1/1/24
Happy New Year to all
Island Images visitors. The website is now in it's 25th year in the
present format and has over 22,000 Isle of Man pictures in it.
This new year's morning
weather was superb, light winds and bright sun contrasting with what seems
to have been a long string of dull wet and windy conditions.
I headed up to Port
Cornaa, mainly to shoot some video which I should have edited and uploaded
in the next few days, but I finished with a drone flight.
DJI Mini 2 1/1/23
  
   
2/1/23
This morning I completed
the editing of the Port Cornaa video and it's now uploaded to YouTube.
Click the button below to view.
DJI Osmo Pocket 3, Insta360
Ace Pro & DJI Mini 2 1/1/24
4/1/24
A trip to Niarbyl and
Traie Vane yesterday afternoon.
Panasonic TZ200,
DJI Mini 2 & Insta360 Ace Pro 3/1/24
    
    
    
    
   
I also shot a couple
of short video clips of the waterfall and beach, in slow motion and normal
speed.
Click the button below
to see on YouTube.
6/1/24
On Thursday afternoon
I set out for a photo mission to the west coast. Aerial photography in
the St German's area followed hopefully by the sunset at Peel. However
my car had other ideas and a turbocharger hose (that had just been fixed)
blew off around half way there and I had to return to the dealer in Douglas
to get it fixed. After a test run to see if all was OK I headed back
to Peel but it was after sunset by the time I arrived so I settled for
some low light photography instead. I'd done some of this late in
December with the Insta360 Ace Pro, but wasn't very happy with the results,
so this time I went for the DJI camera.
DJI Osmo Pocket 3 4/1/24
    
   
    
    
   
Post sunset clouds from
my house in Onchan.
Insta360 Ace Pro 5/1/23
7/1/24
I mentioned that I'd
had to abandon my Thursday afternoon aerial photography planned due to
a car fault, but yesterday was bright and sunny on the east coast so I
set out in the afternoon to try again. Unfortunately there was a
line of cloud running continuously down from the north channel passing
the island to the west and south and the sun seemed determined to hide
behind it! Nonetheless, I managed to get some aerial pictures of
the coastline between Peel and Kirkmichael, looking at areas that are mostly
inaccessible apart from by boat, an advantage of having the drone available.
DJI Air 2S 6/1/24
    
    
    
8/1/24
After shooting the aerial
pictures that I uploaded yesterday, I headed back to St John's to carry
out some more experiments shooting with the 'Vlogging' cameras in low light.
Most of the pictures were just for comparison purposes but I though that
I'd share some, although these all have a certain amount of post editing
work on them, although often just a crop and re-size. Both cameras
did well in low light but I've found that you need to use the 'HDR Photo'
mode on the Ace Pro.
Insta360 Ace Pro &
DJI Osmo Pocket 3 6/1/24
    
    
    
A short slow motion
video of the rooks gathering before roosting
Click the button to
view on YouTube
9/1/24
These pictures were
all shot yesterday afternoon in the south of the island, adjacent to Ronaldsway
Airport. Camera used was the diminutive Ace Pro, which has a fixed
wide angle focal length of 16mm (35mm equivalent) and using 'HDR Photo
mode' which uses inbuilt AI algorithms to produce pictures in low light.
Insta360 Ace Pro 8/1/24
    
    
    
10/1/24
Yesterday afternoon
I went for a walk in Archallagan Plantation, where these pictures were
taken. Although it was a bright sunny day, the air temperature wasn't
much above freezing and there was a bitterly cold east wind blowing, so
I hoped for some shelter in the trees.
Insta360 Ace Pro 9/1/24
    
    
    
   
On the way back home
for Archallagan I was going to pass Marown Old Church, but decided to stop
and try a few pictures in the fading light.
Insta360 Ace Pro 9/1/24
    
    
11/1/24
I took this set of pictures
yesterday afternoon on a walk down to Garwick Beach. Pre WW2 the
glen was an important attraction, it had it's own railway station on the
Manx Electric Railway, complete with a large shelter (similar to Groudle,
demolished in 1979) with stationmaster and a little kiosk selling refreshment
and souvenirs. In the glen itself there was a pub and ornamental boating
lake. Down at the beach boats could be hired for a row on the sea,
or maybe take a walk passing though the 'Hermit's Archway' or visiting
one of the 'smugglers caves'. The glen passed into private hands
in the 1960s and has effectively been closed to the public since then,
although it is still possible to access the beach by two routes.
I've just read that the glen was purchased by Manx Utilities a year or
so again, so it's effectively back in public ownership. It would
be nice if some of the facilities could be re-opened for public use.
Insta360 Ace pro 10/1/24
    
    
    
    
    
    
12/1/24
A visit yesterday afternoon
to Jurby Airfield in the north of the island, mainly with the intention
of shooting a few aerial panoramas. The airfield was constructed
in the late 1930s as a training airfield for RAF Bomber Command and served
as such throughout WW2, although it was also a fighter base for a while
until RAF Andreas was constructed. For more information on the airfield,
have a look in my IOM
Air Traffic Control history pages.
DJI Air 2S 11/1/24
   
  
On the way home from
Jurby I had a quick stop at Ballaugh Old Church. A church has existed
on this spot since 1231 and probably a keeil before that. In 1717
and again in the mid to late 1700s it was enlarged, before being replaced
by the new church in Ballaugh village in 1832. It fell into disrepair
for a while but in 1849 it was restored and the extensions removed.
Further restoration work was carried out in 1877 and 1959. I remember
it as being open to visit at any time, but it was locked up so I was unable
to photograph the interior. There was a notice outside saying that
it was open on Saturdays and Sundays.
    
   
13/1/24
Regular website visitors
may have noticed that I've been using a couple of new cameras quite a lot
recently, the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 and Insta360 Ace Pro. Whilst they
are both really designed as 'Vlogging' cameras (and I've produced a few
videos with them), they also have good performance for still pictures.
They are similar in intent but both quite different. The Pocket 3
has a drone style gimble which smoothes out movements mechanically in videos,
whereas the Ace Pro can do this electronically. The P3 had a large
1" sensor which is great in low light, the Ace Pro is also good in low
light but again uses electronic methods to achieve the same ends, also
having Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms used to produce great videos
and still pictures.
14/1/24
A few quick shots from
Onchan Head on the way home from shopping in Douglas this afternoon.
I noticed the nice post sunset light reflected off the sea while driving
along the promenade, so stopped to take the photos at Port Jack.
Insta360 Ace Pro
14/1/24
 
15/1/24
A new Island Images
video - Garwick Glen
A few days ago I did
walk down to Garwick Beach, using the road to get down and then the Clay
Head path to return. I noticed that the path actually going up through
the glen had 'Private Property - No Trespassing' notices on it as had been
the case for quite a few years whilst the house and glen were in private
ownership. I decided that I'd like to return and try making a video,
this time starting from the old Electric Railway station and making my
way down.
When I was doing some
research for the web site pictures from the first visit I came across something
I was unaware of before, that the Isle of Man Government (via Manx Utilities)
had actually purchased the glen from the former owners sometime in 2021,
intending to use it for a sewage processing plant serving Laxey and Baldrine.
Apparently the plans were subsequently changed so our government own a
lovely looking large house and a scenic glen, but have chosen to keep this
quiet and not inform the public. So I decided to see if this publicly
owned but secret glen could actually be accessed and this video tells the
story of what I found.
16/1/24
Yesterday we picked
up a friend from Ronaldsway and went for lunch at The Sound Cafe, before
dropping her of at home. It was a lovely sunny day but with a biting
cold wind blowing, so we didn't really spend much time outside and I just
grabbed a few pictures. Don't think that I'll be taking any pictures
today though as the outside temperature is only 1.5c and we have a mixture
of rain and snow falling!
Insta360 Ace Pro 15/1/24
    
Garwick Glen - again!
When I was editing the
Garwick Glen video, I found that I had a lot of old pictures on file of
the glen when it was a major tourist attraction. I also visited the
online iMuseum (Manx National Heritage) and found some more fascinating
ones. I incorporated a few into the video but thought site visitors
might like to see some more, so here is a selection. The ones from
the iMuseum are credited, but I'm not sure of the origins of the others,
so apologies if I've pinched any. If you have a claim to any of them
and would like a credit, please let me know and I'll be only too pleased
to add it. I'm following the same route as in the video.
    
    
    
    
    
18/1/24
I had a photo/video
project in mind for yesterday afternoon, but as I was getting ready to
go out noticed that the mountains of Snowdonia in north Wales were clearly
visible to the south so changed to 'Plan B', which was to shoot a big stitched
panorama of Scotland from Guthrie's Memorial. In the end things didn't
go quite according to that plan so 'Plan C' was hurriedly made up!
The rest of Plan C will be coming later.
Panasonic FZ82 &
DJI Mini 2 17/1/24
  
  
19/1/24
The rest of Wednesday's
'Plan C' had been to head for another site in the north of the island,
but as I drove down from Guthrie's towards Ramsey
I noticed that the Cumbrian
Mountains in England were showing up well, so a 'Plan D' was hatched and
I headed instead towards Maughold!
The first pictures were
aerial ones of the village and church from a flight with the drone before
I continued with ground level ones.
DJI Mini 2 17/1/24
    
 
20/1/24
The ground level pictures
at Maughold Church and the Head on Wednesday afternoon.
Insta360 Ace Pro &
Panasonic FZ82 17/1/24
The Church and Churchyard
    
    
    
At Maughold Head and
the Lighthouse
    
It was very cold up
by the lighthouse once the sun had gone, so time to head home!
   
   
  
22/1/24
Another visit to Garwick!
This was on Thursday afternoon and the main reason was to shoot some video
at various locations for a 'Then and Now' feature, but more of that later.
I shot some ground level pictures to start and finish with some aerial
shots in the middle.
Insta360 Ace Pro &
DJI Air 2S 18/1/24
    
    
    
    
    
A 360 degree aerial
panorama at Garwick Glen
I mentioned above that
the main reason of the Garwick visit was to shoot some video for a project
that I had in mind. It was 'Garwick Glen, Then and Now', using some
of the old photos I had of the glen and beach, then trying to match up
the camera angles with some present day video. I couldn't manage
it for all the shots, in some cases (like the Tea Gardens) the features
have vanished completely, for others I couldn't get to the exact spot for
various reasons. I also need to mention that the seasons are out
of synch, as most of the old photos would have been taken in summer, but
there was snow on the ground on Thursday! I could of course waited
for spring or summer, but there is no guarantee that I would still be able
to access the glen then, as far as I know the government have given no
indication of their intentions for the house and glen, hopefully they will
open up the glen to more public access.
There are a lot of clips
and photos joined together to make the video, it took me most of a day
to edit, producing a ten minute final version!
Click the button below
to view the video on YouTube.
23/1/24
The Steam Packet's 'Manxman'
heading out to sea in poor weather conditions. Just a quick photo
grab from home.
Panasonic FZ82 20/1/24
 
25/1/24
I took these pictures
on a walk yesterday afternoon, starting from the car park by 'Waterworks'
on the Mountain Road, the walking down via Ballure Reservoir to the beach
and walking as far south as I could at low tide. After that, back
north to Queen's Pier before returning to the car via Lherghy Frissell
and the Albert Tower.
Insta360 Ace Pro
24/1/24
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
27/1/24
A walk yesterday afternoon
in Glen Helen, initially taking the upper path through Eairy Beg Plantation
to visit the tholtan in the forest.
Insta360 Ace Pro
26/1/24
 
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
 
28/1/24
When I was doing my
walk in Eairy Beg plantation and Glen Helen, I also shot some video clips.
They weren't intended for publication so not very structured, but this
morning I edited them together in VSDC Video Editor and thought that some
of you might be interested. Wind noise is a bit of a problem as there
is no shielding on the built in microphone on the Ace Pro. If I'd
planned to produce a video I would have used my Osmo Pocket 3 with it's
remote shielded mic instead.
Sorry, no commentary
but I've added a few explanatory notes where I think they'd be useful.
Video length 5:21
Insta360 Ace Pro 26/1/24
31/1/24
Yesterday afternoon
I had a little photo expedition to the south west of the island, meeting
up with my good friend and fellow photographer Peter Killey at Cregneash.
First location was on Mull Hill where I did some aerial and ground level
photography, followed by a stroll around the village.
DJI Mini 2 & Insta360
Ace Pro 30/1/24
  
   
    
A wander around Cregneash
village as sunset approached. Many of the old cottages in the village
form a 'folk museum', showing how life was on the island when agriculture
and fishing were the main occupations of islanders, but there are also
quite a few other cottages that are still inhabited.
Panasonic FZ82 30/2/24
    
    
  
After parting company
with Peter at Cregneash, I decided to drive home via The Sloc and Foxdale.
No particular reason apart from that I like the route, but as I drove up
The Sloc I was treated to the sight of an amazing sunset in my mirrors.
I found a safe spot to stop and took these three pictures within 10 seconds!
The days are starting to get noticeable longer, 'official' sunset was at
16:52 and these were at 16:55. The day is now 1 hour and 23 minutes
longer than at solstice.
Panasonic FZ83 30/1/24
  
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