Point of Ayre

Busy day today. Busy evening ahead too, with LCHF being thrown to the wind as I head out with the boys for beer, banter, burgers and alliteration.

So just time for a quick QP. This one is another gem from Peter Killey of Manxscenes.com:

Point-of-Ayre
It’s the red and white lighthouse at the Point of Ayre in the Isle of Man – the most northerly point on the island. Red and white because there’s nothing directly behind it, so the contrasting colours make is more visible during the day, much like the Cape Agulhas lighthouse, which also has very little directly behind it.

Do we still need lighthouses? Well, the people who look after our lighthouses think so, otherwise there would be no value in spending a lot of money refurbishing them. The (probably not ever so impartial) Lighthouse-News.com warns that an over-reliance on electronic aids and a poor visual lookout can still result in disaster – even in the 21st Century, although the line:

Actually, the presence or absence of the lighthouse made no difference in this case.

probably detracts from his case somewhat.

Harbour View

It’s almost starting to become a tradition that I drop in a quota photo on a Sunday evening. And today in no exception. Propped up with coffee after three too many Milk Stouts last night, we headed out to Bugs Family Playpark in Joostenbergvlakte. A great time was had by all and photos from that will follow soon, but in the meantime, have this:

image

That’s Castletown harbour, a seem by Manxscenes’ Peter Killey. A slightly different view to the one I got from actually within the harbour earlier this year at the Tin Bath. The sky also appears to be a different colour.

Picture admin

Right, first up, this amazing photo from flickr user assassin00708. I have no idea whether he is actually an assassin, but I did spot this on his photostream and thought it deserved sharing.

Which he describes thus:

Photograph taken on Signal Hill looking over the CBD. Sun setting behind Lions head and signal hill with the fog rolling in from the East. Taken 30mins before sun dissappeared. My first real attempt at HDR.
3 Exposure, Tonemapped.

Thanks to man himself for granting permission to use it.
Check out his other work here.

Secondly,  while we are on a photographic theme, manxscenes.com blog is back and is destined for the blogroll – it may already be there by the time you read this. Go check.
I have long been a fan of Peter Killey’s work. Nothing pretentious, nothing overly complicated, just well composed, good quality images of my “other” homeland.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of the same on his happily resurrected blog.