Sunday 19th August 2012

Today Chris and I decided to head to Smeale. The tide was going to be quite high (though, with no wind behind it, was unlikely to fill the beach lagoon) but, yesterday there had been a lot of waders on the beach so, there was a good chance of pictures.

When we arrived, we were early for the tide so, I decided to go for a walk as the heath was looking rather nice with the heather.

I saw (I think) a moth, that intent on taking nectar from a thistle, it ignored me as I took some pictures

I then went onto the beach and found myself a place to sit near to where one of the lagoons had been. All that is left is rotting seaweed - not very pleasant but, the waders like it. After some time a large group of waders landed on the ridge and started working towards me. At that point I noticed some people walking along the beach. The birds tend to be flighty and did not stay as they approached so, a quick flight shot was all I managed

Saturday 18th August 2012

Today Dave and I started at Ballaglass. There was a lot of water coming down the river due to the heavy rains we've had this week.

We then headed to Laxey. We parked on the front then headed up towards the glen, via the waterfall.

On our way back down towards the river, we came across a water splash that was catching the sun

We walked around the harbour before having an ice cream

Saturday 11th August 2012

Today I decided just to have a shortish walk. The plan was to walk from Ramsey to Port Lewaigue along the road, have a mooch around and then walk back to Ramsey along the beach. I set off in sunshine but with a slight breeze that stopped it becoming too hot. There wasn't anything much of interest to take on the way but, a walk around Lewaigue produced a Burnet Moth

I sat on the bench for a while waiting for the tide to go out far enough for me to get across the beach. After some time, I realised that due to the wind and the tide not being a very low one, that I wouldn't get across so, I headed back along the road until I came to Ballure Walks. Now, I've lived in Ramsey for 15 years but didn't know this was here.

A pleasant walk through this small glen area beside a stream brought me onto the beach just a short stroll from Ramsey.

Friday 10th August 2012

Not really a walk well, we did walk along the beach a short way.... This evening Chris and I decided to have a go at wire wool pictures. The idea is quite simple - you set fire to it, move it about and do some long exposure shots. So, armed with wire wool, a whisk on a piece of cord, lighter, 9v battery (can be used for lighting), a pair of gloves, cameras and tripods and dressed in darkish clothes we set off.

We soon realised it needed to be much darker than we had thought from watching videos on Youtube. An hour after the (publicised) time that the sun had set there was still too much light in the sky. Eventually, it went dark enough and we got some shots.

Dome

First orb - colour treated

Low dome - colour treated

Orb - second attempt

Low dome

Walking up the beach

Walking up the beach - colour treated



So, what did we find out from our first attempt? Well, you need to have less zoom - I managed to chop bits off most of them. Head covering is required as are the gloves. Now we just need some different locations!

Following on from the wire wool experiment, we decided to see if we could get any pictures of the meteor shower. We did see a number of meteors, leaving trails as they blazed across the night sky but unfortunately, they were too unpredictable and infrequent for pictures

Saturday 4th August 2012

Today Dave and I parked at Glen Mooar and walked along the coast path towards Peel. Much of the pat is away from the sea or on the old railway line with high banks and we saw more horseflies on this stretch than anything else.

After some time, we came to a bridge with steps leading up from the path. We took these and headed down to the beach.

On the way down the path to the beach, we saw an orchid - possibly a Common Spotted

Our thought today had been to do some long exposure seascapes however, we left both tripods and ND filters in the car. Using the polarising filter and the other filters we had with us, I improvised using a rock

After some lunch, we headed back towards the car along the road to see if there was anything more of interest to see.

We headed back to the Lifeboat day in Ramsey (via The Mitre for a quick drink)

Later in the evening, Chris and I noticed that there was a track being set up on the beach so, we headed out to watch some sand racing