Phuthu Stay Phut, Don't go!

On Sunday my man and I went to the Durban Botanical Gardens to listen to South African adventurer Riaan Manser speak about his trip around Africa and Madagascar. We took our picnic basket…okay it was more like a Woolies packet, met our friends and then scoffed down all the cellulite unfriendly treats whilst listening to some incredible stories from Riaan. The talk was part of a fundraising event for Pathways – a school for severely disabled children which was started by friends of ours over 15 years ago.

The two words that best describe Riaan according to me are, “Cave Man”. With tanned skin, dark hair, gruff voice and square jaw line, all he seemed to be missing was a piece of loin cloth and a spear. Some of his stories were real scary, especially the one where he was caught by rebels and almost killed and gutted. Yes, gutted!!! But then he sensed us losing colour from our once-rosy cheeks and proceeded to tell the story of his friend, Russell, the mouse. He got so lonely on his trips that he felt some comfort in making friends with a rodent. Poor guy. If you ever have the chance of hearing him speak, you really should go, even if it’s just for the story of Russell.

Riaan’s parting words of advice were that even if you’re the best at whatever you do, you can always be better and can always grow. He narrowed it down to 3 things; Courage, Perseverance and Attitude. Have the courage to take on the things that you’ve always wanted to do, have the courage to take the first step and then persevere with whatever it is that you want to achieve. And lastly, attitude determines everything – I think we all know this but often forget it…so his talk was a good reminder!

I did a 23km mountain bike race this weekend. And a 20km race last weekend. I know I know I shouldn’t have with being pregnant and all but I’m a cautious individual; I really am…and besides, cashew was chomping at the bit to get some fresh air. So don’t shout at me okay? Still luff me?

Well, what I really want to tell you about is the venue of this race! Never ever ever in my life have I ever wanted to be a child more than I did this weekend. The race was held at what I can only describe as a Never Never Land. The venue was All Out Adventures in the Northern Berg, a venue for kids and adults to experience a frenzy of fun!

With wooden ladders spiralling up and around tall pine trees, little platforms set the stage for canopy tours – zip lines heading this way and that. Circus enthusiasts could try their hand at the flying trapeze (they have a mini one for kids) with the comfort of a safety net below. They also have a “King Swing” and several Bungee Bounce trampolines which are a hit with kids. If you prefer to be on terra firma, then you can go quad biking, mountain biking or play paintball. Are you exhausted yet just listening to all of this?

So if you feel like having your fingers and toes tingling with a shot of adrenaline, head off to the Drakensberg for a weekend and go wild!

The mountain bike race was amazing by the way and cashew loved every minute, even the contour path along the cliff face.

You see there’s this little cowboy that lives in Australia with his mom. And I got to meet him for the first time last month when they made the great trek to Africa. I held him, cuddled him , kissed him, bathed him – everything a besotted aunty would do. But then of course, he and his mom had to go back home, and it dawned on me that I wouldn’t see them for a long time. And that made me kinda sad….

To my dear little Cowboy –

I miss you!

I miss your toothless grin,

I miss the crease at the back of your neck,

and the smell of milk on your clothes.

I miss how peaceful you look when sleeping,

And how happy you are when awake.

I miss your chubby tummy and your little buns,

I even miss the boogers that occasionally hang from your nose.

I just miss you my little cowboy.

Wouldn’t you miss this?

The little cowboy himself.

Who belongs to this gorgeous girl, my sis.

Who lives in Melbourne…

Which is really far away.

Which really sucks.

But that’s life.

So treasure the good times!

Panorama.

You may think my posts are a little disjointed. That is because they are. I’ve decided that writing about my personal history of my involvement in photography is boring for me  so it must be absolute hell for you.

 So, I’ve decided to write about whatever crosses my mind during the week that bears even a slight relation to photography.

 This week I decided that I needed to create an image for our dining room at home. I needed a wide but narrow format to fit over the dining room table. A panorama is what I needed! Not a “chocolate box” panorama mind you, maybe something a little grungy……

 There is an old disused train station near my home that has always intrigued me. The old Gillits station is a beautiful old building, built with those wonderful warm orange Natal clay bricks, it must have stood there, a sentinel watching over the single railtrack for at least the last 100 years.

 I figured this scene would make a great night panorama shot. I’ve been there three nights in a row, trying to get the perfect shots to stitch together for this panorama. I had a clear image in my mind of how it should look. I think it’s important to visualize beforehand what you are trying to create. The software I had planned to use is called “Autopano”. This is an amazing program that can stitch together 360 degrees of images into one seamless panorama, technology rocks!

 But, I must confess, it didnt turn out to be as easy as I imagined! Firstly trying to level the tripod is an engineering exercise in itself! Secondly, running around trying to remote flash as many areas as possible in the 30 second exposure is a fitness session in itself. It went a bit like this:-

 Visit one. Flash battery died near the end. Images not quite good enough for stitching.(too dark in areas)

Visit two. Much the same as visit one.

Visit three. Got the perfect shots. Got home proud of results,  memory card promptly ate my images!  Bastard!

 Visit four. On the cards soon.

 My thought of the day is, I had better get this damn thing right next time, before some slimy homosapien notices this idiot wandering around in the dark at a deserted train station with expensive camera equipment, and decides this is a great mugging candidate!

 This is sort of what I’m trying to do but not really good enough yet. This is 4 images that have been manually joined in photoshop. The areas of dark are for drama.

Okay so it’s time for an exciting little numbered list summing up what’s been going on in life:

1. SARS only opens at 9.00am on a Wednesday so if you’re ever going there or were planning a trip there for a Wednesday, think again before you eagerly hop into your car at 7.15am whilst trying to guzzle down a piece of toast with Bovril on it. Don’t do it!
2. I went for a scan last week and you’ll never believe it but the little monkey was sucking its wee little thumb! Like its actually got a thumb and four other little digits on each hand. It has hands. And arms. Arms! Its got everything, the works, just like the car you’ve always wanted.
3. My man is going through a golf phase and is frequenting the driving range sometimes twice a day to perfect his swing. I couldn’t help but join in on all the excitement so I went along on Sunday to hit some balls. I was quite chuffed with myself because I alternated between Skyscraper and Moleraper shots quite consistently. Every time the ball went high into the air, I dropped the club, bounced excitedly and screeched to Jeremy whilst pointing skywards “Hunneeeeeee, look look look look look, my ball, can you see it, did you see it?!!!”.
4. I got whipped at Scrabble last night (by my man) and all I can say is that it’s going to take a lot of marshmallow mice to make me feel better about the situation.
5. And that’s all folks. Titillating stuff!

Creative block.

This post was supposed to have been loaded last week but I forgot, I lay the blame squarely at the door of the commonly known “public holiday disorder syndrome” or PHDS!

What makes a good image? That is the million dollar question! Why is it that many of the “celebrated” master photographer’s images leave me cold? Ansel Adams, was one of the fore fathers of black and white landscape photography and widely considered to be a master. Quite frankly I find most of his images a tad dull….perhaps I don’t understand them or perhaps 60 years ago they were on the cutting edge? Who knows?  Why is it that sometimes you look at one of your images and think it’s a masterpiece one day and the next think it s a load of crap?

I found that during periods when I was quite actively taking pictures, I got into the frame of mind where everything was seen in terms of a photograph. Nine times out of ten you didn’t have your camera ready or with you at those particular moments……..

After I left school I decided to purchase a new camera. I beg borrowed and stole enough money to buy a Pentax 7000i. This was a pretty advanced camera at that time, it had auto focus and auto exposure. For some reason I never really got any great results of it (probably handler error) so it resulted in a loss of interest for about 10 years in which time I occupied myself with wine, women and song! I eventually sold it to a friend of mine whose wife put it to great use photographing their 3 children’s every move. She must have a photo collection to match a photography school archive!

I don’t think I actually have any worthwhile pictures that I have taken with that camera in my collection, so there’s nothing to post from that era! Funnily enough, since writing the post above, “creative block”, I have had a week or two of feeling particularly inspired.

Here are a few shots I have taken in the past 2 weeks.

This picture was taken at 5:30 am in Pietermaritzburg. It was to be a super hot day and the heat haze shrouded the city in a blanket. I loved the mood of this scene with this poor guy out early , searching for scrap metal, trying his best to eek out a living.

One Sunday Afternoon, feeling the need to be creative, I went for a drive and this is what I stumbled upon. The light wasnt perfect but I liked the contrasts in the scene.

This picture was rather ordinary until I reduced the colour temperature. It suddenly brought the image to life and made it quite intriguing I think.

Eighty meters below me from the arch in the new Durban Stadium, I watched with interest as final preparations for the World cup 2010 were underway.

This picture below is of a friend of mine and pro kayaker, Steve Fisher. He was in Durban doing a publicity stunt (which I cant say right now, its top secret!) Anyway he smuggled me in as the professional photographer from Red Bull. It was great to see the production being made and I think I got a few good shots too. (yes I know his feet are cut off and it bothers me too a little!)  I love the construction worker looking at him curiously however.

Next week, what is the difference between a photograph and an image.