cjwormwell

Although we’re yet to hear from him photographically in 2015, Flickr chum and Friend of the Blog, CJ Wormwell (you may remember him from such posts as Wire Wool, Gannet and The photo that I wanted to share yesterday but couldn’t because the dog ate the internet) certainly finished 2014 on a particularly high note. If you’re particularly fond of photos of the Isle of Man (and I am, obviously) or even if you’re just a fan of great photography, you should head over to his Flickr photostream where you can enjoy images like this:

That’s Laxey, on the east of the Island. A sunrise taken at nearly 8:30 in the morning at the end of November. Criticise the short days of late autumn in Great Britain all you like, but it does make photographing sunrises without having to get up at some godforsaken hour much easier. Amiright?

Chris’ latest efforts are more subdued woodland scenes, along with some great shots of Scarlett Point – a bit of a trek from his usual haunts down North.

I hope you visit Flickr and enjoy his work. This is probably going to be my last post ever on the blog, because Mrs 6k is going to drag me up the mountain this evening and it’s stupid ºC or even hotter. Shades of The Worst Idea Larry Ever Had™ right there.

It’s been great. Go well.

This isn’t the first time we’ve featured a photo by Chris Wormwell on 6000 miles... That’s because this was the first time we featured a photo by Chris Wormwell on 6000 miles...

But this is beautiful:

This is a fine example of a Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus), off the coast of the Isle of Man. Chris describes this as “pretty much just a bread and butter shot”, so I look forward to seeing some of his “fine dining” work at some point.

You may see close relatives of this fellow (the bird, not Chris) off the Cape coast too. But those, like just every other bird found around here, take the title ‘Cape’ – Cape Gannet (Morus capensis). And whereas there are loads of Northern Gannets to go around, our local species is classed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, so don’t go poaching them, ok?

There are some pretty cool facts about gannets. They are cleverly adapted (Evolution FTW!) to be able to dive from a great height to catch fish. Because they can hit the water at up to 100kph, special air-sacs within their skull protect them from the massive impact, like biological bubble wrap. Additionally, their nostrils are inside their mouths, preventing that awkward unintentional nasal lavage that can all too often ruin a good dive.
It must make things pretty nasty when they get a cold though. Eww.

Photo credit: Many thanks to Chris for his permission to use his photo.

Tag: cjwormwell

CJWormwell still making lovely photographs

Gannet