Tag: Photography

Categories
Cape Town Photography Sunset

False Bay Sunset

Photo taken from Rooi Else across False Bay.
It is call False Bay because it sometimes fooled sailors of old looking for Table Bay.

A sunset photo with layers of cloud above mountains and the sea. The entire image is shades ranging from red to purple.
Categories
Birding Photography

The mystery of the floating head

I took a photograph of a Little Grebe on a water body in Vroliejkheid Nature Reserve. There was a bit of a swell, nothing much, a couple of cms maximum. I took the photo home and processed it and found that there was an unexpected head reflected in the water. How it got there is a bit of a puzzle

a small water bird with a black head and wings, red patch on the cheek and a white rump float on water with small waves. There is a reflection of the birds head where you would expect it, but on the next small wave is another reflection of the bird's head the right way up. Not mirrored as the other reflection is. There is even a spot of light in the eye of the bird.

Categories
Birding Photography

Bees like Grapes

Specifically hanepoot or mascadel grapes which if left long enough become incredibly sweet. We have an active bee hive and a hanepoot vine which has produced a nice crop of grapes this season so we ended up sharing our grapes with the birds and the bees.

The bees are cape honey bees indigenous to the Western Cape.

A cape honey bee explores a bunch of grapes.
the bee has found a grape with a hole pecked in it by a bird and is harvesting the sweet juce.

The birds that open the berries are Common or European Starlings

A black bird with white stippling sits on a concrete wall
Categories
Birding Photography

Brown Hooded Kingfisher

A beautiful bird that posed so nicely for us just outside McGregor in the Western Cape. The bird has a call similar to the Mouse Bird so when we are birding and hear the distinctive three note call, we are never quite certain which bird we are hearing. In this case the identification was positive. This species of kingfisher actually seems to prefer dry land rather than water. An image of a mouse bird is here.

A photo of a Kingfisher perched on the cross bar of a telephone pole. It has a red beak with a dark tip, a brown head, white collar and chest. Black wings with blue flight feathers. The background is blurred.
Categories
Insect Photography

Wasp Larvae

Some years ago my wife and I found a tiny insect. I photographed it (of course and posted it to iNaturalist and it was identified as a Planthopper. You can get an idea of how small the insect is by the arm hairs surrounding it. I ignored the dark thing on the back of the insect and I forgot about the observation. Two days ago someone saw my photo, took one look at the dark thing on the back of the insect and identified it as a wasp larvae.

A photo of a bright green insect with a white tail and red eyes. It is sitting on someones arm The larva is a tiny creature sitting on the tail of the insect. It is brown with white segments.
Categories
Clouds GIFs Photography Table Mountain

Stop Motion Photography

I have been trying to get clouds to look good using stop motion photography. This is the first time I have gotten reasonable results. I just forgot to level the camera. Next time!

A GIF of Table Mountain with filmy clouds passing over. The mountain is flat on top and occupies the lower 10% of the image. Thin filmy clouds move from bottom right of the image to top left. The sky is a cerulean blue
Categories
Astro-photography Astronomy Cape Town Photography Table Mountain

Floodlit Table Mountain

On special occasions, the Council switches on huge spot lights and lights the front face of Table mountain. Tonight is one of those nights.

Table mountain is shown in the bottom third of the photo. I havent fiddled the white balance so the mountain is a green colour which is quite nice. The rest of the image has stars in a black background The top cable car station is visible on the flat top of the mountain
Table mountain is shown in the bottom third of the photo. I havent fiddled the white balance so the mountain is a green colour which is quite nice. The rest of the image has stars in a black background The top cable car station is visible on the flat top of the mountain
Categories
Astro-photography Astronomy Photography Table Mountain

Scorpio Setting

I went out to try out a new lens for my camera and got this image of Lion’s Head with Scorpio setting head first.
Click the image for best viewing.

The photo is a night image Lions head and high peak is in the centre of the image. The peak has bare rock on top of vegetation covered slopes City lights are visible in the bottom half of the image. Stars surround the peak with Scorpio nearly set to the left of the peak
Categories
Astro-photography Eclipse Moon Photography Western Cape

Eclipse over Lion’s Head

A lunar eclipse happened some time back. The images show Lion’s Head and the night hikers lamps. Lions Head is part of the Table Mountain National Park. Lion’s head is a popular hike and is done regularly at night especially when there is an interesting astronomical event happening as in the images below.

A red/orange moon sets over the shoulder of a mountain. Hikers head lamps can be seen on the mountain. City lights are also visible
The moon and palm trees. LIon's head not visible.
Lions head, a red/orange moon and in this case Scorpio is faintly visible. More city lights and a crane is visible. Hikers lights are visible on the mountain
Categories
Birding Photography Reptile Western Cape

Jackie Hangman

This post is not really for the faint hearted. Impaled dead reptiles feature.

In South Africa we have a small bird of prey called the Southern Fiscal. Note the hooked beak.

The bird gets its colloquial name Jackie Hangman from its habit of hanging its captured prey on thorns. The following picture is of a small Common Slug Eater that has been hung out in a lemon tree by a Jackie Hanger.