Endless Summer Surf

The West Coast of South Africa has many great surf spots: Noordhoek, Long Beach, Llundadno, Big Bay, Melkbos, and many more. One of the best, however, is Elands Bay, also known as the Jeffrey's Bay of the West Coast. It was made famous in the surf movie, The Endless Summer. Well I will be visiting this weekend on a surf tour run by my friends at Surf Emporium in Muizenberg. We'll be leaving on Friday afternoon and coming back to Cape Town Sunday afternoon. Elands Bay is only about 100 miles North of Cape Town and a surf is planned when we get there. We're staying in a B&B on a real working ranch. Elands Bay is also known for its hiking, wildlife observation and pre-historic cave paintings. Our guide and Coach will be Karel Lewy, an ISA Level 2 coach and Naturalist. Really looking forward to the trip! Also looking forward to using my new board and making plenty of images!

http://www.vensterklip.co.za

A SERIOUS WARNING!

I've meant to post this for a while now, and between work, surfing, Jiu Jitsu and the gym, I finally have time. A few weeks ago I went to download my camera memory card to process my images and my hard drive did not immediately connect. Not a problem, I tried it again, and still nothing. I ran the disk repair program and the worst word came up: CORRUPTED. Yes, my drive was now a paperweight. All of my images since I've been in South Africa were gone! My arrival. The time with my family on Safari when my Granddaughters save a real lion up close. Images of myself and friends. My 365 Project all gone! The horror! Not really. Not a problem. I just reformatted the drive, made sure it worked well and copied all of the images from my backup drive. HOW MANY OF YOU CAN DO THAT? I think the warning is obvious. Between here and the States I have about 6TB worth of images that I've kept. I have all of my images since my last trip to the States backed up on an 8TB drive in Miami and about the same equivalent here in Cape Town. The key is a backup that has another backup away from your home, or you keep your backup at work and bring it home on the weekends to back everything up. Why offsite? Fire, burglary, flood, etc...DON'T BE A DUMBASS! Drives are so cheap nowadays there is no excuse. Oh, and backup your phone images too. They are just as valuable. Take heed!

Amarula! - 209/365

I love this stuff! It's really the only thing I'll drink other than beer LOL! Amarula is a cream liqueur from South Africa. It is made with sugar, cream and the fruit of the African marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea) which is also locally called the Elephant tree or the Marriage Tree. It has an alcohol content of 17% by volume. It has had some success at international spirit ratings competitions, winning a gold medal at the 2006 San Francisco World Spirits Competition

Springbok Night Encounter - 170/365

A herd of Springbok at Night that I encountered as soon as I opened the door leaving work one evening. A quick snap with the Iphone was all I could manage before they took off. They were probably more surprised than I was. Since it was an Iphone image you can see how close they were to me. My365Project: Springbok Night Encounter - 170/365.

Abstract Art at the Gym - 140/365

I spend a lot of time at the gym so it is natural for me to see image making opportunities there. While I will always maintain everyone's privacy, I frequently see still life image possibilities. This was one of those. I made the image with my iphone. I quickly twisted it while pressing the shutter. This was the result after many failed attempts. Abstract Art at the Gym - 140/365

Venison at Woolworths? - My 365 project 109/365

Sometimes my 365 images are not about being artistic. Sometimes it's just interesting or a new thing I've encountered while here in Cape Town. First of all I've never seen Venison (Deer Meat) sold in a grocery store before. So that is interesting and different. On the other hand what is more interesting is to look at the name of the store: Woolworths. Lest it be confused with Woolworths in the USA. Here is the story.

Woolworths Holdings Limited (JSE: WHL) is a South African chain of retail stores and one of the largest in the country, modeled on Marks & Spencer of the United Kingdom.[2] This relationship with Britain's Marks and Spencer was formed after the Second World War, which led to the retailer buying all of the unissued share capital of Woolworths in 1947. These shares were later sold, but close ties still remain.[3] The first Woolworths store opened in The Old Royal Hotel in Cape Town in October 1931. It was founded by Max Sonnenberg assisted by his son Richard and Fred Kossuth.

The Woolworths brand now incorporates a series of food stores, some of which are attached to department stores, while others stand alone or are attached to Engen petrol stations in prosperous urban areas. Some branches include an in-store restaurant, branded as "Cafe W". Woolworths goods are sold at 149 corporate stores, 51 international franchise stores throughout the rest of Africa and the Middle East and 69 South African franchise stores nationwide.

The chain was named after the United States chain F. W. Woolworth Company but, because of the contemporary trademark laws, the name was legally used without permission. No financial connection ever existed between the companies. I thought it was rather interesting. They are almost like a Whole Foods, or Fresh Market. My 365 Project 109/365

"African Runner" Cape Town

"African Runner" 19/365
I was out for a run on my Cape Town beach, and making sunset images when I saw another runner coming my way. I waited for him to enter the frame anticipating a silhouette caused by the sunset. #365project #iphoneography #capetown #beachrun #sunset #melkbosstrand.

African Runner

iPhoneography. Better than you thought.

I've started shooting a lot more with my iPhone. I'm very impressed with the image quality and even more impressed with the various programs for shooting, editing, and custom ing your images. Here is an image that was edited and processed with multiple programs.