'Our government is blinded...'

‘Sawubona, boy! You so beautiful, boy.’ Yesterday, a young black woman greeted the child I sat with on the beach, Moses Mabhida Stadium directly behind, under an umbrella made out of thin wooden logs almost of identical size.

I told her his name. Her eyes dropped down to the camera that dangled from my neck. ‘Are the photos instant? Can you take one of me with boy? How much?’

‘I will not charge you. Do you have an email address?’

My ear felt deafened after she screeched with excitement. ‘I don’t have email but my friend does.’

Next thing I was taking photos of 3 people, many poses.

About 4 groups of black people approached at different times soon after my friend joined us.

‘How you get black baby?’ A black man asked me while my friend went for a dip.

I explained Hope House and their great cause.

‘You white people are good! You help more than our government. You are such good person and you give this discarded child new chance. Our government is blinded but God is not – he sees what you do.’ He grins, thanks me and then runs off.

Unsung heros

What amazing work both Sonia and Lynne do by nurturing the stunningly beautiful children that are parentless, babies that have been abandoned; however, have been given another chance at life – beginning their new adventure at Hope House until they are adopted by other selfless people.

Thank you, Sonia and Lynne, for allowing me the honour of being a part of your love-filled journey.

Inspiration at its best!

http://www.babyhopehouse.org.za/

   

For additional images, please view here: http://www.nabphotography.co.za/1/post/2014/01/unsung-heroes.html

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...