Weekly Post Challenge : Waiting

It’s the feastive season, so I figured it would be appropriate to try and do a post that would be relevant in terms of the “season”. We are heading into the end of the year after all. So for this weeks weekly photo challenge the blog returns to the end of last year, in fact the beginning of this year. The Cape Town Minstrels make their appearnce throughout the year at special events, though one event where they are definitely always present at is the New Years eve parade through the streets of Cape Town. I’ve posted about this previously, so those familiar with this blog may remember it. The New Years eve parade is followed by the New Years day parade, and once again on the 2nd of January. Thousands of people line the streets of the city on each of these occasions to witness the teams strutt their stuff.
I was out there this year taking some shots. The procession consists of numerous teams, and each of these has routine of song and dance, so the process of moving along the route can take some time. Once a team has performed in front of a section of the crowd, they move on and the next squad takes their spot and goes through their routine.
It doesnt take very long for these changeovers between teams, to become a bit time consuming, resulting in teams having to wait for one another to finish their routines before moving forward.
I took the opportunity to take a few shots of youngsters within some of the teams while they were “waiting” for the procession to move forward so that they could move into position and do their own routine.

Todays images are some of those moments…………..the journey continues …………………

Weekly Photo Challenge : Breakfast

Another great challenge, with probably numerous interpretations from every person, each as diverse as the next, with some undoubtedly original ones :-). For me, there are a few standard run of the mill options, though those dont get to be photographed. 🙂 just eaten :-). However, a memorable one I did photograph was while on a working trip in Tanzania, not too long ago, fresh fruit, served exactly as it came out of its skin, yummy 🙂 no toppings or coatings 🙂 just as nature intended 🙂 ……………………..the journey continues ……………………… 

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Weekly Photo Challenge : Wonder

Coincidences all over the place 🙂 I smiled to my self when I saw the topic of Todays Photo Challenge : Wonder. Today happens to be 11/11/2011 and at 11.11am today the announcement of the New Seven Wonders of Nature was to be made. From what I’ve read, the announcement did not happen exactly then, but it did later, and Capetonians as well as South Africans will be proud to know that Table Mountain made it on to the list of Seven.

Earlier this year, to be more precise on 10 June 2011, I did a post asking people to vote for our Mountain, https://4otomo.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/vote-for-table-mountain/ . Who knows perhaps it was one of those votes that swung it in Table mountains favour.

So this post is to say yoopeedoo!! we made it, and a special thank you to all of those who responded to my request to vote.
Here are some images of and from the Mountain that so deserves to be on that list…….

………..the journey continues…………..

Windows on Berlin

Those of you that have seen my Photo Challenge post for this week, will have already been transported to Malmo in Sweden, the location of that post. So, I figured that maybe it would be a good idea to head just a little south for a follow up post. Not too far South, just as far as Germany, to the city of Berlin. Also another conventional response, but a rather appropriate one, in my opinion.

The Reichstag building dates back to the late 1800’s. the building was victim to a fire in 1933 and was even subjected to bombardment during the World War.
But, that was then, time has moved on and the building was extensively restored in 1999, after which it became the official home of the Bundestag. The restoration was designed by Norman Foster.

The restoration included the introduction of a huge glazed circular dome at the top of the building, affording 360 degree views of the City of Berlin. The main hall of Parliament can be seen from the dome. The design of the dome included strategic placement of mirrors and glazing to allow radiation of natural light onto the parliament floor. An electronically operated solar shielding louvre rotates around the dome as it tracks the sun to prevent direct sunlight from being reflected into the main hall. The dome is accessible to the Public by arrangement. Two ramps that overlap one another provide access to the upper level of the dome, offering wonderful views of the City. If you look closely at the images of the ramps, you will notice that the one has people going up, while the other has them coming down the ramp.

I had the opportunity to visit the building a few years ago, fortunately, with camera in hand. When I saw the Photo Challenge topic I was reminded of these rather unique “windows”, because they work “both” ways, by offering views out of the building into Berlin, and are transparent enough to look into the building, especially at night when the illuminated dome above the building becomes visible………….the journey continues……..

Weekly Photo Challenge : Windows

Photo Challenge once again, and an extremely versatile topic once more, open to interpretation of all sorts. I’ve opted for the more conventional approach this week, so will stay with the obvious or maybe not so obvious 🙂 interpretation, which is windows, windows in buildings :-). But seeing that its conventional in the interpretation, I figured it needed something else too :-). So, fasten your seatbelts, make yourselves comfortable, we’re heading off to the city of Malmo in Sweden, or Scandinavia if you prefer a more wide angled view. Malmo is a city that is connected to Copenhagen in Denmark by the Oresund Bridge, which happens to be the longest rail and road bridge in Europe.
Coincidentally, the building that this post refers to is the highest skyscraper in Sweden and the Nordic countries. Turning Torso is a building designed by Spanish Engineer/ Architect Santiago Calatrava. 54 stories in height, comprising nine 5 storey pentagon segments, each twisting clockwise around a vertical core as the building rises 190m with a full 90 deg twist between the bottom and top floors. Essentially a multi use building with offices on the lower two segments and apratments in the rest.
Unfortunately, my wide angle lens was not wide enough to capture the entire building in one shot, though it is pretty close :-). The windows foloow the same rhythm on each of these nine segments creating an amazing graphic on the twisting building.
I visited the site a few years ago, and my submission today is some of the images I shot at the time……………the journey continues…………….

hide and seek……………..

Last weeks’ photo challenge – hidden, reminded me of a recent visit to the West Coast National Park, about and hours drive from Cape Town.
The area is home to many plant and bird species. I happened to be spending the weekend there with some friends. Naturally, the camera came along. Our lodging were alongside a lagoon which presented wonderful shooting opporunities.
As it turned out, we went for walk in the reserve, and on our way back nooticed something moving in a tree that was close by. On closer inspection we discovered that it was a Cape Eagle Owl, well camouflaged in the foliage of the tree. He (well lets assume he was male :-)) was perched pretty high up, so was not really unsettled by us approaching. He did try and move to a slightly better position for keeping an eye on us. He looked in very good condition, so didnt appear to be stranded because of injury or something. So here we were checking one another out, him peering around branches to get a good glimpse of me, and me moving around trying to get a clear shooting opportunity. I managed to get a few shots of him before he decided that he was just going to move deeper into the tree where it was no longer possible to see him too clearly, so I guess we were playing a little game of hide and seek, very appropriate considering last weeks challenge topic 🙂 – hidden- ……..the journey continues……………

Weekly Photo Challenge : Hidden

Weekly Photo Challenge time again 🙂 I’m a bit slow out of the blocks this week, but the old adge holds true, better late than never!! I received the mail with this weeks topic quite late on Friday, so I have a small excuse for a later post. 

I was walking on the Promenade alongside the sea yesterday evening as the sun was starting to set. Thee have been a few previous posts that have featured this location, perfect for watching sunsets with its west facing orientation. The weather had been a bit iffy for the whole day, with short bursts of rain, overcast skies at times, and bright sunshine with blus skies at others. As the sun slowly descended into the horizon, there was a huge cloud bank in front of it. And at that moment I remembered the topic for the challenge, “hidden”. And in this instance the sun was literally hidden by the clouds. Very appropriate for the challenge, and seeing that I had the camera, I took some shots. Difficult lighting, between the bright silver lining of the clouds, and the dark sea, but on the other hand, it just added to the drama of the scene. The scene was enhanced by the silhouettes created by the people in the foreground, adding shadows and scale. A pool of water left over from the rain, provided a perfect surface for reflections. As the sun descended further into the horizon, the glow behind the clouds turned to a fiery red, which looked like glowing coals on the surface of the water. …………..the journey continues…………….

Todays images are some of the shots that I captured………………..

 

opportunities with every cast…………..

It is becoming the norm for me to have a follow up post after the weekly photo challenge, and this week is no exception, with a topic like opportunity…one has to concede that opportunites abound 🙂 My follow up post takes me away from home, though still in South Africa. I was in Durban recently, and was determined to try and catch a sunrise at the beach, so realising an opportunity there. I prepared well in advance, packed the equipment I needed, checked the sunrise time, set the alarm etc all in the correct sequence.
Looking out of the window when the alarm finally manged to convince me it was time to start moving, I was met with an overcast sky. Undeterrred, I made my way to the beach. The cloud cover was quite low down, so I was not expecting a very dramatic sunrise. I noticed some activity on the pier and walked along it to check it out. There were a bunch of fisherman, preparing the lines with bait, and casting them into the water. When I saw this challenge topic, it reminded me of these fisherman, everytime that line with the bait and hook was cast into the water, was an opportunity to catch a fish. Sometimes, the line was reeeld in empty, but on a few occasions, the opportunity was realised and a shiny fish emerged from the water.

I watched them for a while and seeing it was past the time of sunrise, started walking back. As I did that I noticed the red glow on the water, and turned around. The sun had emerged from the sea and created a perfect backdrop for the silhouetted fisherman. Of course I had the camera in hand 🙂

Todays images are about those opportunities……………superimposed onto a dramatic sunrise……………..

The journey continues ……………….

Weekly Photo Challenge : Opportunity

How’s that for a coincidence? Last weeks photo challenge was possibility, after my original post for the challenge, I did a follow up post that was titled possibility and opportunity….so imagine the dejavu moement when I saw that the topic for this weeks challneg was opportunity.
Considering, this topic and my follow up post are rather synonimous, I’ve decided to continue the thread from the last post.

For those that did not read the last post, here is some context. I was visiting the Wildflower garden in Caledon, a little village not too far from Cape Town, the garden was an absolute kaleidoscope of really bright colours and flowers just oozing with pollen. I happened to notice this bumblebee ( prevously referred to as a gal 🙂 flying around and while tying to land, just reaching out and holding onto three or stems at a time. She had pollen all over, so was obviously having a great time just making the most of a perfect situation. It was pretty obvious with the flowers in full bloom, that the place was just brimming with opportunity, and our gal almost had the place to herself. The flowers on the other hand were just reaching out and basking in the morning sun, enjoying the opportunity that the day had presented.

I too joined the bees, and the flowers with an opportunity of my own, to get some shots

Todays images are more of the opportunities that were on offer, and includes an image of our gal had at work 🙂

…………….the journey continues………

possibility and opportunity……….

More often than not, I post a follow up post to the weekly photo challenge, so this week is no exception, however, it is a bit later than normal. ie. by a few days, but nevertheless, still before the next challenge arrives.

I posted recently about the wildflower garden in Caledon, not too far away from Cape Town. I had another opportunity to visit the garden last weekend, and this time managed to walk around a little bit, fortunately with camera in hand. The colours were absolutely overwhelming in the bright sunlight, despite the strong breeze. While walking around I noticed what I think was a bumblebee, clutching onto some stems and barely managing to stay on for very long as the stems were swaying in the wind. Nevertheless, she was determined (well, I’m assuming it was female 🙂 ), and kept flying around only to return for another fix. There was pollen all over the place, so it was obvious she was having an absolute feast. As I looked around it became obvious how many possibilities there were for this bumblebee, red flowers, orange ones, yellow ones, white ones, you name it they were there, and more importantly, just loaded with pollen. Which led me to thinking about the word opportunity, because while there was so much possibility, there was also opportunity…and plenty of it. There just didnt seem to be too many other insects around. I’m not sure if bumblebees get intoxicated from too much pollen :-), but if so, this gal was in for  a serious overdose :-).   

So, todays images are of our new found friend enjoyng the pollen, and of some of the other possibilities, or opportunities, depending how you see it, that were out there……..the journey continues………………