It has been a cold and wet winter. Floods, wind and icy conditions but there is an upside. The storm clouds look great in black and white
Not really black and white. I was playing with an app on my phone and managed to capture this
This gif is made from a series of pictures taken of a mating flight of two Pale Chanting Goshawks – the birds were a long way away but the dance makes up for the lack of sharpness
We joined the Honorary Rangers of the Agulhas Reserve for a birding weekend. The weather was cold and very windy, as only the Agulhas Plains can be. It was not really conducive to much standing around in the open but we did do some good birding just sitting in the car.Even though this is a birding page, you must have a couple of nice travel shots.
Agulhas has probably the most bizarre and intriguing lighthouse. More like a Medieval castle converted to lighthouse duties. It makes for an interesting picture.
The other side is more ordinary, but still an impressive structure.
You can see from the next picture just how powerful the wind was. Those are female weavers clinging on for dear life while the wild wheat blows under them.
Here is a picture of some of the birders returning from a bracing walk in a minor gale.
Flowers – you gotta have flowers. Actually, those white things at the feet of the birders in the picture above are these flowers.
There is a bird in the next picture. Promise.
See? There is a bird. Only a bit small. An LBJ (Little Brown Job) and it is a Large Billed Lark – after much deliberation.
We saw some fish eagles in the far distance and photographed them for id purposes. Turns out we got some rather pleasant landscape pictures as well. There are two fish eagles in there, but check out the landscape. Lovely.
Silhouette of a kite playing the winds.
Weavers sheltering from the wind.
Down at the watering trough.
A kelp gull found an ideal sheltering place.
A white chested comorant takes the early morning sun.
Terns sheltering from the wind.
Waves in the wind.
Here’s looking at you. Cape Spur Fowl.
Steppe buzzard readying for flight.
Cape Robin Chat. We had, by this time migrated to Riviersonderend.
This is a set of photographs that I took when going to photograph a full moon. The clouds, as usual came up and messed up the moon, but they did leave me with some fine sunset photographs
The only pictures I got of the full moon. And then sunset came
We went to the Citrusdal Baths in September 2023 and we got some lovely photographs.
Sunset on our first evening there – the Cederberg Mountains in their evening finery
I was all set up to take photos of the stars at 10 PM. And the clouds rolled in. In disgust I went to bed. At 2 AM answering a call of nature I looked outside and found that the clouds had cleared and this was the view. In a pair or shorts and an open tee shirt I braved the 5 degree cold to take a series of photos, this one being the best.
Coral trees are just so photogenic
And not forgetting the nastutians
And a bit of macro photography to finish up.
I couldn’t resist this image as the heron admired his image in the water.
I was in Namaqualand and took the opportunity to drive the Botterkloof pass which is a really steep spectacular pass.
On the way there, I was being pressurised by a guy in a big SUV so I let him get ahead and he raced away. I dawdled so I would not be in his dust, but when he got to the pass, he lost his nerve and crept down the pass much to my disgust. I drive Subarus for their amazing road holding and one of the pleasures is sweeping down dirt road passes at a good speed.
Apologies for cursing so much about his chicken hearted driving.
Clouds passing over the Aghulas plain south of Riviersonderend.
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.
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.
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.
