I found some pictures I took years ago of bees on an aloe. The colours aside from anything else is just amazing.
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Bees on an Aloe
Tag: Photography
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Atmospheric Images
I found this folder with all sorts of great storm and astrophotography pictures so I decided to add them. Just for fun.
And some more
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Cloud Animation
Clouds passing over the Aghulas plain south of Riviersonderend.
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Bird Images from my Archive
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Storm
This is an old post. My 15 minutes of fame as promised by Andy Warhol. This happened in 2008. I went out with three cameras, took about 80 photographs, went home, edited them and published the webpage at 3 pm on the Sunday afternoon. I also sent out an abbreviated email at the same time. By Monday morning a colleague phoned me and said he had an email from New Zealand about a storm in Cape Town and he wanted to know if that was really me in the picture. All in the all the website hit just over a 1 GB of traffic in a hectic 36 hour period. 18 Months later, I met someone in McGregor who recognised my email address from that day. I even had the credit for my photos stolen by someone. Fame indeed. So buckle up and join me on a trip to Camps Bay and Sea Point to see an ancient storm.
Camps Bay Beach
Sunday and the newspapers (that tells you how old this post is!) were telling of a huge storm and I headed to Camps Bay.
Waves are difficult to shoot so that they look impressive. You need a body, preferably not drowning or in trouble. Or a yacht, equally not in trouble. I did try to give an impression of the size of the waves but it was difficult! Trust me though, they were huge! The first one shows the foam that eventually was the main star of the show. It looks boring and kinda quiescent here, but just wait.
Keeping lenses clean was a mission. Throughout this series of pictures you are gonna see spots and blotches. Take that it as a sign that there has been no post processing and that I was there on the spot.
Sea Point
And then I decamped to Sea Point and things changed dramatically!
For one thing you could see the storm still hammering in.
This was the car park at the end of the promenade and foam is starting to make its mark.
These young boys just loved the foam!
No real water here, just foam.
This wave is a long way out and huge. No bodies make it impossible to tell what you are seeing.
A trig beacon provides a bit of a reference.
This picture was an accident. The rain was pouring down. Nope wait the rain was coming in at about 10 degrees to the horisontal and the lens got wet, at least the filter did and this very painterly picture was taken.
Rainstorm!
The cars got covered in foam.
Walking in the wind was difficult. A lot of the time I walked backwards into the wind, protecting the cameras from the rain and foam.
This picture was almost my undoing. I wanted at bit of the sea wall so I climbed down to get it. While I was down there a deceptive “little” wave of foam roared up the slope and nearly covered me completely.
Nice storm front and the sea as a foreground.
More foam racing in to try to catch me.
Art Picture moment here. But seriously, look at the palm fronds, the wind was ripping and tearing at them.
The approach of the foam is stealthy. You think you have a little bit of foam.
And then there is that “Oh, NOOOO” moment.
In my case “Oh SHHHHHH!” I ducked and hid the camera.
Cars cannot dodge so easily.
This wall of foam was nearly a metre high.
Alien art picture.
A safer sea wall – at least I thought it was.
And then it snuck up behind me.
Dedication.
That foam wave closer in is actually racing outwards!
Check the size of this one. It did get me!
And them! What a gallant man. He was covered in foam!
Care for a seat by the sea?
There were people taking pictures all over the place. This woman chose a safe place to do her composing. Sensible.
And here is Sea Point pool. No sun bathers here either.
And here I am, covered in foam and completely happy with my Sunday’s photography. Thanx to a young lady who took this picture for me.
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Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
The Kgalagadi Park lies on the border of three states, South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. While in the park roads cross in and out of sovereign territory without border posts. Only when exiting the park into a different state do border controls come into play. It is a an interesting situation that has little or no affect on visiting the park. Park regulations vary from country to country, but don’t affect the feeling of the park.
The area is in the arid grassland regions and in the dry seasons, water is scarce. Put down a plate of water and the birds and animals appear.
Although renowned for its large predators there are also a smaller mammals to be seen
The larger predators spend much time sleeping so we were delighted to spot a family of hyenas going for a morning bath and drink.
We saw numerous herbivores.
Birds however were the focus of our attention
Fires had recently swept through the park leaving a blackened, burnt environment.
The trees were spectacular in their starkeness
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Little Grebe Breakfast
Also known as Dabchicks the Little Grebes are common on water bodies across the Western Cape. Their epic territorial battles are wild and noisy and totally unmistakable. What I didn’t know is that they eat frogs. They catch them by diving under the water for long periods and then reappearing with prey in beak. I was lucky enough to see the whole process enacted under the bird hide I was in.
The bird was swimming along and then suddenly disappeared. Only to emerge with a frog in in its beak.
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Snow in Summer Tree
One of our neighbours has this amazing tree which, in early summer breaks out in white blossoms. The whole tree gets covered.
Enjoy the sight of a Snow in Summer tree
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Our KZN Trip
We went to KZN in October and took lots of pictures – as usual. Join us in a brief journey through Hluhluwe and St Lucia
The Narina Trogon was the sighting of the trip so it takes pride of place and for the purists, we saw it in St Lucia.
Burchels Cougal or Vlei Loerie or Rain Bird. Such a beautiful bird
Wild Jasmine grows all over Hluhluwe.
It rained for most of the time we were there. Kept the temperature down, but was a bit disappointing for the birding.
This buffalo was getting rid of parasites in a hollow. Looked a bit foolish
The viz was awful and the sea rough
Together Diving.
Rhinos in Hluhluwe. Family outing
Warthog and Red Billed Ox Peckers
Crowned Lapwing
We went to Bontebok National park on Sunday. On the way down to swim in the Breede River we noticed a bird we didn’t recognise. Out came the birding books and the camera as this tiny, sparrow looking bird dodged in and out of the road margins.
The only bird that matched the description, had one small issue. It was completely out of range. The southern most border of its range was north of Ceres in the Tankwa Karoo. Diagnostic feature? Solid black under wings.
An SUV thundered past and the bird took flight.
Black under wings A communal “Oh!”
We get home and consult the experts and they agree that what we saw was a vagrant Black Eared Sparrow Lark.
Pardon the awful picture but seeing as how the picture is now on the Rare Birds webpage with my name attached it cannot be all that bad.