The end ?

This blog has pretty much drawn to an end.

I have two other blogs that have taken over the workings of this one.

They are : The sometimes Cynical opinions of Mev.Dominee
and : The Perfectpic blog

The perfectpic blog runs as an extension of my website www.perfectpic.co.za under 'What's new'

Feel free to go and take a look.

Cheers

;o)

Dinosaur cakes and Birthday parties

Last week my son turned six. And so , as most parents do , we decided to hold a party.
Sometimes I wonder why we actually hold a party. For him to celebrate his birthday or for us to celebrate that he made it this far, against the odds.


Ok, no , it is not that bad. We are happy to see him grow up , learn and grow.

OK. So to celebrate his birthday we held a party . And as is the custom by now , He gets to choose the type of birthday cake that he wants. Three years ago it was 'NEMO', then 'Sharktale', Last year , a castle with dragons.

And this year - A dinosaur cake. And thus Dad, that's me, set out to build a dinosaur cake.
My son had some pretty specific ideas of what the cake should look like. For one it had to have a volcano. And so a Volcano it was.

My son had a lekker bash on Saturday , and of the cake a small ice cream tub filled wit bits of cake and icing was left over. Seems the volcano did good.

Wonder what challenge next year is going to bring.

High Speed photos

It has been a while since I last played with high speed photography. But this weekend I had a blast. Literally.

Between myself and two friends we shot at and destroyed 65 Osram 60w lightbubs. Thank goodness for digital cameras. If I had to do this on film I would have been broke.

So let us look at a quick howdunnit.


To get the image above I put my camera on a tripod with a cable release attached to the camera.
The lightbulb was placed in a light holder and switched on for a couple of minutes. (they explode better when heated up) . Two flashes (a Nikon Sb600 and Canon 550ex) were placed close to the bulb on the left hand side. The flashes were attached to a sound trigger that I built in 2005.

From there things were fairly simple. Lights off. studio fairly dark. Camera shutter opened with cable release. Shoot the bulb with a pellet gun. Flashes react to sound and illuminate the exploding bulb. Close camera shutter . and Voila.

Here are two more shot with a blowpipe. Only difference is that a third light with a blue filter attached was aimed at a whiteboard background. You can view more of these photos on my website at http://www.perfectpic.co.za

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A viewfinder full of Angry Elephant.

A while back me and my mother and son went on holiday to stay in my brother's house in Alexandria, close to Kenton on Sea in the Eastern Cape.

My brother , Jaco , and his wife, Tanya, are game rangers at a luxurious game reserve called Shamwari, between P.E and Grahamstown.

They use the little house in Alex as a getaway on their weekends off. Whilst we were there we had the run of their house.

Jaco invited us to come and stay with them for a day or so on the reserve. We gladly accepted. While we were there , Jaco took us on a game drive in the Shamwari Land Cruser.

We spotted lots of game. At some point we spotted a lone elephant bull walking across the plains.
Jaco decided to drive closer as we were a long way of on a koppie. We set off in the general direction of where we saw the elephant.

As we rounded a turn , we were confronted by an angry bull elephant. This guy was not a happy camper. He was in must and had a terrible temper. I found myself clicking away feverishly while everybody else cowered in their seats and Jaco negotiated the terrain whilst trying to keep us out of the elephant's way. Tanya later remarked that all she heard whilst trying to hide under the dashboard was my camera's shutter clicking like crazy.

Upon retrospect I realize that I had complete confidence in my brother's driving skills and knowledge of animals. Because I could trust him to keep us safe, I could concentrate on getting the photo's I wanted.

Maybe that was a good lesson to learn in life. If I surround my self with people I can trust, then I can be free to pursue my dreams in life.

a Little inspiration

Sometimes we all need a little inspiration. A little kick under the rear end to get you going again. To wake you up to new ideas and opportunities.

Last weekend was such a time for me.
Me and my Wife had to fly to Cape Town to attend her sister's wedding. I promised my sis in law some wedding pics as a wedding gift. A photographer friend of mine , Sybrand, invited us to sleep at his place. A friend of my wife's , Pete, offered us the use of his 4x4 for the time. (thanks Pete and Sybrand !)

And so it was that we ended up in Cape Town on Tuesday afternoon. Sybrand was busy setting up for a wedding expo over the weekend , and I had the chance to see some of his work for myself.

Man , was I flabbergasted !!!
This guy's wedding portfolio was awesome! It was such a treat to look and see and learn. I came home with a new sense of direction for what I wanted in my own photography business. It really helps sometimes to just sit back and look for new ideas. Find some new inspiration.

And so here I am planning new things. Setting up equipment. Feeling positive and happy about what I'm doing and where I'm going.

Tomorrow (Monday) I drive to Johannesburg , so that on Tuesday I can hang out of a Cessna 172 and photograph parts of J'burg as an assignment.

Will post some pics when I am back.

in the meantime here is a pic or two of Sis in laws wedding :

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