Contrasting beauties

Startling.  Staggering. Dramatic. A sensory shock; all senses awakened, like a jolt of lightening bursting through an ink-black sky.

First, from 7^th – 13^th December, I relinquished my senses to sun, sea and sand amongst private, pristine beaches along Mauritius’ east coast. An encounter that led to a blissful blur… No two other words perfectly capture the idyllic, paradisal utopia…

http://www.nabphotography.co.za/1/post/2013/12/contrasting-beauties.html

Second, from 14^th – 17^th December, the shock intensified while in the middle of the bushveld at the stunning Amakhosi Private Game Reserve, northern Zululand. 

 

http://www.nabphotography.co.za/1/post/2013/12/contrasting-beauties.html

Colour-less world

I enjoyed a stroll through a garden with my camera in hand, poised, ready for action; inspired by everything around me, I couldn’t resist shooting black and white – to capture the dull, wet day...

Giba Gorge

About 50 of us joined Getaway magazine and the Hi-Tec crew for a half-day hike at Giba Gorge on Sunday, 27 October.

What a stunning trail through the peaceful new and old-growth forests with spraying waterfalls and inspiring vistas – to the top, high above the N3 freeway – where it suddenly turned dangerous climbing in the pouring rain; not for the fainthearted!

A slow death

Next to Beach Bums, Westbrook Beach, north cost, KZN: Around 1940, the owners, a wealthy Indian couple, departed South Africa to return to India. The couple left the house to their children who’d never set foot on the property, and the place died a slow death – pieces removed bit by bit by the squatters who, whom to this day, still inhabit the hills across the road. The property is now in the process of being reclaimed as part of the beach; however, legalities prevail.

Back then, in its original grand state:

Now, in its graffitied shell:

No prizes for guessing the most popular word splashed over the many walls…

Out of control

Lions Valley Lodge, http://www.lionsvalley.co.za/, a stunning experience enveloped in virgin bushveld through 21,000 acres of the Nambiti Conservancy, within the Ladysmith area of KwaZulu-Natal. 

However, the one and only thing I disliked about the luxury game reserve was thinking about the lioness mating with her offspring after photographing the pair close up…

Of course there was no end to snappy away with my camera, almost like a video, and feeling in awe of being so close to lions in the "semi" wild...

Shooting rural

Once upon a time in Inanda a curious puppy decided it was brave enough to take on a chicken. The chicken won. The pup lost its eye. A man found the pup, and rescued it from the chicken. The dog has never left the man’s sight since. A friend of the owner said, ‘This dog is big problem. It follows the man everywhere. Whenever you see the dog you know you will find the man. Dog make him get caught cheating – wife loves the dog!’ We all roared with laughter.

I did a rural shoot in the poorest place I’ve ever stepped foot in.

Even the one-eyed dog enjoyed every second watching the team warm up and supporting them from the field’s edge.

The company I work for sponsors a football team in the heart of Inanda (Pleasant Place), eastern KwaZulu-Natal, and they needed a photographer to capture the handover of the gear and a few shots of the game. I simply couldn’t resist, not truly taking into account that the four of us would be the only whites amongst hundreds of blacks where the opposition’s team and fans didn’t particularly favour sponsorship from white people. ‘We can win without white people!’ ‘We don’t need white people to take us to England!’ Not to mention the smoking of whoonga – apparently now known as the cruellest drug of South African slums – all in the midst of children…

  

Unfortunately, ‘our’ team lost.

In hindsight – not so sure it should be done again…