Getting lost on a 'road trip'

Well, road trip may be a bit of an overstatement . . . but we did get a wee bit lost. On Saturday I headed out with some wedding photographer friends to go and find the car museum just off the N1. We did most of it right but apparently missed a small but crucial turn and ended up on a random road with a randomly awesome field and randomly awesome derelict couple of houses. Just your average photo outing :)

If you'd like to see more of my landscape pics you can see them here. They are, like these, at a fairly low res to allow for faster loading.

Early Morning Drive

So I'd intended to go into Durbanville and out the back end into the surrounding countryside - I was in search of cows - but I ended up going through the Du Toit's Kloof tunnel and through its grime into the sunshine on the other end. I'd love to shoot in the tunnel. I'd love to take a scraping from it's thick black walls. But I'd need a gas mask. And I have a feeling it's illegal to stop. And I watched a double tanker petrol truck come through and it had a fire emergency truck that had to follow it. So I drove through to where the sun was up in the other side, stopped for coffee at a dodgey little hole in the wall and then came back over the Du Toit's Kloof pass. I passed baboons - a troupe of about thirty - with the alpha at the back sheperding his females with their clinging babies across the road. And I got yelled at by a big farmer in a Toyota bakkie for stopping on a blind corner (the things we do to avoid making roadkill of wildlife and to get a good photo!) I didn't get any good photos of the baboons - it would've involved getting out the car again and that big boy alpha looked pretty fucking mean. But I got a change to pull over a few times on the pass - I love those rest stops - they always look like relics from the 50s and 60s. And then I saw the coolest limo I've seen in ages. The number plate said Baby Lim and the front end of it was made from what looked like an old Mazda. The back end definitely came from a late 80s early 90s Toyota Corolla. And the middle bit was of an indeterminate origin, but the central door had lights around it, like you'd put up around a vanity mirror. I was way too scared of the mean men inside to ask them if I could photograph their ride but I am wondering if it was worth being safe instead of grateful for a really cool photo.

Enjoy the pics. I was feeling fairly dark this morning. Hence the exposures. If you'd like to see more of my landscape photographs have a look at my website.

Chrissi in the light

I did this of Chris, a dear friend of mine, at a wedding we were both at (she as a guest, me as photographer). We were actually on our way to the loo and I got distracted by the lights which had turned a particular shade of dirty red from the fires (which I think have been in Grabouw and the smoke is coming all the way through here) and figured Chrissi's gorgeous dress would look awesome with that as a backdrop. So it was a slow shutter and freezing her face with the flash. Being in a hurry - to get to the loo before the speeches started - I just left the flash on my other camera, propped the whole thing (5D and 70-200 lens and speedlite) in a tree stump and set it to slave. The flash on my wide angle I just angled back (there was nothing behind me) and off we went. The hardest part was getting the slave to see its master, but it did eventually!

Same Day Different Mood

On the beach again

Dan and I were on the beach again. This time in the mist.

Dan's, "Please, call me Joe" expression (its from an episode of Scrubs . . . and had us smiling like dumbasses for weeks!).

I really struggle to keep my eyes open when the flash goes - majorly light sensitive!

Guess what we saw on the way out. I must've taken about 20 pics of him/her(?) and walked from about 10m away to within a metre and a half. By the time I stopped walking I was right on the edge of my 70-200's focussing limits (so you know just how close I was). He/she let me stay there for quite a while and then, after giving me the evil eye a few times, decided s/he had had about enough of me and winged off into the mist.

Photo outing with Dan (and Bear)

It's quite annoying that it loads the pics up assbackwards, but it's too early to get too anal retentive! Dan and I went on a photo-outing (clearly I got started very early on in the day).

We started in the Melkbos Nature Reserve (my folks are still on at me to get them a shot of Table Mountain . . . which I'm clearly struggling with!). While there Bear got attacked by a Boerbull - horrible dogs - and I turned into a crazy woman - throwing my camera down in the sand and apparently yelling "Don't you dare bite my dog!" (I have no recollection of this). I do remember grabbing the Boerbull - whose name is Rocky - by the collar and yanking him backwards and then pushing his head into the sand. At which point I kind of thought that I might be being a little braver than I really am. Turns out Rocky decided that I was clearly pack leader and was quite happy to make friends with me (just not with my dog!). Dan - alerted by all the ruccous - came to save his Bear only to discover that Bear had thought being pinned down and throttled a great game. Bullmastiffs rock.

Rocky's owner was very apologetic and said he'd never done anything like that before. And then went on, during the course of our remarkably civil conversation, to explain how he was a Boerbull mixed with a St Bernard and that the reason they went for this dog was because their last 'thoroughbred' Boerbull had turned aggressive and that they'd now done research on these guys and they were meant to be less aggressive. I wanted to ask her what increments she used to measure that drop in aggression. And whether she knew that St Bernard's are also known for their aggression and taciturn natures. But, hey, you can't throw someone else's dog and be rude to them in one day.

So (rant out of the way) we then decided to drive out into the farmland between the N7 and the N1. After that it was off for a farmhouse breakfast at Bloemendal - where Bear got the respect he so very rightly deserves: the chef sent out an extra plate of bacon for him :)

Bear on the Run

My folks asked me to do some panoramas of Table Mountain - not what I'd really choose to shoot, but fun never the less. Dan and Bear came along for the ride and were happily walking along the beach and the dunes quite content to ignore me and get on with their own thing when suddenly Bear decided he needed to be where I was. Don't know why. But I did manage to quickly swing the camera his way and snap off some pics of him charging towards me! For me it's the last pic that makes it - that dumb-ass crazy look on his face - but it's the first two that set up that shot, so I included them all.

Happy Snapping

So Dan says to me the other day, "You know, you haven't taken any photos just for yourself in ages - you really should you know. It makes you happier". And because I'm (just occasionally) stubborn and prickly I think, bugger that, I've taken loads of photos just for myself. Which of course is not true. And it's been a while since I've gone out to shoot something that I specifically wanted to shoot just for myself.


I still haven't taken his advice, though I think I should soon, but in the meantime I took pics of him. And the dog. And our first braai in the new place. Which was a very, very lazy affair on our part (hence Dan in his slippers . . . ). But it was good just to play. And take random photos.