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Seaside

PhotoFriday's word for the week is 'Seaside'. Recently my family and I have taken to going to the beachfront early on a Sunday morning, parking the car and taking a long walk along the promenade. It's something I really enjoy doing and I find it's a great way to relax and de-stress. It doesn't help that we stop along the way for a huge breakfast, but then isn't that what Sunday mornings are for? Hope you like today's pic.

My Favourite Spot

One of my favourite spots in the world has to be a place called Fairways. It's a group of chalets situated on the golf course of the Drakensberg Gardens resort in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. We go there for a week every year at roughly the same time, and it's a holiday I really look forward to. This pic is taken from the Glen Gary Country Club dam at about 5:30 in the morning, when the temperature was only 1°C!!

Dandelion

The other day I decided to try a lens reversal technique I'd read about, basically reversing a 55mm lens and mounting it in front of a 200mm lens. It works pretty well but depth of field is practically non-existant. Vigetting is also a bit of a problem but I think the pro's far out-weigh the cons. This kind of photography seems to open up a whole new world that we never see, and I find that fascinating!

Eye Spy!

I spied a new website the other day called 'PhotoFriday'. I used to try a daily photo challenge at another site but with family, work, social life and other commitments, I found it hard to achieve a good shot every single day. PhotoFriday is similar but they give you a challenge word every Friday and you've got the rest of the week to submit your pic. Today's word is 'Eyes', so I hope you like my first entry.

Such a poser!

I have a small water feature in my garden which I bought to encourage nature and wildlife. It's also great for the kids as there's often a frog or crab, or a few hundred tadpoles swimming about. Usually as soon as you approach the pond, the frogs and crabs scatter, so you have to be really quiet and not make any sudden moves. Yesterday however, when I got out my camera to take a few shots, this little chap didn't budge. On the contrary, he seemed to enjoy every moment. Me too actually.

Brushing up my skills

We are SO busy at work at the moment as we've been invited to tender for the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011. It's a HUGE honour involving only 11 design houses in the whole world, but there's a lot to do. Basically I get to run into the office in the morning, read the daily prompt, shoot my pic and upload, all in about ten minutes. So you'll have to forgive me if it looks at though not much thought has gone into my pics, because it's true!!

Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

So often in life, it’s the simple things that get out of hand and become a real mission. Like trying to untangle a pile of wire clothes hangers, or undoing a knot in my sons shoelace. This morning I thought I’d shoot a roll of tape for today’s HS:MS:HS prompt, which is ‘cling’. Before I knew it everything was stuck to everything else, and somthing simple had become a mission. Lots of fun though, and I’m pleased with the result.

I went for a walk

I went for a walk today. It's been such a rough day at the office today that by lunchtime I'd had enough and decided to go for a walk. I've been working for this company for over a year now and still don't know the area at all. Basically I drive to work and drive home, so it was quite interesting seeing sights I've never seen before, one of which was today's 'shimmering' gate.

And your point is?

Today's HS:MS:HS word is 'broken' and do you think I can find something broken? The brakes on my car need fixing, but I can't photograph that, my airconditioner is making a funny rattling noise, but I can't shoot that either. It seems everything that's broken can't be photographed. So I thought about a pencil, and can you believe it, not a broken pencil anywhere. Oh well, there is now!! Now where did I put the sharpener...?

Passage of time...

I wish I'd bought my new camera years ago. A lot of my photos were taken a while ago with my old camera which was a cheap point and shoot digital camera that came free with the video camera we bought, and it's that little cheapie that got me hooked on photography. When I look back at old pics knowing what I know now, I often think I could have done better had I done this or that. But I suppose that's what it's all about, getting better all the time.

light@night

I feel bad for using today's pic because I took it a while ago. For me, the whole purpose of HS:MS:HS is to challenge me to think daily about how I'm going to shoot something so that my photography improves. It's shouldn't be a case of pulling out something I shot a while ago. But I couldn't resist using today's pic because it's so appropriate and it's one I really like so you'll have to forgive me today. That being said, here's today's 'Light'.

Glossing over things

Boy am I thrilled with this pic. I had actually given up on today's prompt and was getting ready to leave for work this morning. I was moving the car out of the garage when I noticed the 'glossy' part of the gear lever. Needless to say I ran back into the house and grabbed my camera, got as low as possible in the car, and snapped off four or five good shots. I'll admit I played with the contrast a little to get the shadows a bit darker, but overall, I'm very happy.

An Apple a Day...

I really enjoyed shooting today’s pic. As soon as I saw the prompt I thought of photographing my computer, which has the Apple logo on the side. It’s not exactly colourful but I still think it makes a great subject. It was either this or a can of Appletiser in the fridge, but I thought this one would be a little more original. Usually I snap a few pics and choose the best one to upload, this time however I took the first pic and was happy with it straight away.

Letting off Steam!

You'll have to forgive me for today's boring pic, but because I was stuck at the office all day, I really didn't get a chance to invest any thought into today's HSMSHS word of the day. And because we're an ad agency where everything is industrial and mechanical, there's nothing 'moist' to shoot, except for our very loyal and somewhat abused kettle, our faithful caffiene provider!! This shot is a close-up of the top of the kettle where a bit of steam seems to escape and condense on the lid.

Reflections on life...

As I'm sure you're aware, we recently returned from a week away in the Drakensberg, which is a beautiful mountain range here in South Africa. While we were there it snowed which was totally out of charater for this time of the year, and it was the first time ever that my kids got to play snow. There's a small lake in the resort which is the subject of today's pic. I would have loved the water to be still so that the reflections could have been more visible, but sadly it wasn't the case. I'm still pretty pleased with the resluts.

Dump the whole lot!

I often worry about whether or not to compose a shot to make it look as natural as possible, or to leave it as I found it, which is probably more natural, although sometimes it doesn't look natural, make sense? No! Today's HSMSHS word is 'set' and last nigh I thought about some tools, either a set of spanners or a socket set. The problem was how to spread them on the kitchen counter to shoot them. After much fiddling about I eventually just dumped the whole lot and shot them where they lay.

Serendipity

I don't usually take part in SOS prompts, not because I don't want to, but because weekends usually consist of soccer in the mornings, shopping before lunch, working in the garden after lunch and church in the evening, ie not much time for practicing photography. However while working in the garden this time, I saw this HUGE drogonfly, easily the largest I've ever seen, and he was quite happy to let me take a few shots.

Baked (not fried)

On a recent trip to see family in Johannesburg (about 5 hours by car) we decided to take the kids to the zoo. If there's one thing South Africa has that we're really proud of, it's our wildlife. We have what we call the Big 5: Lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino, as well as many others like giraffe, hippo, cheetah, etc. But the one I'm not that fond of is the crocodile, and even though I don't like them much, I couldn't help shooting these two 'baking' in the sun.

To have and to hold...

If there's one thing I'm learning through photography, it's that I'm beginning to see beautiful things in everyday life that ordinarily I would have missed. In the past I would have seen my son pick a flower and I would have thought 'how sweet' and carried on doing what I was doing. These days I'm constantly thinking what a beautiful shot it would make. Again, I can't claim the credit for today's pic, thanks go to my ever alert wife (who's already claimed my old camera. This hobby could get rather expensive).