
A bit out of date sequence,
but I forgot to upload this one from a few days back. Taken not long
after moonrise very early on Wednesday morning (01:48), an orange coloured
half moon taken from my house. Nikon D7100 23/2/22
28/2/22
One new Aircraft picture
is now in Aircraft
2022 Pt 1 Nikon D7100 26/2/22
And four new Railway
pictures in Railways 2022 Pt 1. Panasonic TZ200 28/2/22
   
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