jazzibee

Big Rock

It may not be the biggest rock in the world but it’s the only volcanic island you pass on the sea voyage from Belfast to Glasgow. When all those Irish immigrants came to Scotland before, during and after the Great Famine, Ailsa Craig was always the marker of the halfway point.

Whenever we had a family day-out at the coast, we came over the hill beyond Maybole village and our young eyes were awed by the sight. “Look! there’s Ailsa Craig!” was the cry, but my Dad said “It’s ‘Paddy’s Milestone’ – the nickname for the rock dating back to the times of those early Irish travellers.

The Lonely Sea and the Sky

When I need space, there’s nowhere better than the sea shore. Especially in the evening, the beaches, almost empty at that time, provide a solitude; an empty space to abandon your thoughts and simply absorb the vastness of our surroundings.

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Looking Up, Looking Down

The world looks a bit different depending on your viewpoint. In taking photographs I’ve always been encouraged to shoot from various angles as a slight change can substantially alter and perhaps improve the resulting photograph…. especially true when using a wide angle lens. And we know sometimes we should get down on our knees to take a photo, but then, for me, it seems to be getting harder to get back up again.

So for this challenge, I want to go for the extremes of Looking Up, and Looking Down, to show the effects of what you can capture at these angles and get a different perspective on our view of the world.

Asymmetrical

Lens-Artist Challenge #274

Last week, I tried to cover symmetry and show some images that showed this reflection about an axis. Now I’ve been prompted By Donna at Wind Kisses blog to consider Asymmetry. Well, I know one thing is that such images shouldn’t be symmetrical but should despite that show some balance.

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Symmetry

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #273

Symmetry – the quality of being made up of exactly similar parts facing each other across a line, a plane or around an axis.

Sofia of photographias blog challenges us to show images that illustrate symmetry …..and more than that those images which show how symmetry is “an important tool to compose strong and appealing photos”.

Wheels on Display

Classic Car shows are not something I regularly attend but every now and then a visit certainly brings back memories and feelings of nostalgia. The Ayrshire Classic Car Club displays cars many times each year at different venues but this one was so close to home I had to go along.

Moon Watch

Over recent years, I’ve made several attempts to photograph the moon and it’s been an interesting exercise.

Living on the Edge

(from Oct 2016)
Down on the rocks near Troon harbour, I looked for seabirds – anything at all. I could see eider ducks, oystercatchers, cormorants and gulls – plenty. Then looking back into the sunlight, I just spotted a little movement on the flat rocks. A family of four little Ringed Plovers were ‘coorying doon’ out of the wind behind a wee ridge. The strong sun behind them wasn’t going to give me a good shot, so I moved in a great half circle round to get the light directly on to them.

Just a Game?

Currently, the 2023 Rugby World Cup is underway in France. The Scotland rugby team unfortunately came up against the impressive South Africa team in their first match and lost out despite playing really well. They’ll get a couple of wins in their section but will need to beat Ireland on the 7th October to progress to the quarterfinals.

So, I thought this was a time to post a few rugby images, of which I now have many.

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Always Favourites

Lens-Artists Challenge #268 – Tell Me Why

This week I’m trying to pick out some of my all-time favourites in response to Tina’s Lens-Artists Challenge. And I should tell you why the are favourites.

I think in all of them I’ve felt I’ve managed to create something I was really pleased with. A number of them were surprises where a little drop of magic seemed to be caught. Like the bee on the globe flowers above, which I’d taken in quite low light and didn’t expect to draw anything out of the setting. And now it’s even the source material for the jazziBee logo.

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