MONOCHROME ODDSHOTS - SHOULD THIS BE A BLACK AND WHITE IMAGE?

If you were here for critters yesterday you will have seen the colour version of this shot. Normally any one of the three above, bee, butterfly or plant you would see in glorious colour. When all three appear in one shot( serendipity again, the photographer's best friend) it would seem foolish not to take advantage and produce the natural colour shot. Note I said natural colour, not manipulated colour. Nature shots, should not have tweaked colour, otherwise they they become unatural images. Anyway back to the point.


It's monochrome yes, but is it odd. For the reasons above it is odd to see an image like this in greyscale. The mind's eye immeadiately would have you snap this image in colour. Some of you will be mentally adding the tones and hues as you view and will prefer the colourful one below this post. For those who are more interested in other aspects of photography you will not be veiwing the subjects as nature, but as shapes, tones, light and contrast. Is the composition of the subject more noticeable in colour or monochrome for instance? Do you see more for the lack of colour or does this image confuse you and you need the colour in the right places to view the image?

There is no right or wrong answer. Some of us prefer colour some of us prefer none. There are myths that an image shot in black and white is an instant classic, timeless professional shot. Not so. A bad shot is a bad shot, whatever format it is shot in. This image was composed and shot in colour and black and white for two very different projects I'm working on. I know which one I prefer, and I know why. That though is my personal opinion, and professional opinion. My veiws I will keep to myself.

The daily photo project and the nemes are fun blogs and posts that just show a snapshot of our lives/ towns/ work/ family/ etc. I will say this again, but please remember not everyone out there is professional, has the right equipment or is even remotely interested in a discussion on photography. I posted this image today as a request from someone who follows the blog staunchly and has had a few problems with the black and white versus colour issue. I may be a photographer, but essentially this is a daily blog so this Brad this is for you. Now let's get back to snapshots and quirkiness of Ramsey.

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MONOCHROME ODDSHOTS - " I WAS HERE"

A couple of weeks ago my monochrome oddshot was of this housing Estate being demolished and how a once familiar site not being there the next day to me was odd. This was the last house to be demolished. I shot it through the metal fence, which is the dark blurred lines you see. As it's a real shot, not tampered with, no need to clone or remove the lines. What you see is what you get. If you enlarge the photo you will see a very poignant message on what would have been a bedroom wall," I WAS HERE."

The Pondi contained an Estate of houses known as "Commissioners houses. "To UK readers you may be more familiar with the term "Council Houses." I am not sure what the equivalent would be in other parts of the world, or even if this type of housing exists in this form elsewhere. Council Housing is a form of accommodation that is owned by the local Council authority and rented out to tenants on long term lets(lifetime in some people's cases) at a low rental. They are not Private sector rentals. The idea was to abolish the slum landlords and overcrowding and provide the working class or lower income families with affordable habitable accommodation. This enabled people to pay a lower rent with a view to purchasing their own home in subsequent years, then relinquishing the property to new tenants and continuing the cycle to provide a step on the mortgage ladder for all. With the boom and bust nature of the world at the moment, we need more of these, yet none are being built. All I will say before I go into a rant.

I have now discovered a change to the above paragraph. Council housing is now referred to as Social Housing. Thanks to Gerald, HYDE, DP for enlightening me on this fact. Since moving from the UK to the Isle of Man several changes have taken place, like this renaming.

So, who was here then? I wonder just who it was who wrote the very poignant message. Whoever you are, thank you for creating another oddhsot opportunity. I wonder if you captured the image for yourself?

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HALF LIFE - MONOCHROME ODDSHOTS

Half life
Babooshka

I think this will be my most divisive image to date. You will either love this or hate it. Unlike the flower, there are no half measures. Make of it what you will, but this to me is a pure monochrome, a study in light, shade, contrast and textures and equally an odd shot the half blown away flower not being the usual subject for a portrait.

The image was taken the day I took last Wednesday's railing and lake shot, over at Mooragh Park. It was one of those down on the ground shots I like. When I am not going for an unscheduled swim in the lake,( falling out of a canoe for those who didn't know) you will find me mooching about looking for an interesting shot. Actually you will often find me after the plain old very mundane stock photography shot too.

I was asked last week if Mooragh was Welsh. I can see why the question was asked as in the girl's name "Morag," but no. It's not a viking word either. It's Gaelic and it means" wasteland by the sea." Mooragh Park remember was swamp land before it was transformed, hence the name. Another interesting fact for you going off at a complete tangent, there are 95 men to every one woman on the Isle Of Man, according to the The CIA World Factbook . Now I'm not arguing with the CIA. Not even I'm that mad. I would like to ask them however how they worked this out though. I mean, did they ask for my input, no?

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ODD SHOTS MONDAY - MARTIAN FOOTPRINT?

Ok, you got me. It's not to my knowledge a Martian, or any other kind of visiting alien footprint, but is a little bit of an X File. I noticed these footprints when we first came to Ramsey. Wherever you wander around the central town streets you come across these strange painted footprints with the little Chad type figure on. They only go in one direction though, which is odd in itself. A bit like Ikea when you get shunted in one direction from start to finish, and can't deviate. If you follow them you will actually do a circuit of the town. Useful then perhaps if you're a visitor. Tried to find out how old they are, but most people don't notice them anymore or think I'm weird for asking. Imagine the looks I got taking this! I hope you like the chewing gum decoration, not me, but probably the litterbug who I berated on my blog before.

Does anyone else have anything like these cute footprints in their part of the world?

The next bridge shot in the IOO shots series is tomorrow. By the way the footprint, Saturday's bridge shot, and Fridays metal theme/skywatch shot were taken with my handheld tiny Olympus. No fancy lenses, no zoom, no filters, on a sun setting. I do take most of photos on my Nikon D50(and even I want a better camera now) with a number of lenses, but I just wanted to encourage all those that only have a small point and shoot, great shots can still be taken. After all it's you that composes and times the shot, not the camera.

No footprints or aliens were hurt in the making of this post.

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ODD SHOTS MONDAY - FREE BIKER BIBLE ANYONE?

Whenever there are fetes or outdoor events of any kind on the island you will usually find something a little different. So nestled amongst the face painters, the temporary tattoos, and the burger vans I found this wonderful bike. On closer inspection I actually noticed what this stall, if you can refer to it as such, was well selling.

The Christian Motorcyclist Association UK were as it turned out, not selling but giving away books. Well just one book, the Biker Bible. Now I won't go into details, as it's not my thing, but here's the wiki link if you want to know more about the very friendly bunch of bikers for yourselves. One thing it does prove though, people are like books and you really shouldn't judge either by their cover.

As for the photo it's done exactly the same as the Tynwald shot. Desaturate almost all the colours apart from the blue, then pump up the saturate on the blue hues left in the pic.

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ODD SHOTS MONDAY- BABOOSHKA AND THE SISKIN

Back to the birds. No Vikings or historical snippets about the island and it's inhabitants today I'm sorry to say. Most important thing was to rescue my photos from my laptop. If in doubt about what shot to use I can always rely on my trusty bird shots, especially for odd shots!

For the eagle- eyed( no pun intended) you can see my odd shot today is one of the mad male siskins that have a habit of flying into the patio windows. You all know the story by now, but for nubies this one was in a bad way, hopped onto my hand a stayed long enough for me to grab my camera and try out my new macro lens one handed. Eventually of course he took flight as they always do. By the way, this isn't the same as the other two siskin in the hand shots( go back and check the post) but one of about 20 I took that day for times when I need a back up shot, er like today for instance. A bird in the hand is worth more than one in the bush for me!

Can I please point out that I am not a Manx witch or fairy and I have no idea why birds do this to me as I have cast no magic spell upon the island's critters. Well actually I have but don't tell them or they will throw me off the island for not having a work permit to be a Manx witch, when there are plenty of locals who could do the job, but just to lazy to turn up for work, or qualified, but who cares they're Manx. Meooow! Fetch me a saucer of milk.

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ODD SHOTS MONDAY- BATTLE OF SKYHILL

Viking Week, the mini series!

This is skyhill. Nothing particualry odd about the shot except perhaps it could have been a skywatch shot. What's odd to me is, that people here seem to confuse the mountain and hill names and hardly anyone can name this particular place correctly. Why so important? It's the site of the most important battle in the history of the Isle of Man, and yes those Vikings are involved again.

The Battle of Scacafell or Skyhill took place in Ramsey, Isle of Man in 1079. It was the third and final time that the Norse-Gael warrior Godred Crovan invaded the island, taking it from Dublin and Orkney. His victory over the Manx brought together the Isle of Man with the Hebrides, establishing the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles.

At the time of the battle, the Isle of Man was part of a larger political entity called the Kingdom of the Sudreys, which consisted of Man and the Hebrides. Godreds father, Harald the Black was king from c. 1035-1040, but on his death the kingdom appeared to come under the control of the Earls of Orkney. When their control over the islands lapsed around 1049, the throne passed to a distant relation of Harald the Black, Sigtrygg, whose brother was King of Dublin. His son, Godred II, who reigned until 1075, succeeded Sigtrygg.

In 1075 Godred II died and the throne was passed to Fingall, but he does not seem to have remained there long. In 1075, Godred Crovan assembled a fleet and an army, probably of Norse from the Hebrides, and attacked the island. He was repulsed, but was soon back for a second attempt. Again he was repulsed, but is during this period that Fingall disappears from the record, and it is probable he was killed during one of the invasion attempts. In 1079, Godred Crovan came back, and the chronicles are reasonably clear as to what happened next:

Scacafell

A third time he gathered a massive force and came by night to the harbour which is called Ramsey, and three hundred men he hid in a wood which was on the sloping brow of the mountain called Sky Hill. At dawn the Manxmen formed up in battle order and after a massive charge joined battle with Godred. When the battle was raging vehemently, the three hundred rose from their place of hiding at their rear and began to weaken the resistance of the Manxmen and compelled them to flee. Now when they saw themselves defeated without any place for them to escape to, for the tide had filled the riverbed at Ramsey and the enemy were pressing constantly from the other side, those that were left begged Godred with pitiful cries to spare them their lives. Moved with compassion and taking pity on their plight, since he had been reared among them for some time, he called off his army and forbade them to pursue them further.

Godred Crovan (Old Irish: Gofraid mac meic Arailt, Gofraid Méranech; Guðrøðr^[1]) (died 1095) was a Norse-Gael ruler of Dublin, and King of Mann and the Isles in the second half of the 11th century. Godred's epithet Crovan may mean "white hand" (Middle Irish: crobh bhan).^[2] In Manx folklore he is known as King Orry.

The photo was once again taken from the nature reserve looking onto the mountains and hills, apparently under the watchful eye of King Orry's Vikings. It seems the Norse people and the relationship with the island is ever present.

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