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

lilac-breasted roller

after spending a week in Kruger, driving around and walking around and sitting around, this is my favourite picture...

the rose

i couldn't resist spending a few minutes photographing this beautiful flower in the early morning light..
i used a macro 100mm lens with the aperture set at f/22 and a really slow shutter of 15 seconds...

gotcha!!

another backyard macro... it's not every day you stumble upon this kind of wildlife action

freeflow

this is a high speed macro photo that ended up looking like some crazy alien...
i made this picture with a 100mm macro lens at f/2.8, back lighting from a gold reflector, specifically for a dpchallenge contest.
i didn't do very well, it was a bit abstract
 :-D

horny

I took this photo last Sunday - he just stood there looking at us, then starting getting edgy, shuffling his feet... magnificent creature!

eye candy

a little picture of sweets and sugar that was created for a web photo challenge - it was set up on a red transparent plastic sheet with strong side and rear lighting.
shot with a 50mm lens at f/4, hand held.

Two in one

Here's another picture from our weekend at Spioenkop.
There was a large herd roaming around the campsite all weekend. They were quite happy with the people activities within the camp, but as soon as somebody left the camp area, into the veld, they'd become wary and move away...

Spioenkop's flowers

We spent a quiet weekend enjoying the peace and beauty of Spioenkop.
It's a really special place, with the animals roaming freely through the campsite.
Sometimes one needs to look out for the smaller things too, like the tiny, delicate wild flowers in the veld. These are some of those flowers...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"H"

using "H" as the theme, as stipulated by a dpchallenge contest i tried my luck with, i made these two pictures:

"Hair" is a picture of Renee with her hair folded over her face. I just love the way her eye looks right into you.
"Handful of water" was created by flowing water through Renee's fingers, and then converted to quadtone to give it that rich colour and texture...

the birds from the Wilderness...

Here's two birds i made pictures of while we were camping in the Wilderness over Christmas.
("made pictures of" is a term used by John Blakemore, who has taught me much on B&W photography)

The first is Pete - he's a dear Peacock who is always looking for a mate, and ready to display his colours to anything and anybody that could ever possibly be his friend.

The second is of a nectar eating bird (anybody know what it's named?) who i made a picture of while sitting under the awning of our campsite!

go to www.photo.net/photos/ralton to see their ratings and commentary...

a few more B&W photos

Here are two recent B&W photos.

The first is titled "walking down the garden path" and is a self portrait with a medium/slow shutter.

The second is a photo of Mike and Hayley, taken for an art project that Hayley is going to do for school.

crazy creatures in the garden this morning

This morning i took my camera and 100mm lens for a walk around the garden.
It was so fresh and clean and alive after all the spring rain!

First pic is a crazy looking bug. Second is crazy teenager monkey...

rocks and water

Here's another B&W landscape picture - this was taken at Silverstreams in the Drakensberg, about 500m up the stream there's a wonderful waterfall with a rock pool...