Wednesday Lensday: Animal Antics

It may be Valentine’s Day, but I certainly haven’t been giving my camera much love recently! However, a couple of days ago I ventured out to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park with my Mothership and set about snapping some beasts.

(If you’re in the North of England, YWP is well worth a visit and very good value for money, compared with many of the larger safari parks.)

The park is the only place in the UK that you can see polar bears – as part of their Project Polar, they currently have four males in residence and are continuing to upgrade their extensive roaming space and help with their conservation.

There are plenty of other animals on show too, from lions, tigers and leopards to my new favourite – armadillos! I could have watched them running laps around the enclosure all day. We were also treated to a ‘fight’ between two of the giraffes. Apparently, one is an annoying youngster that doesn’t play fair. But he’s only tolerated for so long!

Wednesday Lensday: Monochrome Mix

A little selection of monochrome images from my recent trips to London and Madeira. I shall be doing travel posts on both the Albert Hall concert and our week in the sun but for now, have a gander at some pics!

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, LONDON

Wednesday Lensday: Fly-by

Fad number 437: Flying

This week, I’ve incorporated a fad with my photography post: The time I flew a light aircraft!

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to fly. When I say fly, I don’t mean in the ‘which superpower would you most like’ sense. No, my love came from the machines themselves; the noise, the smell, the overall look.

I had notions of acquiring my pilots’ licence and once I saw Top Gun, my choice of wings became a fighter jet!

However, flying lessons are mega expensive and I didn’t have any associated desires to join the RAF. So for many years, it was just a dream, until one birthday, a few years ago, I was gifted with a flying experience day!

Wednesday Lensday: Shooting behind bars in Kilmainham

Kilmainham Gaol, situated in Dublin, is the largest unoccupied prison in Ireland. Opened in 1796, it’s famous for detaining the major political and military players in Irish history and executing many revolutionaries from the Easter Rising in 1916, before finally closing its doors in 1924.

Nowadays, it operates as a museum, detailing the various uprisings and past political struggles Ireland faced in a bid to break free from British rule. I’ve always found large, virtually abandoned buildings fascinating and not being particularly well versed in Irish politics, I was looking forward to an atmospheric history lesson.

Kilmainham didn’t disappoint. The site is huge and although there is only access to part of it, you still get sense of how demoralising it would have been to be imprisoned here. It’s cold and bleak, with corridors of concrete and eerily abandoned cells still displaying the scratchings of prisoners marking their time. Moving  subjects for a few snaps.