Cape Town – Page 22 – Notes from the Cape

Published January 19, 2012

Lightpainting

Sometimes you need to have some fun, enjoy the process and not worry too much about the outcome. So when I saw that my Christmas tree lights had not yet been put away, I plugged them in, took out my camera, set it on a low shutter speed and did some finger painting!

The results are a little abstract and trivial, but I had loads of fun, and sometimes that is what it is all about.

Although thinking about it, the bright lights in front of a black background could be an omen on the future of the SOAP bill; I hope so.

Here are a few more of the pictures.

Cape Town

abstract cape town

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Published January 16, 2012

On the water

I spotted these early morning paddlers while driving to work, so I grabbed my phone and took the shot. I like the way the duck appears to be watching the paddlers.

Cape Town South Africa Travel

cape town lakeside scenery sport water

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Published January 11, 2012

Muizenberg at night

After the previous two action photos, here is something to mellow down a little with. This was a long exposure (30 second) shot taken on the rocks of Muzienberg beach just after sunset. No, there is no HDR processing involved. This is just how it came out.

Here is another shot from the same shoot – enjoy!

Cape Town

beach cape town muizenberg night rocks

Kitesurfing in Muizenberg

On the same day that I took the windsurfing shots, I went down to the beach to watch the kite surfers. Now if you think that the windsurfers go fast, they are like a child with training wheels on a new bicycle compared to the crazy kite surfers.

If you put skydiving, water skiing, windsurfing and surfing into a giant bowl and mixed, you would get something resembling kite surfing. This is the only water-sport I know where wearing a helmet is (or at least should be) considered good form.

I don’t know how high they jump, but it looks like it can easily be over 5 meters. Sometimes you can see the beginners practise on Zandvlei (where the wind surfers usually are), and it takes a lot of practise and skill to get as good as this guy.

Buy wow, it looks like fun, maybe I will try it someday.

Cape Town

cape town kite surfing muizenberg sport wind

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Published January 5, 2012

Windsurfing on Zandvlei

While my blog has been a little quiet over the past few days, it is not because I have had nothing to post, but rather because I have been to busy shooting over the last few days. The glorious days in Cape Town over the Christmas period provided me with plenty of opportunity for some outdoor shooting. I will post some of the results over the next few days.

Firstly, windsurfing on Zandvlei.

When the South-Easter blows, it blows through False bay and straight across Zandvlei, which makes it a bit of a Mecca for windsurfers. In summer you are guaranteed to see a few windsurfers zipping up and down the vlei at high speeds. They surf at spectacular speeds,and of course they crash spectacularly as well.

When the nose dips like that, you know you are going to do down.

When I moved to the area I tried it out for several months, but alas my balance is just not good enough for this sport. So I have to content myself with shooting (with a camera) the windsurfers. They only come out when the wind blows, but at this time of year that is almost all the time.

Weekly top shot

Cape Town South Africa

cape town sport windsurfing zandvlei

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Published December 26, 2011

Cycling to Cape Point

After all the wonderful meals I ate yesterday, some exercise was much needed, so I took the opportunity of a relatively cool and wind-free day to go for a morning cycle.

I went from home to the entrance of the Cape Point Nature Reserve, and the roads were surprisingly quiet. This was not the case on the return cycle; by then Cape Town was awake and about a million people were headed off to the beaches along my route.

Anyway, I cycled for 56km so I am ready for tonight’s dinner out :-)

Cape Town Travel

cape town cycling scenery sport

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Published December 24, 2011

Christmas lights

Bokea created with the Christmas lights on my ree, Happy Christmas everybody

Cape Town

cape town christmas lights objects

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Published December 21, 2011

On fire

We have mountain fires in Cape Town every summer. Usually they happen when it is hot and windy, and mostly they are started by cigarette butts being thrown out of car windows.

This year is no exception. On Saturday the mountain just above Boyes Drive was on fire, and the fire-crews were using two helicopters to dump water onto the fire. Because it was so close to my house and I live right next to the vlei, I watched the choppers collecting the water out of the lake before dumping it onto the fire.

It was pretty amazing watching the choppers, incredible skill in dropping down to grab the water, and then dumping it right on the hot-spots. This is in the cross-winds and flying through all the smoke. These are amazing pilots.

Thankfully, they managed to put this one out quite quickly, and there didn’t seem to be any major damage. We have had some pretty major fires in the past.