A businessman walks down a long flight of stairs between meetings.
Tag: <span>street</span>
Cape Minstrels, 2nd new year’s parade. They are a noisy and colourful spectacle to watch, but the organization is poor. You can stand around for hours and see a few groups come past. Then there is nothing for a while, and then another group.
Painted face
Painted face
Dancing in the street
Still playing around with the high-contrast black and white conversions, this was taken right the other side of the world in Las Vegas. This was somebody was sleeping on a stone bench somewhere along the strip. No doubt he had nowhere else to sleep. Of course I am grateful to not be in that particular situation.
I would love some feedback on this technique. Does it work, too much, too little? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
I have been playing around with black and white conversion of some of my photos. Specifically using dodge and burn to bring out the contrast and detail in pictures. These are two of my results.
This was taken on Greenmarket Square, a trading area in the Cape Town city centre. This man was sitting on an office chair in the middle of the street, reading the morning newspaper. If you look closely, you can read the headlines “public whipping”.
For several years I worked in the city bowl (our “downtown” area), and I really miss it. It is so vibrant and alive; full of interesting people. There is always something happening, and I used to love wandering around the streets at lunch time absorbing the colourful spectrum that is Cape Town.
So today when I was about 1/2 hour early for a meeting in the city bowl, I grabbed my point and shoot and I hit the streets (I don’t carry my SLR all the time). I am also trying to focus on people, which is why I took these three shots on the street.
This man set-up his chair, and sat reading the paper in the middle of a pedestrian road. I think that some people read the newspaper as much to read the news as because it is a way of life for them.
An art seller, just chilling and waiting for the next crowd of tourists to arrive. Notice the office chair on the pavement.
This stall-holder looked very happy, enjoying the sun in the brief bit of sunlight we had today, sitting in a 70’s style chair. I love shooting people, they always leave me wondering where they come from, what they are thinking, how they got to be where they are, and where they may be in the future. Thank you to partypoker for this post. They offer a bonus of up to $500 with your first deposit. And it is certainly cheaper that travelling all the way to Vegas to gamble. And of course you will be helping me to shoot more pictures.
An early group
Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it. On Sunday I wished for a wind-free day, and that is exactly what I got. However I didn’t wish for the temperature to go over 40 deg C, but it did!
By now you probably know that I cycled in the Pick n Pay Cape Argus Cycle Tour on Sunday. This was my 6th tour, and I clearly have an ability to pick interesting weather. Oh, how I would love to have a race in cool and wind-free weather. But not this year! Just to give you an example of some of the recent tours that I have completed:
- 2012: temperature peaked at 42 deg C
- 2010: howling wind (but not as bad as 2009)
- 2009: howling wind (over 120km/h – higher that what I experienced in hurricane Irene in USA 2011)
- 2006: rained (and crashed but still finished)
Maybe, just maybe next year will be great weather.
Relaxing before the start
While I didn’t take any pictures on the road, here are a couple (mostly) from the start line, and all on my phone (no my SLR does not go on the race with me). I hope this gives you a small taste of the feeling of being part of the 31324 cyclists that finished. There are so many people that while the first cyclists leave at 6:15am, the last leave after 10:30am which is after the first cyclists have already finished!
My group starting to assemble at the start line
The race leaves in groups of about 500, spread out every few minutes. My group left at 9:16am, and it was already sweltering. I drank over 9l water on the route, which is about what I usually drink in an entire week.
At the start line, about 5 minutes before my group started on the 110km route
The end, now I can relax for the next year, or at least until the 2 Oceans half marathon next month.
Here is a something unusual way to celebrate heritage day. Go for a 10km run through Gugulethu. I have driven past Gugulethu (or “Gugs” as it is locally known) many times, but I have rarely being inside, and certainly not on foot. It was a fantastic experience. Since we were basically running through the streets of a township, we had loads of wonderful supporters, screaming, shouting and blowing on their vuvuzelas to edge us on.
The run started at 7am, so as we ran through the streets, we got to watch the area wake up, with local “spaza” shops opening, taxis operating with their sound systems on full volume, fires being stocked for breakfast cooking, and entrepreneurs on every corner, finding ways to make an income.
I didn’t take my camera with me (a heavy SLR was not going to be a good idea while running 10km), but I had my trusty phone with me, which gave me a great opportunity for some street shots. My time was 1:08, which considering all the photostops was not bad at all. Over 7 min faster than my last 10km, so I am very happy.
Here are all the photos.
So if you have nothing else to do on Heritage Day next year, why not head off to Gugs and join me on the fun run?
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