Icy reflections

                               Mooragh Lake


The boating lake in winter is often frozen, allowing for mirror image captures. Dusk and cloud cover accentuate the setting sun colours.

Mooragh Park
Ramsey
Isle of Man 

Jane Hards Photography

 More on the Mooragh

Lake Placid, in a sense

I am a name not a number

Reflections of the Week

Ok it's not really Lake Placid. It is a placid lake though. Google will be confused. For the moment it's it's working title, or as Hyde DP humorously commented on yesterday's image, #13. Very true. Technically the image is a number. I always give images a title, even if it's a library only image just so I can find it again. I'd never find dc10205 and know instantly that it was this image, but a name I'll recall and which named file it's in. You wouldn't believe how many names you can up with for a puddle. No, really you can if you let your imagination fly.

Happy puddle, dopey puddle, sneezy puddle. As you can see I really take my filing system seriously (she say in mock ironic tones.)

Another reflection of the little houses on the hill behind the park. Just tiny silhouettes. The longer thin lines are the lamposts. I said some would not be easy on the eye. This is pretty to look at but you have to use your imagination to envisage those black shadow boxes as buildings. If you live in Ramsey you would probably guess that's Mooragh Lake as low as I've ever seen it and I'm photographing inside the Park, over the lake onto the road. I'll show you another image. In fact I will try and get one for skywatch so you can compare. Time of day for this image was late afternoon again. Same as yesterday manual setting and left as taken.

It's my Birthday today, and I never ever work on it. I get very drunk instead.

Black, blue, bare, branches

I love it when a plan comes together

Continuing the experiment of the week. Back to the dreamy images. It's Mooragh Lake as the chosen subject. That ball of white light is actually the sun and this is a day image, late afternoon where the light is fading at this time of year to dusk. Always manual settings. This would not have worked on auto, but a small point and shoot on manual would do a fairly good job. You need to employ manual setting for fading light images as light travels as we know. Auto would just create possibly a blackened image all over or a harsh white on black with no nod to the subtle blue of the lake and no definition of the black silhouetted bare trees branches

Notice the small object just off centre? It's clear to see on the large file that it's a large pebble peeking through. This then is the quandary. The image is as I planned, seamless colours drifting into each other with no harsh lines, but the pebble is clearly defined. If an artist painted this scene they have the option to paint it in or paint it out. I too have that choice with digital wizardry to erase and clone the water creating the overall smooth image. It would be the only alteration. I choose not to thus keeping the image pure as it was taken, what I saw, what was there. That is the way photography is for me. It's what I enjoy best taking the mundane and making in surreal. I like the pebble today, for tomorrow the same scene it may have been displaced and a new fresh unique image can be created. It also gives me a chance to have twice of many photos to sell, pebble in, pebble out. Twice as many names to come with though.

B's today, black, branches, blues, bare, ball(of light) and for me bewitching. You may have your own.

So when I put this for sale what would you title it? Any letter you like. I have the title already.

Just curious to see how others see things and for marketing purposes and would this be best, matt or gloss.

MOORAGH LAKE - SKYWATCH

Mooragh lake, Mooragh Park

Skywatch again. Still no laptop, so an archive. Not as in a few months but as in a few years. I think this was one of the first images I took when we moved to the Isle Of Man. Must be aout 4- 5 years old. Fortunately Gary has some of my older sales images on his laptop so I can dip into them for the blog. Why has Gary got these images on his blog? He paints them for sale. Not all of my photos, just certain ones. If you look closely there is even a copyright on this image under my real name. As you can see this isn't your usual blog image, but a sales site one.

The park and lake have proved to be a great success for Ramsey, bringing visitors and tourists alike for canoeing, birdwatching, skateboarding or just to relax for lunch in one of the 2 cafes. Events are still held here such as varied music festivals, youth cycling tours and of course Ramsey Sprint(motorbikes along the promenade) during the TT Road Races. Of course you will also find this photographer up there. By the way this is the lake that I went for an unintentional swim in when my canoe capsized. It was so black I thought it was still a swamp. How I got back in the canoe fully clothed and sopping wet is still beyond me. Happy to report no sharks in the lake, but the financial sharks are lurking on dry land. If you read yesterdays post you will understand. Click Tony Soprano for the shark ref.

Guess what. Gary is doing his final cartoon for the(click) BBC, Barker Gallery tonight. Sad day. He also needs the laptop back soon, very soon.

To join us go to SKYWATCH.

The concept was DOT'S, the next host WIGGERS WORLD the guardians of skywatch are Klaus | Sandy | Ivar | Wren | Fishing Guy| Louise