Spending time at the sea...

Another World - Canon 40D, Canon 17-55, 60s, f/9.5, ISO100, ND filter

I have just returned from a week at the sea with family, and for the first time in quite a while I have been able to spend some serious time photographing (see my previous post for the reason). It turns out that most of my keepers where made with a strong ND filter on my lens.

Quiver Tree Poetry!

Quiver Trees by Night 1 - Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16, 6x30sec, f/2.8. ISO 3200, Nodal Ninja

No, this is not a new image. But I am very excited that my fellow South African, Walter Schwim, has written a poem on quiver trees that perfectly accompanies Quiver Trees by Night 1 (or 2, for that matter). It was published on Poet's Collective. I reproduce it here with the kind permission of the author:

Chotje’s Vision

(Eyes of the Aloe)

Did you watch a gibbous moon
entangled in those starfish eyes
of wise old thorny Kokerboom
beneath Namakwa’s starry skies?
Did you touch his horny hide 
and ask him pardon for your rude
request that he in you confide
his thoughts and secrets un-eschewed?
Did he take you far away
beyond the feeble lunar glow
into his gleaming milky way
to places only Kokers know?
Where spirits fly on angel wings
for starfish eyes can see all things.

© WW Schwim, 2014

Why I've been quiet for so long

Mira - Fuji X100s, 1/80, f/2, ISO 500

A new star is born - well, actually she was born three months ago. My life has become a lot busier since then, especially because we have moved from a flat into a house (kids need a lot of space!). This also meant that I didn't have internet access at home for about a month. And with all the baby stuff, renovating and moving, I haven't had much time for photography.

Nevertheless, here are a few recent pretty images (don't worry, I won't show you any more baby pictures).

Shoot the moon!

The moon is watching - Canon 40D, 70-200 f4 IS, 0.3sec, f/22 ISO 100

On 15 March I joined a bunch of photographers to photograph the moonrise over Theewaterskloof Dam. The Helderberg Photographic Society does this thing about once a year, and this time Tafelberg Photographic Society wanted in on the act; it was fun shooting with a bunch of new faces.

Minor success at the WPO

Smoke on the Water - Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16, 20x30sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200

The above image of the Theewaterskloof Dam was commended at the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards. I had renamed the image, the old title being somewhat less inspired.

I was a bit luckier last time, when my Quiver Trees by Night 3 was shortlisted, and Quiver Trees by Night 2 was commended. Still, I'm very happy with the result, especially as 2013 really wasn't a good year for me, and this was one of very few decent images that I produced.

I'm Back!

Giraffe Portrait - Canon 40D, Canon 70-200 f/4 IS, 1/350, f/5.6, ISO 100

 I'm back after a three-week road trip to KwaZulu-Natal province with family. I won't bore you with the details, but I got to photograph beautiful landscapes, especially in the Drakensberg Mountains, as well as animals in the Addo Elephant National Park and the Ithala Game Reserve.

See below for some of my favorite shots.

Holidays!

Boulders and Clouds - Canon 40D, Canon 17-55mm, 1/60, f/5.6, ISO 100

Here is just a quick post to mention that I'm off on a road trip tomorrow morning that will take us to the Addo Elephant Park, the Drakensberg and Ithala Game Reserve. I'm really looking forward to this, and will hopefully get some nice landscape and wildlife shots.

Print orders

I will probably have sporadic internet access in the next three weeks, so I cannot promise that I will be able to process print orders in time for Christmas. I will be back on 5 January, however.

Baobab Panorama

Baobab Panorama - Canon 40D, Canon 17-55, 8x0.3s, f/8, ISO 100

I haven't posted anything for a while, and this post will be rather short, but rest assured that this blog has not been abandoned.

When my wife and I visited Madagascar in 2010, I took a number of shots for a panorama at the famous Baobab Avenue, just north of Morondava. When I got back home, I wasn't satisfied with my attempts to stitch this panorama (mostly because the sky was too bright), so I left it.

Recently, I got an email from a very friendly lady who wanted to buy one of my photographs, and asked if I have any baobab images in panoramic format, and perhaps in black and white. So I remembered the panorama I took, and reprocessed it again (now using Lightroom rather than Canon's own DPP which I used three years ago). This time I was very happy with the result, and the friendly lady now has a nice big canvas of this image on her wall.

My New Toy: The Fuji X100s

My new toy

This is not a gear review site - I have neither the time nor the money to test every new gadget that comes along. However, after weeks of deliberation and reading of such sites, I decided to buy myself a Fuji X100s, and in this post I'll share my impressions of this lovely little camera as well as some pictures I took with it in Moscow and Paternoster.

Theewaterskloof Dam

Theewaterskloof Dam after Dark - Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16, 20x30sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200

Theewaterskloof Dam lies just over the Franschhoek Pass. When it was established in 1978, it flooded a number of trees, whose bleached skeletons can still be seen poking out of the water. Some of them can be found on the sandy shores of the dam, depending on water levels, and make excellent photographic subjects. For example, The Eye of Sauron (mentioned in my previous post on infrared photography) was taken there back in 2011.

I arrived there late one afternoon a few weeks ago, just in time to catch the last light on some of the trees. I blundered along the swampy shore (it had been raining heavily earlier that week) and tried to reach the trees I had photographed two years ago, but in the gathering dark I eventually gave up and turned back. Next time I'll bring gum boots!

As the last of twilight faded away, the only remaining illumination was the light pollution from Franschhoek and Stellenbosch behind the mountains - and from the Milky Way, which was rising in the East.

I set up my tripod and panoramic head and took a series of 30second exposures at ISO 3200 (the highest my old 40D can manage) and f/2.8, which I eventually stitched into the panorama above. I'll show you my post-processing below. It's quite similar to how I made the Quiver Trees by Night series.