Schoenmakerskop beach

The circular route from the city, past Summerstrand and Cape Recife and all along the coast to Schoenmakerskop makes for a scenic Sunday drive..

"Schoenies" beach is rocky, but there are some sandy coves as well. The snorkeling is good in the protected channels too.

This is simply a picture that i made while spending a few minutes clambering around the rocks..

 

achromatic garden

Continuing in my exploration of B&W landscape, this time a macro picture captured in the garden this morning..

Woody Cape

Woody Cape, or the Alexandria State Forest as it used to be called, is now part of the Addo National Park.

There are numerous drives through the region, and we embarked on one recently.. a wonderful meander through the farmlands, forests, sand dunes... peaceful, beautiful...

Here's a picture of a windmill, old and creaky...

A pleasant winters day

Went for a drive through Baviaans Kloof, something that's been on my bucket list for some time..

Returned via Steytlerville and happed upon this beautiful scene.

an elephant prince

This young male stood awhile watching us, swaying his trunk trying to pick up our scent..

For this visit we decided to try a late afternoon drive, left PE at 2pm.. that gave us 4 hours to drive around  before the gates closed. Especially good is that sunset is before the gates close so it is a good opportunity for dusk photography..

no water today

There's a drought in the Eastern Cape and its having an impact on the animals in the Addo reserve.

These elephants are gathered at the "water hole" but there's only a little mud to cool their feet...

I picked up a 3rd place in an international photo challenge for this.

family portrait

Another visit to Addo, another photo of elephants 🙂.

I'm proud that this photo won 4th place in a dpchallenge.com competition.

The dragonfly

This little bug was hanging out in the back yard. Perhaps she was hunting..., would perch on the edge of the shrub and wait, and then dash off at speed... always returning to a new lookout perch..

B&W landscape

PE has some beautiful scenery around the coast. Here's the Maitland dunes and Shark Rock pier, both presented in monochrome..

Addo

We are blessed to have the Addo Elephant Park right on our doorstep.

Every visit yields a wonderful experience.

Fortunately the ellies aren't agro, they get really close sometimes...

Macro in the morning

Spent an hour photographing the leaves in the garden early in the morning before the dew evaporated..

Glitter and gold

Hayley asked me to photograph her vibrant makeup...

This was also my first shoot with my 180mm lens.

Railyard

There's an overgrown railyard near the entrance to the harbour... spent an enjoyable 30 minutes taking pictures:

PE on a Sunday morning

Renée woke me up at 4.30 suggesting we go down to the beachfront to watch the sunrise and take some pictures...

A beautiful morning in a beautiful city!

Spring

The first picture was taken at Noordhoek in Port Elizabeth. Wild flowers using a shallow depth of field..

2nd picture was taken in Deirdre's garden in Henley on Klip early in the morning.. wheelbarrow and spade into the rising sun..

B&W challenges

For recent "dpchallenges", taken with an old Canon 20D and 18-55mm kits lens..

The artist: Renée's workspace, quiet evening with a glass of wine..

Eternal storage: an old bicycle in the cellar..

After the rain: a large leaf after a good shower..

Barrow in the rain: hand held with slow shutter to capture the pouring rain..

a weekend in the Drakensberg

it's been quite some time since i posted anything here!

Renee and I spent a wonderful weekend at Kamberg recently.
Here's a small selection of the pictures i made...

mom and baby

i was inspired by the new Servochem 2016 calendar to make this B&W wildlife picture. nothing like the beautiful images in that calendar, but an enjoyable project none the less! :-)

B&W portrait without eyes

And so my study of Black & White continues... I find myself leaning towards grainy, high contrast images.., images with some emotion, soul...
Here's a picture i made last week for a DPChallenge - "Portrait without eyes". The contest is currently in the voting phase and my image is attracting some reasonable scores. It's obviously not to everyone's taste, but i like it..., and therein lies quite a challenge for me - explore what i like, not what i think everyone else likes.
Thank you Renee for not only being my model, but for encouraging this attitude!

Photographically, i like the fact that this image is low-key but has a full spectrum of tones. The diagonal lines in the background and the highlights of her hair contrast with the vertical dandelion stem... and not seeing her eyes creates a nice tension, an emotion, a frozen moment

blades and petals

Continuing my study of B&W photography, this is an image exploring B&W tones, with vastly contrasting textures.
I made this picture by shooting into the light, with a delicate (and slightly transparent) flower balanced on dreadful razor wire strands.
I think the shapes and contrasting textures work well in this picture....

misty landscape

I made this picture while camping in the Drakensberg mountains this week - I woke up to a thick mist which was quite a challenge to accurately capture and present (I have pushed the contrast a bit on this version).

eucalyptus forest

I went for a long walk in the mountains near Bushmans Nek and came upon this eucalyptus forest. My desire was to capture the white trunks and high tonality of the scene accurately, and achieved this by using a +2 exposure on the zone system scale...

the silver stream

Renee and I took the young men camping at Silver Streams recently. The rain had come down hard and the river was flowing strongly. This picture was made using a slow multi-shutter exposure, giving the water a liquid metal look...

the edge of Shard

This is a macro photo of a few shards of glass. I quite like the lines and repeating shapes...

dry proteas in high key

I am studying the zone system again and the concept of pre-visualization. This picture was made using a viii exposure on the zone system scale.

Lotheni, Drakensberg

Renee and I spent a wonderful weekend in the mountains, and I took the opportunity to walk about in the veld with my camera. This is the view from the river that runs past the chalets. Although covered by clouds in this picture, the top of the mountains had a good dollop of snow on them from the cold front that passed a few days earlier. I've loaded (and now prefer) this picture instead of my initial favourite, which can be seen on my photo.net page (http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=17885713 )...

bushmans nek

Bushmans nek is near Underberg in the Drakensberg mountains. It was at the splendid campsite called Silver Streams that I made this picture.

A slow shutter ensured the flowing water was blurred and the richness of the scene was captured...

walking witch

a simple macro shot of a dandelion (also known as "witch's gowan)...
the single seed and hard side light make it almost look like a walking creature.

the windmill and the moon

We went for a long drive this winter, and visited the Eastern Cape (Hogsback, Fort Beaufort, etc).
While staying over on a farm one evening I noticed the moon and the windmill were in the same space, and the setting sun had lit the top of the windmill, almost suggesting the moon had cast the light...

As the night comes

This picture was made while we were camping at Spioenkop in August.
The sun had gone down and there was a wonderful stillness. These trees were all in their leafless winter state and were beautiful against the coloured sky...

Getting back...

Wow, I haven't posted any pictures here all year!
Let me load a few of my favourites from 2014 in a bid to catch up a little, and then try my best to keep posting!

First up is a sunrise at Rocky Bay, with a fisherman in the foreground and a washed-up log leading into the picture.

the zebra and the valley

A view down the valley, across the dam and over to the ocean.
I made this image earlier this week when I spent a few hours in the Vernon Crookes nature reserve.

the old tractor

this old tractor is parked in a small clearing in Zinkwazi on the KZN North Coast. I don't think it runs anymore, but it looks like its all ready for the next load!

rocky river

made this picture in the Drakensberg Mountains on Saturday evening.
a slow shutter created the silky effect on the water, while the setting sun provided the soft backlighting...

quenching her thirst