Surfing Phantoms in Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa

There are three very close breaks on Jeffrey's Bay main beach. Dolphin Beach is a beach break, meaning a sandy bottom and waves break randomly based on the days contour of the beach bottom. It's called Dolphin Beach because in the evening you literally see the Dolphins surfing the same waves you are on. Next to that is Kitchen Windows, named by an old timer at J-Bay because he could see the break out of his kitchen window. After that a restaurant opened in front of the break called, "Kitchen Windows." It is a point break, meaning the waves break the same way all the time as they are formed by a reef on the ocean bottom. Today Kitchen Windows was a bit crowded so my coach, Kelvin, decided we would go to Phantoms about 100 yards next door. Why Phantoms? Because while the waves are as good as Kitchen Windows, there are fewer people. You see the break is a lot farther out which means a long paddle. No worries, I'm very fit. Ha! My arms were rubber when I got out there. It was great though to surf a point break, knowing that the waves would generally break in the same spot every time. The tricky part is that you have to keep yourself in that spot. Harder than you'd think. Another first for me was surfing at night. It wasn't totally dark as we paddled in but all of the lights were on. You'd think it would be scary, but it wasn't. It was actually very peaceful and relaxing. What a great day!

Walk on a Fiery Sunset - 248/365

I continue to post my 365 images as I get to them. It was tough enough to make the images let alone post them everyday. To that end I am still catching up and I plan to make a small book of all of the images. I'll have more information on that as soon as I get some information on details and possible publication methods. I want to get back to real photographs that you can hold in your hand and not just see on the computer. Nothing beats having an album.

I made this image one evening when I saw this beautiful fiery sunset and there were a couple of people walking on the beach. I wanted to convey how nice and simple life can be by just taking a walk with a loved one. I made this with my Fuji camera and I made three exposures and combined them to be able to get the bright light of the sun and the shadows in the same image.

The Mountain from the Boerewors Gordyn

Table Mountain is virtually everywhere you look in Cape Town. This is a view of the mountain at dusk from one of the Northern Suburbs along Plattekloof Road, in what is known as the Boerewors Gordyn (Eng Phonetic: Boorevors Hoardane) (Translation: The Boer Curtain) beyond which the main language spoken is Afrikaans. This dates back to when the English controlled Cape Town. The English ruled the Cape and people in and around the city and the Southern Suburbs spoke mainly English, where the Afrikaaners that were not fond of English rule stayed in the Northern Suburbs and mainly spoke Afrikaans. To this day I almost need a translator there. Not really, but you can instantly tell that the primary language is Afrikaans. Plattekloof offers a beautiful view of the city as it is at this point where you start gaining elevation away from Cape Town toward the East. My 365 Project 103/365.

Flying at Sunset in Cape Town

I came home from photographing in Cape Town today to find the parking lot by my beach full of cars with Windsurfing gear on top. The Windsurfers were taking advantage of the roaring Southeaster and the break that is so famous right in front of my apartment in Melkbosstrand. My strength has always been action sports photography and it was the perfect day and time of day to make some images. I used my Canon 5D Mark III with a 70-200mmIS L lens with a 2X converter. I made the image at 1600 ISO at f5.6 and 1/2000th of a second to be able to capture him in flight. I've seen these guys pull off this move a few times when the waves were this high. Many of the guys that come to my beach are pro's and Olympic hopefuls from all over the world. This guy was from France. Image 18/365.

The end of Winter in Cape Town

I heard some debate to day on the radio whether or not this was the last day of winter here in Cape Town, South Africa. Regardless of whether it is or not I decided to go out with my iPhone and make an image of the potential last sunset of winter. The sunsets here never cease to amaze me. I guess that's what is experienced by living directly on the beach. To that end I thought a lot about the experiences I've had here and the realization that we, as individuals, do not experience enough beauty, nature, people, and travel. We tend, and by that I include myself, to allow too much of our lives to go by un-experienced! And also un-appreciated. As they say here in Cape Town, "sho, shame man." This place and the people here are amazing. I'm sure some will be long time friends. Are there problems here in Cape Town, yes, but probably no more that any other large city in the aggregate. People in Cape Town know how to live. They experience life to the fullest because they enjoy life. Take for instance the Braai. We in the U.S. would call it a Bar-B-Q. But here it has little to do with eating. It's about people getting together, building a fire out of wood and waiting hours until that wood turns to red embers prior to cooking. In the meantime people are talking, sharing experiences and a little bit of drinking. Do I miss family and friends back in the States? Of course I do, but the experiences that I have had and made here, and have yet to experience are, and will be priceless. And I plan on sharing those with others when I get back to the U.S. So what started out in my mind as just going out and making a simple image has reminded me of all of the advice that you hear in song, in writings, and in the movies.  Go out and experience life. Take that risk. Travel to that place that you've always planned on visiting, but haven't. Most of all, live a life without regret!