Big Fish... Blue Fish...

13 January 2011

This wonderful sculpture is called Big Fish but I always think of it as Blue Fish... I think my nickname suits it better... I really love this sculpture...

It is beside the River Lagan...

Its beautiful ceramic scales are covered with old images relating to Belfast's history...

The ship yard...

The River Lagan... with my beloved Cavehill in the background...

The Albert Clock is in the background of this photo... 

His eye is really amazing and very realistic... a thick domed piece of glass...

Neil (who is just under 6') is standing just on the other side of Big Fish... It is a very large sculpture...

So cool...  So blue...

In the background is Custom House...

Watery Wednesday... Reflections...

12 January 2011

I have found a new meme for mid-week which seems ideally suited to the type of scenes that I love to photograph.  This one is called Watery Wednesday and I came across it when I was reading Jan's blog and it really appealed to me.

Early on Sunday morning we went for a walk along the River Lagan past the Waterfront Hall...

The sun had just risen and the reflections of the apartment block on the water's surface really caught my eye.

I loved the elegance of this particular Belfast cityscape... the reflection of the new tall building is beautiful...

I loved how the building looked silver reflected on the water...

The reflections on the river Lagan make the river seem alive...

I have always loved reflections...

A strange image this one... I love the reflections but it is a busy picture... the Harland and Wolff gantry in the background used for building the Titanic... the M3 blue direction signs... the train crossing on its own bridge...  a working barge in the foreground... so many methods of transport in one photograph...

The sun is higher in the sky and the odd person is out and about now...

I liked the strong contrasts in this photograph...

the Belfast skyline and the sun reflected in the dark Lagan water...

Macro Monday... Sea shell

10 January 2011

Macro Monday at Lisa's Chaos... I have chosen photographs that I took last week while walking on the beach at Crawfordsburn...  The sea was starting to turn and the sea shell was still wet...

I am not sure what type of shell this is, it was quite large...

I was drawn to the beautiful colours... they reminded me of sea, sand and surf...

Like water against weathered rock...

The texture of the shell was gorgeous showing all the growth lines...

Beautiful subtle colour and texture...

Eeeeeeek...

9 January 2011

SOOC Sunday... didn't happen for me this week...

I turned on my laptop and plugged in the external hard drive and ...

nothing... it wouldn't work...

sad slow chugging sounds...

Goodness, Panic ensued...

What was wrong...

I tapped keys...

I called Neil...

I looked at the control panel...

Then Neil said... "how large is the HDD memory on your laptop?"

Umm... says 160GB on the label... yep...

"but that doesn't mean it actually has 160GB to use"...

oh... I mutter... with a strangled voice...

at which point we check the laptop... only 1.2GB left...

I am shocked...

but... I moved loads of photos onto the external hard drive only last week...

now we are talking about an addictive snapper here.

everywhere I go... 100 photos...

on a special photo outing... er... walk... easily 600+ photos can be taken...

I check the pictures section... only 30GB of photos...

but I reason... where is the rest of the memory???

"when did you last do cleanup?" Neil asks...

ummm...

laptop won't even allow me to use my plug in mouse...

fret... fret...

leave for head ache tablet... and cream cracker...

look at the program files... maybe I can delete something... but they are all so small...

only megabites... not even a kilobyte...

mmmm...

mind is churning...

then I look at the folders on the computer C drive...

we have everything listed now to show details...

I spot a little folder called N360 back up...

hover the pointer over it...

52GB... what... size... 52GB...

I don't have N360... I now have Norton 2011 Security...

N360 has been doing over active amounts of backing up... to the tune of 52GB in one year?

Neil looks at me... "did you set it to do back ups?"...

hmmmmm...

I delete the whole file... impolite word muttered at this point...

sigh of relief... I now have 53GB of free hard drive...

it is now after midnight...

go downstairs to watch the new episode of CSI NY and de-stress... with a mug of camomile tea...

Macro Monday - Beautiful Dying Grass...

3 January 2010

Macro Monday has arrived at Lisa's Chaos...

and my sister teased me over Christmas that I had allowed my blog to lapse...

for well over a week... 

This series of close up photographs were taken on New Years Day just after sun rise when the sun was still low in the sky.  I used my Nikon D3000 and the kit lens 18-55mm VR as I wanted to take landscape photographs and the 18mm end of this lens is the closest to a wide angle lens that I have...

The way in which the sunlight was lighting up the grass was truly beautiful...

I adored the richness of the colours which reminded me of some of the colour combinations I have seen in hand dyed sock wool...

Of course, Neil pretty much disowned me as I lay down in the damp grass and heather to take the photographs...

Often when I am walking on Cavehill I will see something that just catches my eye...

and I cannot resist taking a series of photographs to study it in as much depth as I can at the time...

I did wish that I had packed one of my extension tubes in my camera bag... 

SOOC Sunday - A Wonderful New Year...

2 January 2011

There is always something so hopeful about starting a New Year... All the difficulties of the previous year are left behind and I have the opportunity to start a fresh New Year...

These images like yesterdays are Straight out of the Camera and have been only resized in most cases although a couple were cropped...  My posting for SOOC Sunday at Murieta365.

These photographs were taken yesterday when Neil and I walked up to Napoleon's Nose and the top of the Cavehill to watch the sun rise.  These were taken once the sun was in the sky and the landscape lost its grey and mauve tinges and became warm and golden in the sunlight... 

I thought they were nicest separated into two posts...

The dead grass and the dull mauve of the heather looked beautiful in the sunlight...

I loved the line of the fence cutting through the landscape...

Napoleons Nose with Belfast Lough in the background...

The Cairn on the top of the Cavehill... Once many years ago, I was sad to be sitting in work typing while my mum and sister took a walk to this ancient spot and lay on the grass and watched the eclipse of the sun... I would have loved to have experienced that...

The cairn has fallen in a very long time ago but marks the highest point on the Cavehill...

A wonderfully serene landscape on a day like this...  Although the weather can change quickly and dramatically in a very short amount of time...

The cliffs on Cavehill lit up by the sunlight...

Hawthorn shrub at the start of the narrow path leading down along the base of the cliffs...

Old Boundary marker...

Beautiful heathland...

Old stile...

Wonderful rich colours of the landscape...

Neil waiting for me at the top of the hill beside the Cairn... I of course am lagging behind as usual as I stop to take the umpteenth photograph...  (Embarrassed to admit that I took 600 on this walk)...

First of the Month...

1 - 1 - 11

Sunrise over Belfast on New Year's Day

What a wonderfully special date... Like my mum I really love special dates...  My birthday last year fell on one of these wonderful consecutive numbered dates...

This series of SOOC photographs were divided into the pre dawn and sunrise photos shown here and the warmer photographs in the post tomorrow which show the warm colours of the landscape after the sun was in the sky...

At the turn of the millennium 10 years ago, we walked up to the top of Napoleons Nose and sat on cushions, sipping champagne and watched the fireworks going off all over the city... there were a few others watching the view and we shared our bottle with them as well...  The next morning we walked up to the top to watch the sun rise over Belfast for the start of the new millennium...

A decade on, Neil and I decided we would like to get up early and walk to the top of the Cavehill and watch the sunrise over Belfast...  It was a cold day but not bitterly cold...

The sky was grey as the the sun coloured the sky on the horizon...

The colours were beautiful... soft greys and mauves contrasting with the warm colours of the sunrise...

I love the textures and brown tones of the grass and heathers on the top of the hill... in the distance the cloud is partially obscuring Black Mountain and Divis Mountain...

Strangford Lough can be seen on the horizon with the sunrise reflected on the surface of the water...  in the middle ground is Belfast harbour... part of the city and in the foreground the slope of the cavehill...

Looking down the path that we have been walking along...

I loved the sky reflected in the still mountain pool...

The sky was stunning...

I loved the coloured sky above Belfast with the colour reflected in the harbour and Belfast Lough...

Suddenly the sun was up and the soft grey tones started to warm...

The steps curving around the edge of Napoleon's nose... a sheer drop below... an old boundary marker.

A jogger arrived on top of Napoleon's Nose in time to watch the sunrise...

The cliffs have a sheer drop and a pair of ravens nesting... this is the same sort of drop below us from the Napoleon's Nose where we are standing... 

Net work of paths below the caves... When I watched the movie the City of Ember... I loved when they eventually reached the surface from the city and sun rose on an "Eden" which is in fact our beautiful Cavehill... with Napoleon's Nose in the back ground...

The sun is fully up...

The sky is losing its pre dawn grey tones and the blue is showing through...

Napoleon's nose viewed from the Cairn which is at the highest point on Cavehill and from which several of the counties of Ulster can be seen (Antrim, Armagh, Down and a little of Tyrone beyond Lough Neagh on a very clear day)...