Recently I bought an attachment that would allow me to take photographs with my cell phone mounted on my 8″ Newtonian reflector. After much cursing and swearing, I captured some great pictures. These two photos were possibly the best.
This post will be updated regularly with pictures of flowers from the Fynbos biome in the Western Cape, South Africa. The flowers were photographed all over the place and I will not be giving localities because some are so old that I cannot remember where I took the pictures.
Or African Harrier Hawk. We occasionally see this magnificent raptor in the Cape Town CBD. This time a neighbour spotted the bird and called us. It was sheltering from a Cape winter storm in a palm tree. I managed to get some pictures. The problem was that it was quite dark and rainy. Also the neighbour had fire burning and the smoke drifted across our line of sight. The troubles of birding photography.
A man prepares kayaks on a Mouille Point beach.
They say you should should only photograph using RAW images but I have not put any effort into learning the processing packages. A recent picture of a Juvenile Fiscal Flycatcher had bad contrast and lighting, It was ideal for post-processing using DarkTable. The result was pleasantly surprising. Here are the results of my initial efforts. Probably with more practice the results will be better, but I am quite pleased with what I achieved.
This is the original pictures. Note how little detail is visible on the back of the bird and how the colours are muted.
Here is the same picture after processing. The difference is quite marked.
Some Astro photography pics
I wanted to enter an art competition and decided on a photo collage. I grabbed photos from my various albums and concocted an image which I called Walking into Twilight. It did not make the grade. Oh well, better luck next time
Scorpio sets behind a stand of Casuarinas in McGregor.
Living in Gardens Cape Town is a privilege. The views are extraordinary. Here are some night time photos. Venus and the moon in close conjunction.
Whirling silently in space.
