Multiples - Thematic Photography

One of the things I like about the weekly challenge set by Carmi is that it makes you look at your photos in a different way. This week it's "Multiples" and although I could take a shot of the multiple snowflakes falling as I write,  it's easier to raid my archives again.

Birds figure on Carmi's shot used as the prompt; I'm starting with birds as well.

Beechwood Rookery - 2011

The rooks were making quite a din when I walked by earlier today when there was many more birds to see and hear. Not as many though as in my next shots taken on the Isles of Scilly.

Gulls on Tresco - August 2008

If ten is not enough, look what happened when I move to a different vantage point.

Tresco Gulls (and multiple cattle too)

Back in Bristol you might need to take this shot with a pinch of salt.

Barrel Store on Quayside for SS Great Britain

Meanwhile in my local town you can find multiple arches in a half-mile stretch, far more than in this photo.

Yarm - Railway Viaduct

That completes my repertoire for this week. For multiple more multiples check out Thematic-photographic-230.

In the Beginning - Sunday Stamps

There are lots of inventions that we take for granted which would not exist without the men who were in it at the "Beginning." With so many to chose from I decided to chose a few who you could say are connected with our ability to communicate.

Great Britain - issued 1995

In the 1860s,  a Scottish physicist, James Clerk Maxwell had  predicted the existence of radio waves; and in 1886, the German Heinrich Rudolph Hertz demonstrated that rapid variations of electric current could be projected into space in the form of radio waves similar to those of light and heat. In 1888 an American, Mahlon Loomis demonstrated "wireless telegraphy." Loomis was able to make a meter connected to one kite cause another one to move, marking the first known instance of wireless aerial communication.

But it was Guglielmo Marconi who proved the feasibility of radio communication. He sent and received his first radio signal in Italy in 1895. By 1899 he flashed the first wireless signal across the English Channel and two years later received the letter "S", telegraphed from England to Newfoundland. This was the first successful transatlantic radiotelegraph message in 1902.

 One year later the Wright Brothers made the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air flight on December 17, 1903.

USA - issued 2003

There are several stamps commemorating that first flight but this was issued on the centenary of the flight that was the beginning of aviation as we know it.

The first non-stop transatlantic flight came in 1919.

Great Britain - 1969

The stamp shows a page from the Daily Mail newspaper and was issue for the 50th anniversary of the flight. Alcock and Brown flew a modified World War I Vickers Vimy bomber from St John's Newfoundland to Clifden in County Galway in Ireland. There was  a small amount of mail carried on the flight making it the first transatlantic airmail flight.

Now please fly over to Viridian's Sunday-stamps-105 for the celebration of other beginnings.

Beached - Sepia Saturday

I thought I would explore some beaches found in my archives and take you on a tour from the West of Scotland via the Adriatic coast to Egypt and end up in the South West of England, before a friendly warning.

A seaside postcard from Ayr, Scotland

This card was one of several linked to Robbie Burns but apart from the views contains no other information to help you date when it was taken. It looks prewar to me.

I cannot date my second card from Yorkshire either and you need good eyes to see anything on the South Bay beach.

The Spa and South Bay, Scarborough

I can put a rough date on the next shot taken in the 1940s, probably somewhere in Egypt during the war when the Fleet Air Arm crews were on a beach.

Egypt (?) - 1940s

Sorry that there have been no bathing belles to admire so far; we get a bit closer on the Adriatic coast of Montenegro.

Beach on the isthmus to the island of Sveti Stefan - c1986

Coming back to Cornwall all I have to show are empty beaches.

Camel Estuary, Padstow - May 2011

At least you can see some footprints - I wonder where Man Friday went?

Crantock Beach, Cornwall

That sea is waiting for the surfers to appear.

Meanwhile this little girl is counting her collection.

Hope she hasn't lost count

I wonder if "she sells seashells on the seashore?"

Finally here's that friendly warning that all can see.

I just wish I could remember where this was taken, I must ask my wife to jog my memory - on second thoughts, I had better not.

For more sand and sea take a trip or donkey ride to Alan's place.

On the Water - Thematic Photography

I've decided to start my 'On the Water' theme with a few birds.

Ducks on the Clinton River at Rochester, Michigan

 

I think they were waiting to be fed by passers by. Meanwhile at Saltholme Nature Reserve near Middlesbrough in England no one would attempt to feed this water bird.

Coot at RSPB Saltholme

There is another nature reserve adjacent to the River Tees at Stockton.

Herons at Portrack Nature Reserve

The smaller birds round the island are plovers (also called peewits or lapwings) presumably there for a drink or what they could find in the mud.

At Fowey in Cornwall I found this steaming along.

Steamboat in Fowey Estuary

 My daughter was in that boat on a short trip round the harbour in 2008.

Finally we have a stand off.

Gem, Cody and Lily

But which one will get that floating ball.

Hope you liked my selection of water shots; more interesting to me than photos of big ships. But don't let that stop you sailing across to Carmi's Thematic-photographic-229

Gospel Singers - Sunday Stamps

A lot of black stamps look, well, ....black. I decided therefore not to show them. Instead I picked these:

USA - Gospel Singers 1998

I have to confess that I only knew of Mahalia Jackson before so I have learnt something new again today,

See what else black you can find at Viridian's Sunday-Stamps-104

A Scottish Soldier - Sepia Saturday

It seemed appropriate to me when I saw this week's prompt showing Scottish soldiers to tie this in to New Year celebrations.

Back in the late 1950s it was common for people to see the New Year in by watching "The White Heather Club" on TV with Andy Stewart and Jimmy Shand and his band. One of the songs for which Andy Stewart became famous was this (here with the 1st Scots Dragoon Guards)

Of course Andy always wore a kilt during The White Heather Club. Many Scottish regiments are famous for their kilts. Their pipe and drum bands give displays all over the world.

The British Army's 21 member Pipe and Drum Corps

 

 

1st Battalion Scots Guards (photo - J D Leopold)

Piping, drumming and highland sword dancing at the Pentagon - 2nd September 2009

One of the questions always asked is what does a Scotsman wear under his kilt.

Caricature of Scottish Soldiers wearing kilts on Continental Europe - c1815

 

The ladies in the picture are trying apparently to find out. It's said that a true Scotsman wears nothing under his kilt.

That seems to be a cue for Andy Stewart and a kilt montage.

You can read all about The White Heather Club and about Andy Stewart here but don't let that prevent you from visiting our host at Sepia-Saturday-158

2012 Favourites - Thematic Photography

I've taken Carmi's tip to show two or three or ten of my favourite photos of 2012. You will have seen some of these before.

March was the driest month of the year, just right for walks on a North Yorkshire beach.

Huntcliff, Saltburn beach - March 2012

 

Horses. dogs and people use the beach.

Sunday morning ride - Saltburn

Flower of the month in July was this;

Lily

Butterflies were in short supply during the very wet summer but we did attract one or two.

Small Tortoiseshell Butterflies on Buddleia flower

 

Meanwhile one of my grandsons had a successful surfing year.

Angus in action

In October there was this rather splendid fungus on a dead ash tree that I walk by several times a week.

Fungus on dead ash

No year would be complete without some photos of my daughter's dogs. Photographing black dogs is often a difficult task but here is one of the best.

Gem

She was part of this group on the same day in November.

Scout, Cody and Gem

As usual Scout has two balls in his mouth, one probably belongs to Gem. At 15, Cody is resting  with his ball within reach. They are all looking at what's going on down in the lake where there's -

Lily - searching for her ball.

 

That's my ten favourites for the year.

Happy New Year to all in 2013.

Don't forget to check out other people's favourites at Thematic-photographic-faves-of-year