TAKE SIXTEEN a

"Every picture shows a spot with which the artist has fallen in love."

(Alfred Sisley)

copyright Yamini Ali MacLean

Taken with the 'Nik' on macro mode.

TAKE FIFTEEN a

Normally I would be taking part in the Thursday Challenge... however I may not have internet access and the posts this week and next have been scheduled.  So maybe you'll all see me.  Maybe you won't.  I still want to take up the prompt of 'creative shot' (motion blur etc)... especially as it also my own theme day of 'Last Thursday', in which anything can happen!

copyright Yamini Ali MacLean

Haji Ali Mosque (the mosque on the sea, Mumbai); in a 'sea' of movement, taken with the 'Nik' on night scene mode and on the move from a taxi!!  The 'blur' is actually passing traffic on opposite lane.

TAKE FOURTEEN a

Wings on Wednesday -

YAM's take on the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright hilarious in respect to photographing birds.

copyright Yamini Ali MacLean

Galahs canoodling on the high wire.  One from the Australian archives.  Taken with the Minolta digicam.

Feel free to link up with your own attempts at ornithological offerings!

TAKE THIRTEEN a

The Tuesday Tease

copyright Yamini Ali MacLean

"I KNOW that they put colour on the buttons when I bought it...."

Mac2 struggles with her duty free purchase  -  Meanwhile the Minolta digicam behaved for YAM.

TAKE TWELVE a

Monday's Critters

copyright Yamini Ali MacLean

Delving into the archives.  This one is from the Woko Trip where Mac2 went off-track with my little Minolta digicam.  Looking hot there.  Jade's looking good too.

TAKE ELEVEN a

MOONdays

Last Sunday of the month transforms at MY TAKE, into an honouring of the moon.  

An early evening moon on a wintry Edinburgh evening.  Taken with the 'Nik' on auto and lens stretched to 20x Optical.

TAKE TEN a

Saturday Symmetry

Free range oysters cling to shark fence on the Hawkesbury River 'beach baths'.  Taken with the 'Nik' on B&W plus manual mode, 200ISO and lens extended to 20x optical.

TAKE NINE a

"Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment all you have is all you need."
(Sarah Ban Breathnach)

No, that is not my new pad!  It is a building on the foundations of one of the original places of settlement in Dunoon, my new home town.  Today I take ownership of a flat ten minutes walk from here.  Plan your visits now!

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto and lens extended 5x optical.

TAKE EIGHT a

It is Thursday Challenge day again.  I am a relative newcomer to the meme and have had to rely on utilising photographs already in my library.  In case you don't follow the MENO blog, the YAMster is in a process of transition.  It began 5 months ago when leaving India. The end is in sight.  As you read this, am one day off getting the keys to my new home. Once settled, I hope to be a bit more immediate, interactive with this weekly challenge. Let's see.

The prompt this week is ELECTRICITY.  This is of particular interest to the YAMster.  My father the engineer made electricity power supply his career.  Pylons, mostly.  Poles too. I grew up around them and do like the structures.  Just not that happy about the fossil fuel production.

I likes the wind.  I have written about this on the MENO blog.  Windpower needs to grow. Either way, night lights taken on the move from a rushing autorickshaw in Mumbai make a wonderful night mosaic.

Now all I need is for the electricity to be connected to the new place and I'll be buzzing!!

TAKE SEVEN a

Wings on Wednesday -

YAM's take on the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright hilarious in respect to photographing birds.

Another from the Indian annals...a black kite eyes up breakfast.

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto and lens extended 5x optical.

Please do link up with your own posts with birds (or at least wings-related) photography.  Thanks for flying by!!

TAKE SIX a

The Tuesday Tease

"Who put the lights on???"

Okay - here's your tease; what is it??

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto.  It was a cold and wintry day in Edinburgh, so multiple shades of grey!

TAKE FIVE a

Monday's Critters

copyright Yamini Ali MacLean

Am a bit out of critter piccies at the moment - so have mined the archives and can think of nothing better than one of own all-time favourites; Jade Dog MacLean and Jasper Cat MacLean.  Always together.

For those newer viewers, they are long gone but if you would like to read about their antics, do click here. Don't forget to visit my mate BOZO too!

The photo was taken with the Minolta digicam.

TAKE FOUR a

SUNdays

Sometimes, looking straight down 'the barrel' pays off...  A winter's afternoon and this nicely demonstrates a principal used in astronomy whereby light is scattered by an object sitting in front of the producer of said light... and as we all know, bent light = glorious colour!
















Taken with the 'Nik' on manual mode, 80ISO and stopped down two notches.

TAKE THREE a

Saturday Symmetry

Rothesay Castle (Isle of Bute), the main stair to the upper banquet hall. A touch of the Eschers!

Taken with the 'Nik' on museum mode...the daylight streaming through the windows appears to challenge the focus and certainly the contrast but somehow it adds a dimension to the steps.

TAKE TWO a

"Oh, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?"
(Percy Bysshe Shelley)

Taken with the 'Nik' on macro mode.  This is the inner workings of a florette on the Gymea Lily.  These grow in clusters on a spike and can reach well over 10 feet in height. This was a cultivar, not the wild variety.  Still very pretty and the best you'll get from me on the day of llurrrrvvvvvvvv....

TAKE ONE a

(It would have been oh so easy to continue in sequence... however one of my mottoes in life is to expect the unexpected. Am simply passing that on. &*<>)

For the first shot in the second year of My Take, we coincide with Thursday Challenge and the theme prompt this week is BOOKS.  Be they printed, written, school, note, historic... Now it has to be said that books are a major love of mine.  In my shunt from one side of the world to the other and back again, the greater number of items carried with me has been The Library.

When thinking about that, I recalled that whilst at Sandeepany (Mumbai), we had an overhaul of the library there and on the final day, it was all hands on deck.  

Forgive the quality - these were taken on the Uniden digicam, without flash and under fluorescent lighting.  Horrible.  But given the air was full of dust anyway, it kinda gives you the atmosphere.  There was no "silence please" that day!

It was fascinating to watch as the many thousands of publications were emptied from their shelves, each and every one of them lovingly dusted, placed for cataloging and then replaced according to the newly updated computer system.

Modern archiving methodology for the old.

Everything was here; Sanskrit of course, but also many of the regional languages of India plus German, English, even a tome of Robert Burns' poems in the original Scots!!

Will we ever have the same reverence or awe for the 'e-book'???

TAKE THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE.....................yaaaaaaaaayyyy!!!!

Wings on Wednesday -

YAM's take on the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright hilarious in respect to photographing birds.

Strutting my stuff as I celebrate a whole year of TAKEs!!  Don't think I had ever really noticed how wonderful a peacock looks from behind, as we tend only ever to focus on the frilly front! He's fanning the 'flame' of his love...

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto.

TAKE THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR

The Tuesday Tease

"Percy, what possessed you to settle down under the busiest flight path on the coast???
...Oh I don't know, maybe it was the cheap rates, or maybe I'm just 'gull-able'!!"

Pelicans lend themselves to comics, dontchya think?  Taken at The Entrance on NSW Central Coast with the 'Nik' on 100ISO and lens at 20x optical stretch.

TAKE THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY THREE

Monday's Critters

Something a bit different for you.  An Aussie Carpet Python, just a baby one.  They are one of the easiest and nicest to keep captive.  So the blurb says anyway...

Taken with the 'Nik' on museum mode as it was dark all around the exhibit.  You can just see the reflection of my sleeve bottom left, showing there is indeed glass between me and the subject!!

Do go say 'hi' to BOZO.

TAKE THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY TWO

SUNdays

From a speeding train. Somewhere over Lancashire...

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto.

TAKE THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ONE

Saturday Symmetry

A monochrome taken back in November when I visited the Hawkesbury River, NSW in a warm Australian early summer.  

Taken with the 'Nik' on B&W manual mode, 200ISO and stopped down 1.5 notches on the contrast.

TAKE THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY

"A weed is no more than a flower in disguise,
which is seen through at once if Love give a man eyes."
(J.R. Lowell)

An Australian wildflower for which I have no name. Taken with the 'Nik' on macro mode.

TAKE THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINE

I have been enjoying joining in the weekly meme at Thursday Challenge. This week the prompt we have been given is COLD...   oh yeah???

Are you shivering yet???

Top one is view from flat window in Edinburgh looking towards Pentland Hills, taken with the 'Nik' on manual, 200ISO and lens stretched to 15x optical.

The second is a macro shot of ice crystals formed on an engine hood.

TAKE THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY EIGHT

Wings on Wednesday -

YAM's take on the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright hilarious in respect to photographing birds.

This Bharadwaj (common coucal) was photographed 12 months ago, in a different and warmer land.  I miss it fiercely, but that doesn't mean I don't love the place I am now, this frosty February!

Your turn - please link up any post you have where you tried out ornithological photography.

TAKE THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SEVEN

The Tuesday Tease

"...and whose idea was it to pin flies to my cheeseboard??!!"

Custard enjoying her feed from the manger...no she wasn't actually licking the lid... Taken with the 'Nik' on auto.

TAKE THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX

Monday's Critters

This is Jack, the ass...

He resides at the Sydney City Farm. Character plus, I think you will agree!















Taken with the 'Nik' on portrait mode.  He was worth it.

Don't forget to visit BOZO!

TAKE THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FIVE

SUNdays

Looking South by South-West from Victoria Parade, Dunoon; 3pm and fading...

Taken with the 'Nik' on B&W, manual mode, set at 400ISO.

TAKE THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FOUR

Saturday Symmetry

An interesting piece of disused farm equipment spotted at the Sydney City Farm back in November.  Ahhh, warm days...

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto everything.