2/11/22
A new camera arrived
at Island Images yesterday morning and I was keen to try it out.
It's a Panasonic Lumix FZ82, which is basically an update on the FZ72 'bridge'
camera that I've been using for the last nine years, which had picked up
some minor but annoying damage to the optics. After visiting the
Covid vaccination hub in Douglas I only had around an hour of daylight
remaining so I just used some fairly local subjects.
Panasonic FZ82 1/8/22
    
    
   
3/11/22
Some more test shots
yesterday afternoon with the new camera, taken around the Douglas Harbour
and Head area. It was quite sheltered there from the south westerly gale
that was blowing at the time, with sea and air services being cancelled.
The first five pictures were inadvertently saved with more compression
than usual and without the Exif picture data attached. Panasonic
FZ82 2/11/22
    
    
    
4/11/22
Some aerial photography
along the beach at Douglas yesterday morning. It was had to believe
the change in weather after the previous days storm.
DJI Air 2S 3/11/22
    
    
  
5/11/22
Quite a large selection
of pictures here, taken on Thursday afternoon when I walked to somewhere
I'd never been before. It was Glen Trunk, walking from Orrisdale
just north of Kirkmichael. Not a long walk at around two and a quarter
miles, but well worth it for the scenery. I had the Mini drone in
my rucksack and stopped twice along the way for some aerial shots.
Panasonic FZ82 & DJI Mini 2 3/11/22
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
  
6/11/22
On the drive home from
Orrisdale I stopped off at Sulby reservoir to take some pictures of the
dramatic post sunset clouds.
DJI Mini 2 3/11/22
    
 
7/11/22
On Friday we planned
to visit Milntown House, for lunch
in the cafe followed by a stroll around the gardens. It nearly didn't
happen, as due to a glitch in the online booking system, we arrived to
be told that there was no booking for us and that they were full.
We were just about to leave when the amazing Sophie Stoutt arrived and
asked what the problem was - and proceeded to fix it! So after a
lovely lunch we strolled around the gardens and I took these pictures.
The gardening team led by Adam Quayle do a brilliant job and there is always
something interesting to see and photograph at any season of the year.
Panasonic FZ82 4/11/22
    
    
    
    
After Milntown we needed
to call in at Ramsey for some shopping, but I managed to grab some pictures
as well!
Panasonic FZ82 4/11/22
    
   
8/11/22
On Saturday afternoon
we had a fairly short visit to the Wildlife Park in Ballaugh Curragh.
We didn't have too long there as we were a bit late arriving and in winter
months the park closes at 4 PM, so just a quick dash around but managed
to include the wildlife walk out in the curragh where we saw quite a few
wallabies.
Panasonic FZ82 5/11/22
    
    
    
    
After leaving the Wildlife
Park when it closed, we headed to the west coast to catch the sunset in
the Jurby area.
DJI Air 2S 5/11/22
    
   
   
 
9/11/22
I took these pictures
on a walk down (and back up!) the Dhoon Glen on Sunday afternoon.
It's not a long walk, but with a drop down and climb back up of around
600 ft. At this time of year a lot of the footpaths are also wet,
muddy and slippery, but if you're up to it it's a great walk!
Panasonic FZ82 6/11/22
    
    
    
   
10/11/22
A little story of how
my photo trips can pan out. After recent heavy rain the plan was
to do some ground level and aerial shots of the waterfall in Sulby Glen,
however, after parking up it became obvious that the glen was funnelling
the wind and it was too strong and gusty for flying. Also there were
regular showers passing through and within the confines of the glen there
was little warning of them approaching (I can't fly the drone in rain).
So after taking a few ground shots I drove on down the glen and by the
time I reached Sulby Claddagh the sun had come out and wind dropped down
to an acceptable level for flying, so I did a fairly quick flight there,
managing around ten minutes in the air before the clouds rolled in and
I lost the lovely lighting.
DJI Air 2S 8/11/22
    
There were a couple
of other locations I had in mind for some more aerial shots, but conditions
weren't suitable and I'd more or less given up on the day for photography,
heading back south via Ramsey for the coast road home. I diverted
a bit onto Mooragh Promenade as the clouds looked interesting out over
the sea and ended up stopping at the south beach for most of these pictures
with some amazing lighting.
Panasonic FZ82 8/11/22
    
    
11/11/22
As I mentioned on one
of the Dhoon Glen ground level pictures, I revisited it on Wednesday afternoon
to try for some aerial shots of the big waterfall. Of course I also
took some more! DJI Air 2S 9/11/22
    
    
  
13/11/22
Yesterday we went for
a lovely lunch at The Shore hotel, Gansey, after which we headed up to
Cregneash village for a stroll around while it was still light. I
shot a few aerial pictures first though. DJI Mini 2 & Panasonic
FZ82 12/11/22
   
    
    
    
At The Sound, before
and after coffee, the pictures were taken thirty minutes apart. Panasonic
FZ82 12/11/22
 
14/11/22
Final photography spot
from Saturday afternoon was at Port Erin, where the light was starting
to fade after sunset.
DJI Mini 2 12/11/22
    
   
 
15/11/22
On Sunday afternoon
we revisited a favourite location on the island, the unique Ballaugh Curraghs
wetlands area. This area was at one time drained and farmed but has
been allowed to return to its natural state. After recent rains it
is indeed a wetland at present!
Nikon D7100 13/11/22
    
    
    
    
    
    
16/11/22
Yesterday we were in
Laxey for lunch with friends at the Ballacregga Bar and Tea Rooms and afterwards
I took the opportunity to take some aerial pictures in the area, mainly
of the 'Lady Isabella' but also a few more of that part of Laxey.
DJI Mini 2 15/11/22
    
    
  
17/11/22
The weather looked like
it would be suitable for flying yesterday afternoon and I set out to try
a new countryside area for some aerial pictures, the upper Rhenass valley
in the area of Sartfell and Little London. However, after I was airborne
from the first location, the weather decided otherwise, with the wind increasing,
lowering cloud and spots of rain in the air, so the flight was curtailed
after only a few pictures and around ten minutes flying.
DJI Air 2S 16/11/22
 
18/11/22
After being rained off
up in the hills near Little London on Wednesday afternoon, I decided to
try another location for flying. The weather looked better on the
coast either to the north or south, but I chose Peel and managed to get
in two flights around the castle area, with some dramatic skies in the
background.
DJI Air 2S 16/11/22
    
    
    
 
 
20/11/22
There are twenty four
new Railway pictures taken yesterday morning, in Railways
2022 Pt 4. Panasonic FZ72 & DJI Mini 2
    
After taking the train
aerial shots above, it seemed too nice a day to just leave it at that,
so I did some more general photography in the southern Marine Drive area.
There may not be an obvious picture flow as I did two separate flights
from different starting points but with overlapping coverage areas.
DJI Mini 2 19/11/22
    
    
 
21/11/22
On Saturday afternoon
we needed to head up to Ramsey and afterwards continued on the the Point
of Ayre where I did some aerial photography finishing with a few shots
from ground level. The sunny weather of the morning had unfortunately
gone, with cloud arriving around lunchtime.
DJI Air 2S & Panasonic
FZ82 19/11/22
    
    
  
  
23/11/22
When I was working on
the aerial pictures I took of Peel on the 16th, I identified a couple of
locations that I thought would produce some interesting 360 panoramic scenes.
The weather was good for flying yesterday afternoon so I returned with
the mini drone, which as it weighs less than 250g, allows me more freedom
with choosing operating areas, although for the first two they were just
flow directly above the launch location. The final flying location
was from the lower slopes of Peel Hill, which gave me more flying freedom.
This selection is just panoramas, I did take some conventional pictures
but I'll upload those separately.
DJI Mini 2 22/11/22
  
 
 
24/11/22
A selection of the single
shots I took at Peel on Tuesday afternoon.
DJI Mini 2 22/11/22
    
    
    
   
4/12/22 - Some 'Away'
aerial pictures
I'm in the process of
changing over to a new main computer that will be used for picture processing
and web page production and I need to test things out. Having just
returned from a week 'across', I now have a heavy cold and I doubt that
I'll be taking any new pictures for a week or so. Luckily for me,
I took quite a few aerial ones on the trip away so I'm going to use selections
of those to test out the new computer! All shot with the Mini 2 drone.
Chester 26/11/22
A rather dull and grey
day, but I wanted to use the opportunity for some aerial photography with
the winds being very light. All shot in 3 image AEB and combined
together in Paint Shop Pro as an HDR final image to try and bring out the
colours a bit more.
    
    
  
Birkenhead 27/11/22
We were really in Birkenhead
to visit the lovely transport museum there, but after our visit and a ride
on the tram I found a couple of locations to fly from.
   
   
  
 
5/12/22
More 'away' aerial pictures,
this time from the amazing Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in north Wales, that carries
the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee. Completed in 1805 it is
307 metres long by 3.7 metres wide at 37 metres above river level.
There is a narrow tow-path and handrail on the eastern side, but on the
other side there is nothing above the level of the cast iron trough that
carries the canal. Very much 'one way', although there is no traffic
control system on it. Although out of season, I was lucky enough
to catch a narrow boat crossing it, the 'Rhapsody in Blue'. I was
very pleased to be able to make this flight, as the previous time we'd
visited it was so windy that we needed to hang onto the railing just to
walk across it!
Pictures taken on 28/11/22.
DJI Mini 2
    
   
    
Since uploading these
pictures I've been in touch with the owners of 'Rhapsody in Blue' that
features in many of them. Julie and Martin have a super YouTube channel
covering their canal cruising in England. Incidentally they also
use a Mini 2 drone, which is probably the one Georgie saw!
Julie
& Martin on Rhapsody in Blue
6/12/22
Some more aerial pictures
from our trip. I shot these at Langollen where we had an excellent
lunch at the Corn Mill on the banks of the River Dee. I asked the
manager if I could fly the drone from the outside terrace area. You
never know how these things are going to go, but she said 'yes, of course'
so a big thank you to them as it was a super flying location for some shots
of the town, we can recommend the food too! The
Corn Mill website.
DJI Mini 2 28/11/22
    
   
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