On one of my last days in Cape Town, my sister Judy and I drove to the little fishing village of Kalk Bay. We were looking to buy some fresh fish off the boats, and found some Yellowtail for dinner. We had lunch in a wonderful little restaurant on the railway line, overlooking the bay, and explored the quaint shops full of all kinds of tempting treasures before heading home in the afternoon.
I just spent a few days in the Cape Agulhas / Struisbaai area at the southernmost tip of Africa, where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic. This part of the country is renowned for being unpredictable, with quick changes in the weather ,and wild seas, as evidenced by the many shipwrecked vessels littered along the rugged coastline. It is remote from the larger cities (a three hour drive from Cape Town, for example) and mainly comes alive during the summer, when holiday makers flock to its shores. Here are some photos that I took during my visit. What a beautiful place!
Every year I spend a few weeks in South Africa visiting my family. The first two weeks I spent in Durban with my mom, and we spent many hours sitting on her sunny verandah watching the garden birds as well as other random visitors. Here are some pics that I snapped during that time. Next on to Cape Town and a five day stay at Struisbaai, a beautiful little town near Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet.
I had the good fortune to spend a few days here in April, 2024. I randomly picked it as a result of a search for Texas locations within the path of the April 8th total solar eclipse. It seemed to meet all my criteria for an authentic Texas ranch experience as an aside to the eclipse event, and I went ahead and made a reservation. The reservation was in itself a miracle, since they were technically full and had been for a couple of years. Anyway, suffice it to say that the eclipse was a bust since we had heavy cloud cover on that day, but it didn’t seem to matter in the grand scheme of things, because the entire experience was one that I wouldn’t have missed for anything. Great place, great people, great food. Loved every minute. More info here : https://dixieduderanch.com/
I have photographed the onset of Spring at this location many times over the years, so this year I tried something a little different. There is a genre of photography called ICM (Intentional Camera Movement), which I have been playing with. It involves using longer shutter speeds and moving the camera intentionally while the shutter is open. It’s kinda hit and miss at the moment for me, but I’m enjoying the new challenge. Here are a few examples.
One of my favorite genres of photography is family portraits. There are specific lenses that are designed for portraiture, with the main purpose of separating the subject from the busyness of some backgrounds. This 135mm F1.8 Sony lens does a wonderful job of achieving just that. Here area few of my favorites from this session.
I had made plans a few weeks back to spend a few days in the Blowing Rock area in the hope that it might snow, and that I would capture some white, winter landscapes. Well, boy did it snow! In fact it snowed to the point where it caused significant chaos on the roads, and people were stranded all over the place. Some couldn’t travel home from ski resorts, and the roads and ditches were littered with cars planted firmly in the ice and snow. Not such a big deal up north, but certainly it certainly presented a challenge for the Watauga County public officials, stretching their resources to the limit. Fortunately for me, I was there for fun, and my Jeep Cherokee 4×4 certainly earned its stripes as it carefully transported me through a winter wonderland. One of my more thrilling and adventurous excursions!
The SpaceX program and their apparently bold and limitless imagination as to what can be achieved is so admirable. To me, it represents the brightest and best of American ingenuity and I plan to visit Cape Canaveral soon to witness a launch in person. In the meantime, I went out to Folly Beach on the evening of December 28th to see if I could spot Falcon Heavy fly by. Launch time was 20:07 and the trajectory was showing that it was passing up the eastern seaboard. I took my camera along for fun, and captured this shot of the separation from the boosters as the rocket continued on its journey into orbit. What a thrill!
The Sol Legare and Kings Flats area has an incredible history. “During the Civil War, the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was one of the first sanctioned African American regiments in the Union Army. The 54th fought on this narrow strip of land in 1863 during the Battle of Sol Legare. While fighting to free enslaved Americans during this battle, the 54th lost 14 men, with an additional 17 wounded and 12 missing. A mere two days later they went on to fight in the Battery Wagner battle (which you can see in the movie Glory starring Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman). In the late 1800s, newly freed enslaved Americans settled on Sol Legare to farm and fish. Many of its current residents are direct descendants of these original settlers.For more than 100 years, the Seashore Farmers’ Lodge on Sol Legare served as a community building for meetings, school, church and funerals.” (quoted from Rheosgear’s blog).
I have frequented this area over many years now. Back in the day, I would visit Thomas Backman at his seafood dock. He would usually be found working on his boat, Backman Enterprise, getting it ready to put back to sea. Sadly that never happened, since he passed away suddenly a few years back, and now the old shrimp trawler sits in mud most of the time, dreaming of better days. Here is a photo of him, taken back in 2011.
I went back down that way today, and took the following photo. Sadly his dock is now a jumbled mess of planks in the marsh, thanks to the battering of many storms and high tides. I guess some day this property will be sold and reimagined as a cluster of condos. Time marches on.
I was happy to have the opportunity to photograph this event for the Charleston Jazz Orchestra, and a very colorful and engaging evening it was. The 5pm show was totally sold out, and a great time was had by all. Here are a few of the photos.
