Here's an assortment of photos from beautiful Derry taken just before we departed south. Sone history of the images:

Austins was a department store in the Diamond area of Derry in Northern Ireland. The store was established in 1830 and, until 2016, remained standing as the world's oldest independent department store. The building measures 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) and is five stories high, with an Edwardian-style baroque exterior built in 1906 by MA Robinson after the original building was destroyed by fire.

Guildhall
The building, which was designed by John Guy Ferguson and financed by The Honourable The Irish Society was completed in 1890. After a disastrous fire in 1908 and more funding from the Honourable The Irish Society it was rebuilt to the design of Mathew Alexander Robinson in 1912.
During The Troubles the Guildhall was the focus of multiple terror attacks. The building was badly damaged by two bombs in 1972, but was restored at a cost of £1.7 million and reopened in 1977.
The square in front of the Guildhall regularly plays host to important events and was the site of U.S. President Bill Clinton's address when he visited the city in November 1995.
Restoration of the stained glass windows was overseen by Stephen Calderwood, who had last worked on them with his father Jack when they were damaged in the bombings of 1972. Internal work, costing in the region of £5 million, involved the full internal reorganisation and restoration of the Guildhall as a key tourist attraction and arrival point for the City as part of the Walled City Signature Project.

The Harbour Museum was officially opened as a museum in 1995.
The building, located directly beside the Guildhall and facing onto the River Foyle, is the former office of the Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners.
Dating from 1882, the building has been largely preserved with its original fittings and furnishings including chandeliers and a bespoke Killybegs carpet. The museum is heavily themed around the maritime heritage of the building and organised largely around traditional glass cased displays, in keeping with the character of this environment.

I hope you enjoy the images.
Mark

Yesterday I posted a photo of a wren in a pitchfork handle. My story involved him flitting around sounding the alarm about a rat snake on the loose. So, after many comments about the snake, here is the rest of the story.

That snake was hanging out in the bird house hoping for breakfast. The birds, particularly the wrens were having nothing about it. After it was apparent the gig was up with the bird house hidey hole, he decided for another approach. He slithered down the tree, and into an azalea bush that the birds are regularly hopping about in and under. I watched as he disappeared into that bush, and as the birds continued to hop about, apparently just out of reach. Then I saw him come down to the ground and hide just behind some low edging blocks, with the wren dancing about on top. I almost couldn't watch as I was sure that juvenile wren was a goner for sure. But I figured it's nature, and might make an interesting photo.

Didn't happen, and he slithered off looking for a better opportunity. I cannot understand how a juvenile wren, not more than a few weeks old could know that this snake was a threat. Nature, gotta love it.

CM

At this time of year the birds have now raised a clutch of kids and have more leisure time for their personal grooming hygiene. This bird flew in on the pond bank late afternoon and began going through his preening routine. I moved in as close as I dared with tripod and gimbal and began snapping away with Canon 6D Mk II and Sigma 150-600 @ 600mm.

I came up with a relatively high number of keepers and would like to submit one of these for our local camera club competition for August. Would you take a look at the downloads and help me choose one of them?

This is, quite literally, a grab shot that I think turned out rather well. We were on the Ohio River in our boat when a guest yelled, "Eagle!" I grabbed my camera, pointed as the bird soared overhead, and got three shots off. I used a D7200, luckily pre-set to my BIF user setting of 1/1000 at f8 and auto ISO. Lens was a Sigma 18-300 at 300mm. Post-processed in Lightroom, cropped and sharpened quite a bit. I also ran it through Topaz DeNoise AI, which seemed to help a lot. For the record, this grab shot is better than most of the ones I've tried to plan ahead: a good dose of luck works well! Any comments and critiques will be appreciated.