Feathered Friends

 

Here are three different birds, the first is a Western Jackdaw, the second is a duckling (possibly mallard or possibly Rouen Duck) and the third is a Scania Goose.

All three were photographed in Gothenburg in the summer of 2018, more precisely in the Slottskogen which is a public park opened in 1874 with a free zoo. It is a really extensive park with so much to see and do (frisbee golf, beach volleyball, the zoo, a theatre and lots of walks) in the heart if the city.

I think the Jackdaw is quite a handsome specimen while the duckling is very very cute. The goose is a rare domestic breed native to southern Sweden apparently in 2011 there were only 172 registered birds of this variety so that does make them quite a rarity. 

It Won't be Long

 I have spent most of this morning looking through old folders for pictures to edit and I have generated a lot of work for myself so there is no chance i will be getting bored while the weather is rubbish and I don't have chance to get out with my camera. It is nice looking back at the older pictures as they bring back lots of memories, and after all that is why we take a lot of the pictures we do, to capture a moment and aid memory after time has passed.

I have shared a few brightly coloured floral pictures for today, these were taken in May at Erddig in North Wales and I thought that now the excitement of Christmas is passed and while it is cold and grey outside a little colour with the promise of things to come might be a lift that some people need. It won't be long until our gardens, parks and woodlands start to bring forth colour; snowdrops, crocus, cyclamen, daffodils and tulips. I look forward to getting outdoors much more to enjoy everything nature has to offer and the benefits that will bring.

On The Ropes

 One thing I always enjoyed when I was growing up was reading tales of the sea; shipwrecks, desert islands, explorers and such. I grew up near Portsmouth and the maritime history of that area featured in my early education; Admiral Nelson, HMS Victory, and the Mary Rose. It is little wonder then that I feel drawn to the sea and I had dreams about going to sea. I never did fulfil that dream but that doesn't mean I have any regrets about it.

I love looking at boats and I think they often make for interesting subjects for photography, take these images for example of the masts and rigging set against the clear sky. 

Tasty Treats

 I found this retro snack van irresistible, the idea of hot drinks and fresh donuts on a cold day, yum yum. However, tempting as that might sound the stall holder probably wished that s/he'd stayed home as there were no takers, at least while I was around.

It really is a striking colour too, certainly impossible to miss. I also think the scene looks good in high contrast black and white with the lights spelling out the word Donuts actually standing out as lights rather than painted on blobs of colour as they appear (to me at least) in the colour picture.

Christmas at the Dock

 Here's hoping that everyone has had a good Christmas and is looking forward to a happy and successful 2023.

These shots are along the colonnades at Liverpool's Albert Dock (once home to Granada TV studio and the famous floating weather map). Tate Liverpool is also here now along with the Maritime Museum, shops, cafes and bars. Usually it is very busy along here but on a frozen morning, midweek in December there were few people around and it had quite a calm atmosphere.

Looking for something special

 I don't do a lot of street photography but it is something I intend to do more of and with today being Christmas Eve I thought it was appropriate to share these few images of people doing their last minute shopping, or window shopping perhaps.

The first image was shot from above and the subject was unaware that I was taking his picture but in the next one he was and in the third image also the guy looking at watches also knew I was taking the shot. It can be a little unnerving taking pictures of random people but fortunately on this occasion no one seemed to mind.

Kings Dock, Port of Liverpool

 There is a nice contrast in these images of the historic architecture of the Albert Dock Warehouses (now the Merseyside Maritime Museum) and the modern architecture of the newer developments on the Strand showing how investment in Liverpool over recent years has helped improve the city centre and make it an attractive place to live, work or visit.

Even on a cold day this is a popular place for families to visit and explore Liverpool's rich history, to reflect on the positives and negatives and also to enjoy the sights and sounds of the waterfront.

Cool Metallic Reflection

Firstly, I know I said in my last post that I would share some pictures from inside the Museum of Liverpool, specifically I was going to show some pictures of the cool curves of the spiral stairway, however when I looked at the images this morning I wasn't convinced I liked them enough to share so I have decided to go with something different.

The images above are almost identical except for the fact that one is in full colour and the other is monochrome. The exposure and contrast are slightly different in each image too.

The buildings in this image are along the Strand in Liverpool overlooking Kings Dock. There was a thin film of ice on the water which the bright sun had not managed to melt. The sun reflecting off the side of one of the buildings gives the water a metallic quality which I think is really nice.

I hadn't noticed at the time I took the pictures but the pillars supporting the building in the centre of the shot are much like the pillars which support power station cooling towers.

 

Museum

 

As promised in my previous post here are some shots of the exterior of the Museum of Liverpool which is situated on Liverpool's waterfront alongside the 3 Graces (Port of Liverpool Building, Cunard Building and Liver Building) near the Pier Head which as well as the terminal for the famous Mersey ferries is also a thriving cruise terminal.

I know that not everyone loves this style of architecture and it certainly is a stark contrast to the classical styles of the old waterfront icons. However it is in my opinion quite a stunning building and from every angle it provides some great views. 

I love the way the old Port of Liverpool Building is reflected in the windows in the first image which also shows some of the other fine modern architecture at Mann Island which houses the offices of RIBA and the Open Eye Gallery. I have cropped the final image to highlight the angles of the buildings to show the way they interact with each other, as you move around the building the angles and your line of sight changes so you are always presented with a dramatic view.

Although the exterior of the building is very angular, on the water side of the museum there is a gentle curve to the exterior wall and this is reflected to some extent on the interior where the central stairway is a beautiful spiral. (I will likely share some images of that in one of my next blogs).

Love Liverpool

 I have a little more time on my hands now and so there is a very good chance I will be getting out and about a lot more which can only be a good thing.

Earlier this week as the conditions were pretty good I decided to head into Liverpool for a couple of hours to see whether I could capture anything good. As you can see from the pictures above, the sky was crisp and clear, there was ice on the dock and a definite chill in the air (not quite the coldest day of the year but pretty close to it).

I firstly went down to the waterfront to photograph the architecture around the docks before heading back through town where I captured a few shots of people going about their business in the run up to Christmas, so I have a fair bit to work on and to share.

It is a while since I have been down to the waterfront and I had not realised how popular it has become for people to affix padlocks to the chain link fence around the docks. You can see from the above pictures that it has definitely become "a thing" here in Liverpool as it has in other cities all over. For the effect I think I like the locks in the third image as they go all along the riverside where I think the sheer volume of them has more impact. 

However, although there are currently fewer locks along the dockside fences they do create a fantastic frame for the buildings in the background. In these images the main building is the Museum of Liverpool which is itself a stunning building. I will be sharing some more shots of the museum in the coming days.

Dead Calm

 

                                                                                                                                                   

So yesterday I said I would be posting the last of my shots from my walk on the beach and that I would post multiple images, and that is what I have done...

I was a little surprised to see so many boats on the water at the marine lake because it was almost completely dead calm, with barely a breath of wind at all. Progress on the water was incredibly slow and by the time the first group of boats was coming back the crews were having to stand up in their boats and flap the sails back and forth in order to create enough momentum to get back to the jetty. I was really surprised then when a second group of boats went out as in the last image and they were standing up, flapping for all they were worth to get out onto the lake.

All the same I thought the colourful sails reflected in the still water of the lake made for some great images, I particularly like the first image with the three boats line astern with the sails tilted at different angles.

I really wanted to add a link to some music to go with todays post and I was trying to find something that fit with the sailing motif, however I didn't actually think what I observed and photographed could fairly be described as sailing (and I thought Sailing by Rod Stewart would be a bit cheesy) so I have gone a little outside the box on this one. The song is  "Nothing Is Easy" (click the link) by Jethro Tull, it is track 1 side 2 from the classic album Stand UP (1969). I think it is definitely worth a listen and I think both the album title and song title fit well with the images. Enjoy!

Gliding By

 Here is one more shot from my recent walk on the beach, this was actually from the path around the marine lake; I had been photographing some sailing boats when this young herring gull flew by.

I have adjusted the white balance slightly to give greater depth to the blue.

I love the glossy surface of the water and the shiny reflection of the gull. I am also really pleased with the detail which you can see if you view the image at 100% (you can see a little glint in the birds' eye and a flash of red on its' beak).

Tomorrow I will share the last selection from the day at the beach (probably several colourful shots) so look out for those.

Buoy on the Beach

 I know this is a pretty mundane object and most of the time I would just walk past without a second glance however on this particular day it caught my eye and I took a couple of experimental shots. 

I think the lighting and reflection combine to create an interesting image. The bold yellow against the layers of blue work really well together.

There's No One Home

 

A walk on the beach will invariably result in finding lots of seashells and along the shore between Hoylake and West Kirby there are millions upon millions of them. Each shell host to a creature (clam, mussel, oyster, cockle, whelk, razor clam etc) which in turn is a source of food for the many wading birds and gulls that can be found along the coastline here.

I thought this was quite a magnificent specimen, once home to a whelk (a type of sea snail) but now abandoned and exposed by the tide. I liked the way the light caught it and the reflection it cast in the shallow puddle in the sand.

Light The Way

 

In the first of today's images you can see the lighthouse which stands at the end of Stanley Road in Hoylake, it overlooks Liverpool Bay, the Dee Estuary and the Royal Liverpool Golf Course. It is not an active lighthouse but is a replica of one of the four lighthouses that were built along the Wirral coastline to guide shipping into Liverpool (two were in Hoylake and two in Leasowe) none of which are  now active.

There is a small slipway onto the beach near Red Rocks which on a summer day (or any day for that matter) is a nice spot for a walk or to relax and enjoy the scenery. It is also a good spot on a clear night to observe, or even photograph the night sky, looking west out into the Irish Sea or south along the Dee estuary (although that direction does suffer with light pollution from the towns along the river's edge) there are so many stars to be seen..

The second image shows Hilbre Island, there is a small,  functioning lighthouse on the island but it is a simple white tower with a red LED beacon that can be seen up to 5 miles away.

The island has an interesting history and as a nature reserve it is designated a  Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Cut off by the high tide it is possible to walk across to the island when the tide goes out, to explore rock pools, observe the flocks of wading birds and watch the grey seals that live on a nearby sand bank and swim around the island. 

The island has been occupied on and off since the stone age, it has been a site of pilgrimage with a monastic cell established there between 1080 and 1550. The monks were responsible for maintaining a beacon for shipping and on the island in the late 1600's rock salt was produced on the island.

The two images were taken on the same day. The shot of Hilbre island was taken first and then a short while later as the weather conditions improved the second shot of the lighthouse and the reflections on the beach things appear so much brighter because of the low winter sun.

Beach Life (Stranger on the Shore)

 I have a little more time on my hands right now and one of the things I aim to do is give a lot more attention to my photography and hopefully make this blog a more regular feature. When I started it, way back in September 2014 I intended to make it a daily thing and for some time I managed that. But then other things got in the way and to some extent the pressure of blogging every day, finding something to post actually became counter productive. I wasn't always happy with the pictures I shared and over time the gaps between posts got longer.

I want to post more regularly but I also want the images I share to be worth sharing and I want to see a progression in my photography and editing skills. So let's see how that goes... One of the things I also did in the early days of this blog was to post links to music that somehow connected to the images and I think I will revive that (although not every time I post something), it won't necessarily reflect my tastes in music but hopefully will have some relevance to the post.

A few weeks ago I went for a walk out to the waters edge on the beach at Hoylake and then I followed the beach around to West Kirby. I took lots of pictures of people and things, in all I walked about 8 miles. It was nice to watch other people out on the beach, dog walkers, couples out for a stroll and families having fun. 

The couple in the first image caught my eye, they were sat for ages just looking out across the beach from Red Rocks (this area is normally covered by the tide), towards Hilbre Island; I wondered what their story was, I walked closer to get the shot, but I did not intrude.  

As I was preparing this post I thought about the following tune that I remember as a child (it was released before I was born and was the biggest selling single in the UK in 1962 (how times have changed)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTl-iAF6KsE it is a very mellow tune that fits with the atmosphere of this first picture.

The second shot shows some of the people walking around the marine lake silhouetted against the "warm" winter sky. It is good to walk around the lake, and when the tide is in it is quite an experience to be surrounded on all sides by water.

I love living so close to the sea and having the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful coastline. 

Something Sticky

 

Earlier this year I had very few new pictures to share and that was really frustrating. I wasn't getting out nearly enough with one thing or another so I felt like things were drying up a little bit. More recently I have been out, photographing all manner of things; fast jets, sand yachts, landscapes, star trails, medieval architecture, woodlands and beaches and now I have so much stuff I don't know what to post, I have felt a little stuck.

So if you will pardon the pun, I thought I would share something sticky and what is more sticky than a stick? I can hear the groans now, sorry.

These shots were taken on a recent walk in a Welsh forest on a cold day early in November. The light was not the best but every  now and then as the winter sun managed to break through the clouds there were moments when the woodland colours shone through the grey.

The forest was mostly pine so there wasn't a lot of colour but I thought these pine cones, mosses and lichens made for interesting images which I hope you will enjoy. 

In A Spin

 This was a spectacular manoeuvre by the Red Arrows as the approached at speed with two jets flying a corkscrew around the five leading aircraft.

I am amazed by the precision and control at such high speeds that are required for this type of display, but of course this is also the culmination of hours upon hours of training and practice.