Photo Challenges

A Study in Black and White

/ El Rolyat / 23 Comments

What better subject for Cee’s Black and White Challenge: Open Topic than the famous Boulders Beach Penguins.

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Boulder Beach African Penguins – Simons Town, Cape Town

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Once known as Jackass Penguins, this colony at Boulders Beach was established by just one pair as recent as 1985

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This looks a likely nesting site

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African Penguins are monogomous and normally mate for life

Cee's Black and White Photo Challenge: Open Topic

Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Open Topic

Colourful Cape Town

/ El Rolyat / 16 Comments

I’m a week late for entering Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Vibrant Colours but that’s because we were lucky enough to have been able to take a much-needed week’s break in one of Africa’s (and perhaps the World’s?) most beautiful cities – Cape Town.

Unbelievably I forgot to take my camera – I was so annoyed with myself! So some of these pictures I took with my phone (I’ve still not mastered that skill) and the rest are from our trip to Cape Town in January.

We stayed in an apartment at Whale Watchers in Muizenberg where the views from our bedroom window were breathtaking.

Muizenberg - looking across the bay towards Simons Town and Cape Point

Clouds rolling in to Muizenberg – across the bay from Simons Town and Cape Point

A clearer, warmer day

A clearer, warmer day

I could wake up to this every morning

Oh to wake up to this scene every morning!

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So bright and colourful and cheerful

So bright and colourful and cheerful

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Also seen in Muizenberg

I love all the small shops and alleyways in and around Kalk Bay.

Intriguing

Intriguing

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Of course a visit to The Brass Bell in Kalk Bay is compulsory – the view, the ambience and the cocktails are superb.

Cocktails at Kalk Bay

Cocktails at Kalk Bay

Early Morning Elephants

/ El Rolyat / 4 Comments

Early this morning we had to drive into town to buy fuel for the wheat harvester. At eight o’clock it was already very hot (but not as hot as mid-day yesterday when we measured 48 degrees celsius in the vehicle!) and the heat haze shimmering on the tar looked like puddles of water. We are not expecting rain for at least another two months and it is going to get hotter and hotter every day until that rain arrives.

Smoke from bush fires hung thick in the air, reducing visibility to a few feet. Then we rounded a corner and became stuck in an unusual traffic jam.

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Don't even think of coming any closer!

Don’t even think of coming any closer!

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Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge – Candid Photography

/ El Rolyat / 4 Comments

Candid photographs are my favourite. I love capturing my subjects when they are unaware they are being watched.

Last year we went on a short holiday to Cape Town. I’m not a crowded beach sort of person but one day we decided to take a look at Camps Bay. Being summer we weren’t the only ones with the same idea and the only parking we could find was a very long way from the beach.

Walking back to the car in the late afternoon we passed a small park. These three men were sitting on the bench feeding the birds, one bird was so close to them it was almost touching their legs. Just as I took this shot someone on the road hooted. I was annoyed at the time but I think the result is quite effective.

Camps Bay, Cape Town

Candid Camps Bay

This mother duck and ducklings were as intrigued by the canoeist as he was by them.

Ducklings - Marina da Gama, Muizenberg

Ducklings – Marina da Gama, Muizenberg

 

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To Market to Market, to Sell Some Fat Pigs (and a Goat)

/ El Rolyat / 4 Comments

Many of my photos are taken ‘on the run’, through the front windscreen of the car, and Piet has become accustomed to my cries of “Oooh! Slow down! I need to get a picture of that!”

Yesterday driving into town I noticed this bus ahead of us.

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Luckily a few kilometers ahead there is a security check for vehicles entering the Mosi-oa-Tunya National park, so I could get a couple of clearer shots and establish exactly what it was on top of that bus.

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To market to market, to sell some fat pigs (and a goat)

To market to market, to sell some fat pigs (And a goat. And some chickens)

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