MY WORLD - TAKE ME DOWN THE SULBY RIVER

My world is Ramsey, Isle Of Man

The Sulby River as I have mentioned before is one of those lovely Viking names they left their mark with on the island. I know this upsets a few Manxies (people born on the Isle Of Man) out there, but you know some you of you are viking stock you can't deny it. Anyway the Sulby. It's the largest river in the Isle Of Man. Starting at the hills of Tholt y will, through, Sulby Glen and Village, through deep and shallow, pooling into waterfalls, past Lezayre, Ramsey, into the harbour, and into the Irish sea. It's apparently good for salmon fishing when it's been as wet as this. Well yippe for those fisherman but bad news for me. My walkway down by the riverbanks is under water at the moment. The psot I stood on to take the image is usually not in danger of being swamped under water. Hopefully we can have a few dry days and the riverbanks won't be so swollen.


I mentioned Sulby was a place named by the Viking who firstly invaded, but secondly stayed and integrated. Here is the meaning of Sulby and a few other Isle Of Man Viking Place names.


Ramsey/Rhumsaa - as I have said before is wild garlic river
Laxey/Laxa - wild salmon river
Tynwald/Thingvollr - parliament field/assembly/ meeting place
Foxdale/Foss tal - waterfall glen
Cregneash/Krok-nes - crooked (coastline)
Sulby/Sula- by- farm by cleft fork in a river
Dalby/Dalr-by - dale town
Fleshwick - Flesjar -vik - green grassy, spot creek


Do you recognise any of these place names or similar in your area. If so the Viking were there.


For more my entries click MY WORLD and thank the skywatch gang once again for another inspired idea.

SULBY RIVER, POYLL DOOEY, MONOCHORME ODDSHOTS

At a distance this image always looks like like a shipwreck at low tide, along Sulby River. This image had been under water for a month or two now due to the heavy rainfall, but when the riverbanks relented, the rain ceased, this strange scene was still there. This is as close as I can physically get to it without actually going down onto the river bed, which you shouldn't do anyway. There is a path along the river for a reason. To walk on! The river is to look at.

A far as I can tell it's actually tree branches embedded into the riverbed with what appears to be seaweed of some kind draped across it. When it's icy this area always takes on an otherworldly charm, like Narnia. It's not icy just yet so I went for a mono shot( just a straightforward desaturate colour) to see if it would appear ethereal and for me it has in a odd eerie way. Something ghostly about the whole innocuous scene. It could be perhaps those Manx fairies have draped there shimmering attire over the deadwood. Who knows? They are a little cheeky.

Blogger was off for sometime today, so was my server too hence little activity this end. Gary has just built his new website, my turn next. Why is it when you plan to undertake certain work on your laptop it all goes awry. Naughty Manx fairies again possibly? Perhaps they don't want me to show you the fairy magic they weave throughout the island or is Manannan out with his cloaking devise( Star Trek baddies merely borrow it) to thwart prying eyes.

Want to join the weird world of Odd Shots Monday? Then see KATNEY

Want to join the beautiful and creative world of Mononchorome Monday? Then see Aileni at LOOSE ENDS

SULBY RIVER

One more of Sulby River, and a bit of a curio. Do photographers ever take bad photos.? Yes. Do they make mistakes? Yes. Do they take an image with the wrong setting on. Yes Yes most definitely Yes!

Obviously the river is not this green. It has had a green tinge lately, due to the water being so high, and with what the tide has dragged in with it, but this is ridiculous. The grass is certainly not shocking lime with a hint of yellow either. So what happened?

Simple. Wrong setting! I had been taking images towards the sun and at speed. I just started snapping here as it was nicely framed and the football in the water, really popped out. When I spied them in the view finder I realised my mistake. After uploading this one struck me as being
usable for the purpose of demonstrating what the wrong setting can do. Interestingly though it's turned out quite well. Photographers favourite friend serendipity again. It looks wholly unnatural, because it is, but a it's popular because it's pretty. Who am I to argue with the buying public. Not this know it all photographer that's for sure. You'd all have litter and sofas in the nature reserve if I had my way.

Gary and I are having a skive today. No bloody work! I know it's Saturday, but sometimes that's a busy day. It might be the pub watching the football, it might be the wildlife park. It might be doing sod all and being an utter couch potato. Who knows, but we aren't lifting a working finger in the direction of a paintbrush or a camera.

What are you doing today?

RAMSEY, MOODY BLUES SKYWATCH

MOODY BLUES
BABOOSHKA
copyrighted

September already! What happened to the British summer wet, wet,wet. Blue sky days have been few. I could fill a skywatch year of Fridays full of clouded skies or arty shots to cover up for the fact we have had hardly any sunshine or blue sky days. Today though was the put his hat on and game out to play. For a little while anyway.

This image was taken today along Sulby River, Ramsey. Due the rain it's still quite high, but with little breeze the water was fairly still. Again it's a manual shot. Remember if you do try a manual shot you will need to change both your camera body and your lens setting. The more you practise focusing with a manual the better you will get. Time for the wide angled lens again. No alterations. The image as taken. The more you compose your image first and learn how to use your camera setting, the better your image will be, and you can ditch(almost) the photoshop.

I don't like posting shots I'm not happy with, but next week I might post a manual and an auto shot of the same subject so you can see the difference. It might be easier that way for you to see why I say manual beats digital software. What do think?

Just wanted to show a very straightforward image tonight, busy on other projects.

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The concept was Dot's, the next host WIGGERS WORLD the guardians of skywatch now are Tom, Imac and Sandy

RAMSEY ,ON REFLECTION, SKYWATCH

RAMSEY ON REFECTION
BY BABOOSHKA

I was at a loss this week what image to post. Let me explain. I've had a run of creative skywatch images and tried to explain to those that ask how I take the images. By this I mean, the camera setting, the lighting conditions time of day, low high shot, what lens, focal point etc. I was basically trying to convey how to get the best out of often not picturesque surrounding under some very poor conditions and limited subject matter. I did this in response to the emails I received and thought it would be easier to back up the written explanation with an image as an example. Mostly the feedback was positive, but strangely some wrongly assumed I was just being a smartypants(not quite the words used) and just showing off.

That was never the intention. I was simply responding to questions asked and trying to convey how to get the best out of your camera whether that be a point and shoot, no frills or your top of the range all singing all dancing camera.

So this week I have simply shot a straightforward reflection shot. Again for those that like to know this stuff it was a manual setting, 2pm, good light. F4, ISO 200. No tripod used. Practise just gently coaxing the button to shoot rather than push down. This stops the jerking motion that often makes the image tip to one side rather than get the straight line you originally shoot. No alterations, just resized from a large 4MB file to a manageable 75kb for the blog.

A couple of other things. I'm considering putting a live feed on the blog, not to spy on people, so please don't feel obliged to comment if you drop by. It's strickly business stats. Would everyone be ok with this? The other is if anyone at all, has a problem with me can they email me. Please do not leave inappropriate comments on other peoples blogs. It's very rude and personally offensive. I never leave any negative feedback it's not my style, so please be courteous and contact me if you have anything to say. It's very cowardly to do it on other peoples blogs and yes they always alert me to it.

I know I have a weird sense of humour and I engage in some healthy joshing with some like minded bloggers out there. I don't have a poker face and my moods do dictate what and how I write, the good the bad, the ugly and the plain old funny. Now let's get on with the job in hand.
Skywatch. It's only a photograph afterall.

To join skywatch go to SKYWATCH
The concept was Dot's, the next host WIGGERS WORLD the guardians of skywatch now are Tom, Imac and Sandy

SULBY RIVER, RAMSEY, ISLE OF MAN

The image today is strictly for me. Purely selfish I know, but Ramsey has been under torrential rainfall for over a week now. Just wanted to remind myself what a blue sky day looked like. Ooh look it looks like that (insert your own adjective) image above. I know it could have a contender, you know a waterfront image for skywatch, but well my needs to see a touristy image today are greater.

The Sulby River as we have mentioned before is one of those lovely viking names they left their mark with on the island. I know this upsets a few Manxies out there, but you know some you of you are viking stock you can't deny it. Anyway the Sulby. It's the largest river in the Isle Of Man. Starting at the hills of Tholt y will, through, Sulby Glen and Village, through deep and shallow, pooling into waterfalls, past Lezayre, Ramsey, into the harbour, and into the Irish sea.
It's apparently good for salmon fishing when it's been as wet as this. Well yippe for those fisherman but bad news for me. My walkway down by the riverbanks is under water at the moment.

Teckie bit.

Manual,
Wide angled lens, zoom full
ISO 200
Sunny
F4

Ah wasn't that nice! So for posting such a pretty, yummy shot of Ramsey with sensible(almost) writing you do know I will have to post an ugly Ramsey pic soon. All in the name of balance of course.

ABC WEDNESDAY - W IS FOR WORDS OF VIKING ORIGIN IN THE ISLE OF MAN

How to combine ABC "W" with the vikings theme? Had to be words that have been assimilated into the Manx language, place names and surnames. It appears the one thing that that the vikings didn't vanquish was the Manx language, but there are a few examples. Norse words seem to be a very murky area to research. So much contradiction of what is a pure Manx/ Celtic/ Norse word or phrase. I have however found more than I was lead to believe exsited in present day form, so here they are.

A SELECTION OF PLACE NAMES

Ramsey/Rhumsaa - as I have said before is wild garlic river
Laxey/Laxa - wild salmon river
Tynwald/Thingvollr - parliament field/assembly/ meeting place
Foxdale/Foss tal - waterfall glen
Cregneash/Krok-nes - crooked (coastline)
Sulby/Sula- by- farm by cleft fork in a river
Dalby/Dalr-by - dale town
Fleshwick - Flesjar -vik - green grassy, spot creek

A SELECTION OF NORSE MANX SURNAMES

Current Name	Mac + Old Norse Name
Carroon	Mac Thorfinn
Casement	Mac Asmundr
Christian	Mac Kristinn
Corkill	Mac Thorkill/Thorketill
Corlett	Mac Thorliotr
Cormode	Mac Thormódr
Cottier	Mac Ottarr
Cowley	Mac Olafr (Gaelic: Mac Amblaibh)
Crennell	Mac Raghnall
Kewley	Mac Joleifr (Gaelic: Eoile)

Only a handful of words as such are now incorporated into conversational Manx.

Manx language, viz, cleg, from kleggi; a horse-fly; blaber, from blaber, a bilberry; ling, from lyng, "heather;" gil, from gil, "a deep narrow glen;" ghaw, from gja, "a chasm," rift, and kirk, from kirk-ja (this being derived from Greek, kupixkos, "belonging to the Lord") a church.

I hope at some stage to delve deeper with the Norse side of the language and see what else can uncover. It is again very subjective as the Manx language is in the main of Irish/Celtic origin.

The photo is Sulby River which runs into the Harbour and along the nature reserve. Just to be confusing the river is Norse, the reserve name isn't!

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